Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Defense Department’s top policy director submitted a letter of resignation Wednesday, saying he will leave his post at the end of the month and stating plainly that his departure was prompted by President Donald Trump. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood assumed his role in August 2018, and will be succeeded by James […]

Good investment returns on the decommissioning trust funds for the Pilgrim and Indian Point nuclear power complexes helped Entergy improve its financial pictures for 2019. However, the Pilgrim fund is no longer part of Entergy’s corporate finances, Chairman and CEO Leo Denault noted in a Wednesday teleconference with analysts on the New Orleans-based power company’s […]

A senior Department of Energy official on Wednesday walked back week-old comments suggesting the Trump administration still supports advancing development of a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “I have spoken to the White House and the Administration will not be pursuing Yucca Mountain as a solution for nuclear waste, and there are […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking $53 million in fiscal 2021 for the planned W93 sea-based ballistic-missile warhead: two years sooner than the agency previously thought it would need funding for the weapon. A spokesperson for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency confirmed the figure Thursday morning. In the 2020 budget […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., produced more than 500 kilograms of purified uranium in fiscal 2019, beating its internal target by about 10 kilograms, according to recent figures posted on the site’s blog. The total for 2019 was 512 kilograms of metal purified by the site’s Enriched Uranium Production unit, beating […]

Fluor’s stock lost nearly a quarter of its value in trading Tuesday after the company released partial earnings numbers because it is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for 2019 accounting practices. The stock closed the day at $14.79 per share, roughly 24% lower than its Friday closing price of $19.54 per […]

Twenty firms attended the Feb. 11 industry day for a potential five-year contract to provide support services at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. In addition to incumbent Swift & Staley, participants included Spectra Tech, Atkins Nuclear, GEM Technologies, Navarra Research and Engineering, ARS Aleut Remediation, Banda Group International, Boston Government Services, and […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking a federal appeals court to dismiss a petition challenging its sole authority to regulate disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) from nuclear power plants in the agency’s agreement states. The Nuclear Energy Institute missed the 60-day window to file a petition against the agency’s final determination of authority, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted an exemption to NorthStar Nuclear Decommissioning Co. on a reporting requirement for transport of low-level radioactive wastes from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. In August 2019, NorthStar requested an extension from 20 days to 45 days to be notified that a waste shipment has arrived at the Waste Control […]

Utah-based Petersen Inc. has scored a $37.8 million subcontract to provide stainless-steel containers and an extra melter for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Plant construction and operations prime Bechtel National announced the award Tuesday. The vitrification plant will convert much of Hanford’s […]

Higher taxes led Leidos to report a slight dip in its fourth quarter earnings, but sales were strong and adjusted earnings easily topped analysts’ estimates. Net income in the quarter fell nearly 4% to $181 million, $1.26 earnings per share (EPS), from $188 million ($1.25 EPS) a year ago. Per-share results rose a penny due to […]

The Department of Energy on Friday issued a contract extension of up to two years, through July 2022, for the incumbent vendor for cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Energy Department issued a notice of intent to award a sole source deal to URS/CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) in the form of a […]

Engineering and procurement giant Fluor said Tuesday morning it would not sell its government contracting business, which serves clients such as the Department of Energy and the Defense Department. The Irving, Texas-based company announced the planned sale in September. However, belt-tightening over the past year, along with the anticipated sale later in 2020 of the […]

Federal law may allow a $3.5 million discrimination lawsuit against the security contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to continue even after a federal judge found the statute of limitations had passed for the case, according to newly hired legal counsel for the plaintiff. Marcialena Brown, an African-American woman, did not realize […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to issue the MITRE Corp.-operated JASON group of civilian scientists more nuclear security work by the end of April, according to a procurement note published last week. The agency announced its intent to keep JASON on the job in February. Thursday’s procurement note provides further details about the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program in late 2019 awarded BWX Technologies a roughly $1 billion contract to provide reactor components for Ford-class aircraft carriers, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company announced Monday. The $1 billion figure includes options, BWX Technologies said in a press release. The value of the base award, at over […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it will need to collect $728.5 million in fees to fund its operations for the current federal budget year. That proposed fee take meets the agency’s mandate under the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act to recover 90% of its yearly funding from fees, according to a Federal Register notice […]

The Department of Energy on Friday confirmed the potential $21-billion integrated mission contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will last up to 15 years. “Task orders may be placed any time during the 10 year ordering period and the execution of the actual work may extend up to 5 years” afterward, a […]

The New Mexico House of Representatives is considering a measure that would express its opposition to plans for a facility in the state intended to temporarily store spent reactor fuel from nuclear power plants around the nation. The House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 3 approved House Memorial 21, sponsored by panel […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has delayed its choice about whether to use government or commercially developed uranium enrichment technology for defense needs by nearly a year, in part, because the federal option is not yet mature enough to compete, an agency official said here Wednesday. “That’s one of the reasons, […]

California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Jared Blumenfeld is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion tonight in Simi Valley on remediation the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County. The three parties responsible for cleanup of the former nuclear research and rocket testing site – Boeing, the Department of Energy, and NASA—initially signed agreements […]

A project to ship highly enriched uranium from a facility in Ontario, Canada, to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina wrapped up sometime last year, according to a Wednesday press release. It is unclear when the shipments were completed, but DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said the job was finished 12 months ahead of schedule. The […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. —The Kansas City National Security Campus will begin light manufacturing of nuclear-weapon components at its new Kansas City East satellite plant “late this year [or] early next year,” the head of the site’s management and operations contractor said here Wednesday. “But we’re going to be fully functional in about two or three years,” […]

The New York state Attorney General’s Office and two other parties this week filed petitions for hearings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the proposed license transfer and sale of the Indian Point Energy Center. Along with the Attorney General’s Office, the petitioners are: jointly the town of Cortlandt, village of Buchanan, and Hendrick Hudson […]

A nuclear watchdog and the Washington, D.C.-based Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) differ on a Department of Energy proposal to ship up to 10,000 gallons of recycled wastewater from the Savannah River Site to a commercial low-level radioactive waste facility somewhere outside South Carolina. In December, DOE published an environmental assessment, and invited public comments, on […]

An article in Tuesday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing incorrectly stated a federal jury’s finding in September 2019 regarding the reason why a former employee of Energy Department contractor Savannah River Remediation was not rehired. The jury awarded Adrienne Saulsberry $1.475 million on the grounds that the contractor withheld employment even though she engaged in protected activity.

The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday in observance of Presidents Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Feb. 18.