Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A transportation provider for the cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee was involved a January fender-bender while moving low-level radioactive waste along a highway in Arkansas. No injuries resulted and no radioactive soil spilled in the accident, according to a Feb.7 DOE accident report. The unidentified subcontractor hired by URS/CH2M […]

The roughly $20 billion 2021 budget the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) requested on Monday — a figure that would come at the expense of the Pentagon’s naval shipbuilding budget and, to a lesser extent, cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex — is “the right number” to reverse a decade of “neglect,” Secretary of […]

Members of Congress representing states that are home to Department of Energy facilities with radioactive waste on Ffriday urged the Trump administration to rethink its plan not to request funding for the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. “It is disappointing to see Yucca Mountain continued to be used as a political pawn,” Rep. Dan Newhouse […]

It could be nearly a decade before the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state ships more transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, an Oregon official said last week. However, “eventually Hanford will be the predominant shipper of waste to WIPP,” Ken Niles, administrator for the Hanford and Nuclear […]

The Department of Energy last week appealed a $1 million fine filed by the Washington state Department of Ecology for allegedly withholding safety information regarding the Hanford Site. The notice of appeal was filed Feb. 6 with the state’s Pollution Control Hearings Board. The federal agency on Jan. 3 appealed the underlying violation. The first […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette made his first splash on the international stage Monday morning, weaving some tough talk about Iran and North Korea into a speech at a United Nations nuclear security conference in Vienna, Austria. “We call on Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] in monitoring and inspecting […]

The nuclear dismantlement branch of Orano has received secured a contract valued at millions of euros to fully disassemble the stainless-steel walls and metal structure of two retired spent fuel storage pools at France’s Marcoule nuclear facility. Dismantlement operations will “commence shortly,” according to a press release from Paris-based Orano. The release does not cite […]

The Energy Department and contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation have finished taking down the main processing facility at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. With the building’s demolition, full removal of the Plutonium Finishing Plant should be finished this summer by the Jacobs subsidiary. Remaining work involves packaging and disposal of the rubble from the Plutonium […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Surplus Plutonium Disposition project has reached Critical Decision 1 (CD-1), paving the way for the agency to begin procurement on the long-awaited replacement for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The project hit the milestone on Dec. 19, a spokesperson for […]

Long-anticipated talks between the Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology on cleanup issues at the Hanford Site should finally begin by early March. The two sides have agreed on the scope of the talks, Ecology Nuclear Waste Program Manager Alex Smith said Wednesday during a meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board. […]

A lawsuit claiming the Savannah River Site’s security contractor discriminated against a former employee should be dismissed because it was filed past the time allowed under the statute of limitations, a federal magistrate judge recommended. Judge Paige Gossett also noted on Jan. 30 that Marcialena Brown’s $3.5 million complaint covers both Centerra-SRS and two company […]

There has been no apparent movement by the Trump administration over the last year to fill vacant and expired terms on the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB). The only change to the board in that time was the departure last May of another member, Linda Nozick, a civil and environmental engineering professor at […]

Northrop Grumman on Wednesday said its board has elected David Keffer as its new chief financial officer effective Feb. 17. He succeeds Kenneth Bedingfield, who will remain with the company until Feb. 21 to help with the transition. Keffer comes to Northrop Grumman from the private equity firm Blue Delta Capital Partners, which he joined in 2018 […]

After the Energy Department picked a rival contractor for the major cleanup contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state, Jacobs is anxiously awaiting a decision on a 10-year award for management of the facility’s radioactive tank waste. Jacobs subsidiary CH2M is the incumbent on the Hanford Central Plateau remediation project, but a Jacobs-led team […]

As has been its practice for the better part of a year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December spent less than $1,000 of its remaining balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund. The $780 outlay for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with an unspent, unobligated balance of $405,246, according to the latest […]

An article in Tuesday’s issue of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing misidentified the director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The director is John Lubinski.

Relying on competition, rather than a sole-source award, to choose the latest management contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory could save about $75 million over the life of the potentially $20-billion, 10-year deal, according to the Government Accountability Office. Some of the potential savings come from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) […]

An executive with the U.K. government-owned organization that manages the Sellafield nuclear site has been promoted to chief executive. Martin Chown began his new role on Feb. 1, according to a press release from the U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. He succeeds Paul Foster, who stepped down in January after four years on the job. Chown […]

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 […]