Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Navy conducted a single missile flight test of an unarmed life-extended Trident II (D5LE) ballistic missile from the Ohio-class submarine USS Maine off the coast of San Diego on Feb. 16. The test on the Western Test Range followed the Maine’s demonstration and shakedown operation test flight on Feb. 12. The Navy said this test validated performance expectations […]

President Donald Trump on Friday reaffirmed his administration’s new opposition to licensing a nuclear waste disposal facility under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “I also recently took action on an issue Nevada has been dealing with for over 30 years, Yucca Mountain, you know Yucca Mountain?” Trump said during a rally in Las Vegas. “My budget […]

The Department of Energy said last week it wants to promptly shore up some aging facilities at risk of failure at the Hanford Site in Washington state, which could endanger human health and the environment. The agency conducted structural analyzes at several old structures following the May 2017 partial collapse of Tunnel 1 at the […]

An article in the Feb. 18 issue of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have reported the Energy Department could keep the incumbent remediation contractor for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee in place through July 2022.

The Defense Department plans to use the proposed W93 submarine-launched nuclear ballistic missile (SLBM) warhead to eventually replace the current W76 and W88 warheads without increasing the size of the nuclear stockpile, according to a senior Pentagon official. The U.S. currently uses the W76 and W88 families of warheads on the Trident II D5 SLBMs […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeks a larger-than-expected budget increase for 2021, another branch of the Department of Energy is seeking much less funding for cleanup of excess nuclear-weapon production sites The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is requesting about $200 million for remediation at NNSA-owned facilities in the budget year […]

An article in the Tuesday Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have specified that preliminary earnings figures show Fluor’s government services business is expected to end 2019 with a backlog of $3.8 billion. Fluor’s total expected 2019 backlog is $32.7 billion.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has promoted Huban Gowadia to principal associate director of global security, where she will lead the Californi nuclear weapons facility’s nonproliferation and nuclear counterterrorism programs, the lab announced recently. Livermore’s Global Security Security Principal Directorate also includes the lab’s efforts to counter chemical, biological, and explosive threats. The lab announced […]

A former Huntington Ingalls Industries executive and a retired U.S. Army brigadier general have been elected to the Board of Directors to Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve). In a Tuesday press release, the Energy Department contractor announced the shareholder selection of Gerald Boyd, who retired from Huntington Ingalls last year, and former Brig. […]

The Energy Department declined several requests from prospective vendors to extend the Feb. 3 deadline for bidding on a potential 10-year, $3 billion Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal Contract for excess facilities. The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center last month published 152 questions and answers from potential bidders on the final request for proposals (RFP) […]

The latest wave of opposition to the lower-yield W76-2 nuclear warhead the Navy deployed last year crested Wednesday, when five senators asked Secretary of Defense Mark Esper what the Pentagon might use the weapon for, and which civilian nuclear projects had to be postponed to build it. “It is inconsistent for the United States to […]

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 […]