Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Air Force will not be affected in fiscal 2021 if Congress approves the White House’s plan to short the Pentagon budget by $2.5 billion to increase spending at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) by 25%, the service’s chief of staff said Wednesday. “The $2.5 [billion] didn’t have an impact on the Air Force, ” […]

WASHINGTON — Some new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missiles might be deployed into silos with warheads from their predecessor, the Minuteman III, a senior National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official said here Wednesday. The fleet of next-generation missiles will use about a 50-50 mix of old W87-0 warheads, used on Minuteman III today, and […]

Soil samples taken since last summer along a right-of-way for a stretch of highway near the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have not detected any high levels of radiative contamination, a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said this week. The Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority conducted more sampling along the route […]

The John Wood Group said Wednesday it expects later this month to complete the sale of its nuclear business to Jacobs, following regulatory approval in the United Kingdom. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has signed off on the deal, the Scotland-based energy services multinational said in a brief press release. “Wood and Jacobs continue […]

The $470 million Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on track to begin operations this month, following completion in February of a readiness assessment, according to builder Parsons. Both the Energy Department and Parsons said via email this week that the agency’s readiness assessment […]

Roughly 90 representatives from some of the Energy Department’s major contractors registered for an industry day last week on the potential 15-year, $6.4 billion cleanup contract for the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department issued the draft request for proposals for the award last month. It followed that up with a tour, informational program, and […]

California Assemblywoman Christy Smith, a Democrat, and Republican Mike Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot, are expected to face each other in a May 12 runoff to decide who will represent California’s 25th congressional district until January 2021. A couple of hours after the polls closed in California, they are the top two vote-getters in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it would proceed with a major conference next week, even as other sizable events are being canceled as cases of coronavirus disease increase globally. There were more than 2,200 registrants as of Monday for the agency’s Regulatory Information Conference, scheduled for March 10-12 in North Bethesda, Md., according to […]

WASHINGTON — The annual tradition of legislative outrage over proposed reductions to nuclear cleanup spending continued in a blunt and unvarnished way here Tuesday, when Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette that the agency’s 2021 budget proposal “frankly sucks.” Heinrich was one of several vocally dissatisified legislators as Brouillette appeared before […]

WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy is revising a controversial order that curtailed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s access to defense nuclear sites and personnel, and the agency plans to brief the board  this month, the Secretary of Energy told lawmakers here Tuesday. “It’s being revised,”Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said of Order 140.1 […]

The Department of Energy plans to take bids on the design of a facility for interim storage of used reactor fuel from nuclear power plants, a senior official said Tuesday. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal discussed the upcoming procurement in a hearing on the new DOE budget proposal before the House Appropriations energy […]

WASHINGTON —Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Tuesday would not commit to supporting a congressional rewrite of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to exclude construction of a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “If we were to consider a repeal of the 1987 amendment that designated Yucca Montain as the nation’s sole nuclear […]

WASHINGTON — The W93 warhead will notionally be based on previously deployed nuclear-explosive components, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said here Tuesday.  The W93, a planned submarine-launched warhead and the first U.S. nuclear weapon since the Cold War that isn’t a copy or iteration of an existing weapon, has been a […]

Two key projects at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico are nearing completion. Construction of the North Access Road should be finished by the end of the month, according to Donavan Mager, spokesman for WIPP management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership. The purpose of the $10 million, 3-mile bypass […]

The Energy Department, together with the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, have launched a site-wide five-year review of cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory. Five-year reviews gauge the effectiveness of remediation efforts as required by the Superfund law, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Fluor Idaho said […]

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has formally nominated Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown to become the Air Force’s next chief of staff. If confirmed, Brown would become the first African-American chief of staff for any of the U.S. military services. The Wall Street Journal first reported Brown’s impending nomination Monday, with a Defense Department release […]

The Department of Energy wants just a little bit less money in fiscal 2021 than it has now for research and development related to used nuclear fuel. The agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy asked for $60 million for the line item within its total budget request of nearly $1.2 billion. If approved by Congress, that […]

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee predicted Monday that nuclear-arsenal modernization will be “the most contentious issue” in the 2021 defense-spending debates beginning now on Capitol Hill. “[T]his is an enormous challenge,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said in response to moderator questions during a morning talk at the Brookings Institute. […]

Organizers of the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix are still holding the annual gathering next week despite public concerns over coronavirus (COVID-19), a spokeswoman said this morning. After a Monday meeting of the WMS executive management team, the decision was made to go ahead with the event – with added precautions to safeguard the health […]

A longtime nuclear industry executive has joined used fuel management specialist NAC International as chief strategy officer. William Gallo “will lead the development of business strategies, strategic partnerships, and acquisitions to drive NAC’s growth and profitability,” according to a press release Monday form the Peachtree Corners, Ga.-based company. President and CEO Kent Cole said Monday […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

As budget hearing season ramps up in Washington, D.C., hearings of a different kind are scheduled elsewhere in two court cases touching the nuclear security enterprise: one involving a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who pleaded guilty to lying about ties to China, another involving weapon-usable plutonium sent to Nevada for safekeeping. First, Turab […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

Future efforts to secure Russian nuclear material left after from the Cold War are likely to bear little resemblance to the gold-standard programs of the past, if any get off the ground in the current era of significantly worsened relations between Washington and Moscow, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report last week. […]

President Donald Trump intends to nominate a Democratic Party staffer on the Senate Appropriations Committee to fill a vacancy on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the White House announced Friday. There was no word from the White House regarding the schedule for the formal nomination of Christopher Hanson. Hanson said by email Friday he had no […]

Voters in California’s 25th Congressional District will begin to determine Tuesday who might succeed former U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D) and represent an area adjacent to a major nuclear cleanup site. The district, which includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, has been without a congressional representative since Hill resigned Nov. 1 rather than […]