Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Constellis, the Reston, Va.-based parent of U.S. Energy Department contractor Centerra Group, has reached a “forbearance agreement” with certain creditors in order to get some leeway on loan repayment while it works to shore up its balance sheet. “Constellis recently closed on a $110 million delayed-draw credit facility provided by a subset of its existing […]

An entity called Hanford Integrated Infrastructure Services Contractor filed a bid protest Monday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) seeking to the Department of Energy’s award last month of a $4 billion contract for support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on Dec. 5 issued the potential 10-year contract […]

Jackie Quintyne, a Chicago native with 19 years of conference planning experience, has been named conference manager for the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix. The annual WM Symposia in March is the largest international conference for the management of radioactive material and related topics. It provides a forum for discussing cost-effective and environmentally responsible solutions […]

The state of New York is objecting to a request by power company Entergy for federal approval to reduce staffing at the Indian Point Energy Center as its two remaining operational reactors are retired over the next 16 months. Three separate state agencies have reviewed the plan, filed last April with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette has started off the new year by giving more authority to DOE Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes, effectively making him acting second in command until a deputy is in place. Brouillette said in a Friday email to Energy Department staff that to “ensure continued operational effectiveness,” Menezes now has authority […]

The JASON group of scientists has endorsed a plan for the U.S. Department of Energy to immediately begin building new infrastructure to produce fresh nuclear-weapon cores, according to a letter written by the group’s program manager and published Monday by the Federation of American Scientists. “[W]e urge that pit manufacturing be re-established as expeditiously as […]

An Air Force three-star general has been nominated to become the deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Commander, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday. Lt. Gen. Thomas Bussiere currently serves as commander of the Alaskan Command at U.S. Northern Command, as well as the commander of the 11th Air Force at Pacific Air Forces, and commander of […]

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday that a labor union representing security guards at the Waste Treatment Plant under construction at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site is not entitled to see the contract under which they are employed. The NLRB ruling finds that Waste Treatment Security Guards Union 161 holds no legal right […]

An equipment problem at the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico held up emplacement of transuranic waste in December, according to a regular monthly report filed by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). Nuclear Waste Partnership, DOE’s contractor in charge of operating the salt mine disposal site, paused waste […]

In what could be the final brief before an appeals panel rules on the case, South Carolina hammered home its argument that federal law does not prohibit the Department of Energy from paying $200 million in fines after blowing a legal deadline to remove plutonium from the state. South Carolina is appealing the case after […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November continued to spend just a few hundred dollars per month of its remaining balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund. Spending of $238 for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with an unspent, unobligated balance of $405,977, according to the latest update to Congress regarding the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday it has reduced the insurance requirements for the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The agency issued the regulatory exemption to subsidiaries of plant owner Holtec International on Jan. 6, according to a notice in the Federal Register. It allows Holtec Pilgrim and Holtec Decommissioning International to […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has doubled down in the new year on its refusal to accept a safety recommendation from the Defense Nuclear Faciliites Safety Board (DNFSB) regarding tritium facilities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “[T]he Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE) provides adequate protection of the public and worker safety,” Lisa […]

The new technical support services contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) has received its formal notice to proceed with the transition from its predecessors. The formal notice to proceed was issued to Pro2Serve subsidiary Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) on Jan. 6, a DOE spokesperson said in a Friday email. […]

Three Democratic members of the House of Representatives on Friday urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission not to cut inspections of spent-fuel storage facilities at U.S. nuclear power plants. “It is our understanding that the Commission is reviewing a staff recommendation that would cut annual inspections of dry cask loading campaigns from 66 hours to 32 […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico still plans this year to begin the next round of subcritical plutonium experiments, a series dubbed Nightshade. “In order to accommodate ongoing experiment preparation, facility work, and other programmatic priorities the Laboratory is planning to execute the Nightshade A SCE [subcritical experiment] in […]

The U.S. Energy Depart expects within 15 to 60 days to issue a solicitation for a new Paducah Infrastructure Support Services contract to replace the deal now held by Swift & Staley. The timeline set in the Friday notice would mean the request for proposals should be out by early March. The procurement will be […]

Due to the similarity between two lawsuits filed by local residents near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, only one will go forward, a federal court ruled last week. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers in the Southern District of Ohio ruled Jan. 3 that a case filed by plaintiffs led by Ray Pritchard […]

The story “NNSA Plans Expedited Environmental Review of Pit Production at SRS” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Jan. 07, 2020) should have said that the agency will not conduct a new environmental review of its plan to produce 80 plutonium pits a year by 2030, but that it could conduct a more limited review of the […]

AECOM’s former executive vice president and chief legal officer, Carla Christofferson, has been named chief risk officer for DXC Technology, a global information systems and cybersecurity company. The Northern Virginia-based DXC Technology announced Christofferson’s hiring in a Tuesday press release. Christofferson will advise DXC President and CEO Mike Salvino on emerging risks. “The management of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to produce 80 pits a year would generate more than 1,110 cubic meters of transuranic waste a year, according to an environmental review the semiautonomous Department of Energy weapon steward released this week. Over 50 years — enough time at an 80-a-year throughput to produce two new pits, and […]

The Energy Department expects to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) as early as fiscal 2022 or as late as fiscal 2024. “We are going to have hiccups. … We are going to have failures along the way,” but they can be overcome, Tom Fletcher, DOE’s assistant manager […]

Paramilitary security contractor Centerra won 97% or about $3.17 million out of a potential $3.26 million fee for protecting the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina during the second half of fiscal 2019, which ended Sept. 30. That’s according to a scorecard released by DOE over the winter holidays for Centerra-Savannah River Site. […]

The power substation that will route electricity to the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is finished, the National Nuclear Security Administration said. The Tennessee Valley Authority designed and built the $60 million substation, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency wrote in a press release on Monday.  Aspects of the substation have […]

Deep Isolation, a nuclear waste disposal startup, said Tuesday it wants to raise $10 million to $15 million in venture capital investment The company is developing a borehole disposal concept, in which fuel assemblies containing spent fuel rods are placed in a canister and buried some 2,000 feet below the surface in a very narrow, […]

Bud Albright, who chairs the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, will step in as interim president and CEO of the organization following the Dec. 29 death of David Blee. The Nuclear Industry Council said Monday that the board of directors selected Albright, an undersecretary of energy for former President George W. Bush, as interim leader pending […]