Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) management contractor for the Savannah River Site plans by June to finalize the design for a new plant capable of making 50 plutonium nuclear-warhead cores a year, the company’s president said here Wednesday. The conceptual design report for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF), to […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he plans to nominate Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to take over as deputy secretary for the Department of Energy. Menezes would succeed Dan Brouillette, who in December was confirmed and sworn in as secretary of energy. Menezes was confirmed by the Senate in November 2017 as undersecretary, through […]

Lawmakers are strongly opposing the Navy’s plans to fund eight new ships in fiscal 2021, including only one Virginia-class submarine, a decrease from 12 in the current fiscal 2020. When the fiscal 21 budget request was first released on Monday, asking for eight ships at $20 billion, House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee Chairman […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After delays attributed to unsuitable electrical components, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) now plans to manufacture the first refurbished B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb and W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead in 2022 and 2021, respectively, a senior agency official said here Tuesday. That would mean a one- to two-year delay for both […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued a draft request for proposals for the potential 10-year, $6.4 billion contract for the Idaho Cleanup Project. The Idaho National Laboratory cleanup contract includes operation of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, management and disposal of both low-level radioactive and transuranic waste, decommissioning old facilities, and spent fuel management of […]

Several of the 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would receive less money during the upcoming fiscal 2021 than they do in the current budget, under the latest spending proposal from the administration of President Donald Trump. Environmental remediation funding for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee would […]

The Trump administration this week again proposed transferring management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to the Department of Energy. The plan is laid out in fiscal 2021 budget documents for both entities, employing similar language to that used last year in the White […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The directors of the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories on Tuesday each declined to say whether their shop would design the planned sea-based W93 nuclear warhead. Asked which of the two nuclear weapons design labs would handle the W93, if Congress approves it, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory […]

Key Pacific Northwest lawmakers in the House and Senate pledged this week to ensure the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state gets more than the nearly $2 billion proposed in President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget request. The two DOE offices that oversee cleanup and radioactive waste management at the former plutonium manufacturing complex […]

BWX Technologies said Monday it had received a $3.6 million contract for engineering to decommission and refurbish parts of its Lynchburg, Va., facility to eventually produce high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for a National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation program. The uranium-molybdenum alloy fuel the company will produce will be used in U.S. research reactors that currently […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) made post-Cold War history in its 2021 budget request, which seeks funds to develop a new sea-based nuclear warhead designated Mk7 W93 — a weapon designed to be rapidly upgradeable and serviced outside of the civilian agency’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas.  This will be the first new warhead […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday requested $6.1 billion for the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management during fiscal 2021, which would be an 18% reduction from the $7.5 billion enacted by Congress in the current budget year. It also represents a $400 million slice from the $6.5 billion the White House sought last March […]

The Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget request adds only eight battle force ships, two fewer than previously planned, while also planning to retire four Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs). The Navy is requesting $207.1 billion overall, $2.9 billion less than in the current fiscal 2020. Ship procurement is set at $20 billion, down from the $24 […]

After winning $1.475 million in an initial jury decision and another $295,000 in front pay in a post-trial ruling, a former employee for the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor is seeking nearly $270,000 more in a discrimination suit to cover attorney fees and litigation costs. In a Feb. 6 request in U.S. District Court […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting $863.4 million in funding for the upcoming 2021 fiscal year, a small step up from the $855.6 million authorized by Congress for the current spending cycle. But the agency noted Monday that it has decreased its budget by 17% since fiscal 2014. In that time, the number of full-time […]

Having failed to revive plans for a geologic repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Trump administration wants nearly $30 million to promote the means for consolidation and temporary storage of the nation’s nuclear waste. The White House did not include Yucca Mountain in its budget plan for fiscal 2021, released on Monday, after three […]