Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Vendors appear to have recently updated protests filed with the Government Accountability Office over two new contract awards, together potentially worth $14 billion, for work at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Both additions were filed since Jan. 27 by corporate teams that days earlier filed protests against DOE awards for Hanford Site […]

The Department of Energy and the state of Idaho on Tuesday sealed an agreement on management of spent nuclear fuel generated by the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. The nearly 53-year-old reactor is used for government and commercial research and testing on nuclear fuels and materials, including on fuel that powers naval […]

The Air Force launch an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in the early morning hours on Wednesday, a test to verify the functioning of hardware intended to extend the service life of the nuclear delivery vehicle. The Air Force development test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California happened one year from the […]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cited the danger from radioactive waste in making the case for new legislation that would establish a nationwide prohibition on fracking for production of oil and natural gas. The Ban Fracking Act is being introduced in both the Senate and House of Representatives. If passed, it would automatically ban the federal […]

Having successfully divested its government-contracting business, AECOM continues to look for a successor to Chairman and CEO Michael Burke. Burke, 56, announced in November that he plans to retire pending selection of a replacement. Speaking to financial analysts Monday during AECOM’s quarterly earnings call, he said a search committee is making good progress on finding […]

While Amentum is a new company, it is far from a new face doing business for government nuclear and environmental agencies, a senior executive said Tuesday. The former AECOM Management Services branch officially became Amentum on Friday with the closure of the $2.4 billion sale to affiliates of New York-based investment firms Lindsay Goldberg and […]

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that it has deployed the W76-2 low-yield warhead for submarine-launched ballistic-missiles. “The U.S. Navy has fielded the W76-2 low-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) warhead.,” according to a statement from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood. The nongovernmental Federation of American Scientists reported last week that the Navy deployed “one or […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a new small business set-aside contract to provide support services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Incumbent Swift & Staley’s five-year, $185 million contract expires in September. The DOE Office of Environmental Management had said last month it could soon issue a solicitation […]

Last spring, the National Nuclear Security Administration quietly backed off a drive to produce 30 plutonium nuclear-warhead cores per year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory earlier than the long-established target of 2026, a recently published contract modification shows. The April 30, 2019, modification to Triad National Security’s lab management and operations contract scrubs out […]

The Australian government on Saturday said it had selected property in the town of Kimba in South Australia to house its National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. “I am satisfied a facility at Napandee will safely and securely manage radioactive waste and that the local community has shown broad community support for the project and economic […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects in March to issue a final report on revising its inspection program for independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs) at U.S. nuclear power plants. “The final report and recommendations, incorporating internal and external feedback, is undergoing internal review,” agency spokesman David McIntyre said by email on Jan. 29. “Once this […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Under pressure from the state of Texas, the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office has agreed to relocate drums containing potentially combustible radioactive transuranic waste stored since 2014 at the privately operated Waste Control Specialists facility in Andrews County. “We are going to work to disposition the legacy TRU waste from Los Alamos […]

The continuing operations of Honeywell flashed 10% per-share earnings growth in 2019, the parent company of multiple Department of Energy site management contractors reported Friday. Excluding the effects of spinning off its transportation systems and commercial building technology units in 2018, Honeywell’s 2019 earnings rose on a per-share basis to $8.16, according to a press […]

A federal judge is scheduled on April 22 to sentence a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who has pleaded guilty to lying about his relationship with a Chinese talent recruitment program, according to a hearing notice filed Sunday. Turab Lookman, formerly of the New Mexico lab’s Theoretical Division, pleaded guilty in January to one […]

Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI) has secured the contract for decommissioning the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, one of the company’s owners said Monday. The deal is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin stated in a press release. It was signed Friday, CDI spokesman Pat O’Brien said by email. The […]

Engineering and construction giant AECOM said Monday it has completed the $2.4 billion sale of its Management Service business to a joint venture of two New York investment firms. Sale of the subsidiary to American Securities LLC and Lindsay Goldberg LLC closed on Friday, according to an AECOM press release. The new company, which will […]

Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation on Friday terminated its plan to build a nuclear waste disposal facility near Lake Huron after a First Nation group voted against the project. Members of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) on Friday voted 1,058 to 170 not to support the deep geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. […]

The Navy on Friday awarded Lockheed Martin a $474 million contract for Trident II (D5) ballistic missile life-extension work. The contract specifically covers the Life Extension 2 Strategic Systems Programs Alteration Advanced Development Program. Work will largely occur in Denver, Colo., and is expected to be finished by September 2026. The Navy obligated $3 million […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A hyper-partisan political climate, as reflected by the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and the start of presidential primaries this month, reduces the chances of timely passage of appropriations bills to fund the government for fiscal 2021, issue watchers said last week. The Energy Department and other federal agencies are likely […]

The United Kingdom is expected to generate 4.6 million cubic meters of radioactive waste through 2135, most of it from nuclear power production, according to the latest inventory from the government’s Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The department inventories the nation’s existing and anticipated holdings of radioactive waste and materials every three […]

Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates said in Tuesday it has hired a former Fluor supervisor as its manager for New Mexico projects. Lindsay Wallace started Monday and her role will include serving as Longenecker’s program manager for legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Longenecker has a subcontract with Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los […]

The USS Tennessee ballistic-missile submarine went on an Atlantic Ocean patrol in December, armed with “one or two” of the brand new W76-2 low-yield warheads, the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists reported Wednesday. “We estimate that one or two of the 20 missiles on the USS Tennessee and subsequent subs will be armed with the W76-2, […]

The chief financial officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is moving into the corresponding position at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Cherish Johnson will start as the regulator’s CFO on Feb. 18, according to a Monday press release. She succeeds Maureen Wylie, who retired after working for 35 years in the federal government. […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board wants to forge a closer working relationship with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. In a Jan. 10 letter to DOE Senior Adviser for Environmental Management William (Ike) White, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Chairwoman Jean Bahr urged “a framework for more regular interaction” between the two […]

The Department of Energy is not publicly discussing the progress of conversion of highly enriched uranium shipped from Canada at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, including whether the project remains on track to be completed in April. Multiple questions sent via email last week to the department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette is creating a new Department of Energy policy shop to handle “all policy within the Department,” and appointing a new personal adviser for nuclear security, according to an all-hands memo dated Tuesday. To do this, Brouillette will rebrand the current Office of Policy (OP) as the Office of Strategic Planning […]