Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

In a New Year’s boon for Belgium’s Institute for Radioelements, the Department of Energy has postponed by two years a ban on exporting U.S.-origin, weapon-usable uranium for the production of medical isotopes, agency head Dan Brouillette told Congress last week. “[C]urrent global supplies of Mo-99 [Molybdenum 99] produced without the use of HEU [highly enriched […]

The prime contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex will host an industry day on Jan. 15 for companies interested in building a new lithium production complex at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., site, according to a sources sought note posted online before the winter holidays. The Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) is requesting information from […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) failed to provide “hard evidence” that Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) should not have won a $137 million technical services services contract for Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office because of a conflict of interest. It is not enough to infer that […]

The Department of Energy has “serious concerns” over the lack of corrective actions its contractor is taking to prepare multimillion dollar Salt Waste Processing Facility for startup at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. Parsons has not properly addressed radiation and fire protection at the salt waste facility in the company’s operational readiness review, […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 10 shipments of transuranic waste during November, bringing the total to 285 for the first 11 months of 2019. The figures, from WIPP’s publicly available database, show the underground transuranic waste disposal site has again fallen behind its 2018 pace. It received 291 […]

Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) took home $25.6 million or 95% of its nearly $27 million in available fee for management and operation of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina between Aug. 1, 2018 and July 31, 2019. The just-released fee determination scorecard from the DOE Office of Environmental Management shows […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico briefly held up some shipments of transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory in November after discovery of a hole in one drum, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The 4 millimeter-hole was discovered Nov. 2 by WIPP inspectors in a […]

David Blee, president and CEO of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council business consortium, died Sunday apparently while visiting family in Kentucky. His death was confirmed Monday by USNIC Director Caleb Ward. “From what I understand, David had a negative reaction with the medication he was taking to get over his cold,” Ward said in a […]

A joint venture of Perma-Fix Environmental Services and ERRG in December sealed a contract worth at least $15 million for cleanup services at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The 18-month contract covers remediation, construction, and waste management at the Alameda County complex, according to a Dec. 23 press release […]

Holtec International believes it can complete decommissioning of the three nuclear reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center in upstate New York in 12 to 15 years at a cost of $2.3 billion, according to a new filing with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Power company Entergy said in April it would sell the Buchanan, […]

If the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still plans to select its preferred technology for the nation’s next domestic uranium enrichment plant by the end of 2019, the agency is taking the decision down to the last few hours of the year. It was around this time of year in 2016 that the semiautonomous […]

Potential bidders on the management and operations contract for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina have until noon ET on Jan. 9 to sign up for briefings. The Energy Department is providing new details on its Jan. 16 industry day for the stand-alone lab contract. The DOE Office of Environmental […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Wednesday in observance of New Year’s Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Energy is extending the comment period by more than a month on its draft environmental assessment for the plan to treat and dispose of about 10,000 gallons of recycled wastewater from the Savannah River Site at a low-level radioactive waste site located out of South Carolina. Stakeholders now have until Feb. […]

MOX Services, prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), played fast and loose with federal contracting rules, the U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general wrote in a scathing report published days before the winter holiday. The audit, which focused on MOX Services’ administration of project subcontractors, identified some $8.5 million in […]

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) has picked a state lawyer to lead the Washington Department of Ecology. Laura Watson succeeds Maia Bellon, who announced her retirement on Dec. 2 after leading the state agency since 2013. The Department of Ecology, through its Nuclear Waste Program, regulates the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, as well as […]

A veteran of 28 years in the commercial nuclear power industry is the new acting manager for the U.S. Department of Energy office that oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Greg Sosson was apparently appointed to the temporary detail earlier this month, according to the Carlsbad Field Office website. Sosson joined […]

The U.S. Navy on Dec. 16 awarded General Dynamics Mission Systems a $300 million contract for fiscal years 2020-2023 for U.S. and U.K. Trident II (D-5) support work. This specifically covers Trident II fleet ballistic missiles submarine fire control system, guided missile submarine attack weapon control system, and support equipment rework facility support. Most of […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) expects to complete decommissioning of a long-retired nuclear power plant at Fort Belvoir, Va., in 2025, after which the property would be available for unrestricted use. The five-year schedule would cover the full scope of decommissioning the SM-1 reactor and associated infrastructure: site preparation, material removal, disassembly, cleanup, […]

The U.S. Energy Department anticipates by early February issuing a draft request for proposals (RFP) for waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a Dec. 23 procurement notice the draft solicitation for what it now calls the Savannah River Site Integrated Mission Completion Contract […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has scheduled a Jan. 9 public meeting to discuss a consent order signed with the U.S. Energy Department in 2016 that updated remediation plans for the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. MT at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos campus on University Drive, NMED […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) this month received approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to provide long-term storage of elemental mercury at its Andrews County waste facility for the U.S. Department of Energy. The Energy Department said in a Dec. 27 press release that the Texas regulators approved a modification to the Dallas-based company’s […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday denied a bid protest over a five-year, $137 million contract issued to a Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve) affiliate to provide technical support to the U.S. Energy Department’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO). A rival bidder, Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI), filed its initial protest on Sept. 9, followed by […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office wants the Department of Energy to fulfill a 2007 pledge to manage three former uranium enrichment plants in an integrated manner. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is supervising cleanup of retired facilities in Piketon, Ohio, Paducah, Ky., and Oak Ridge, Tenn., as three independent sites, which is costly and […]

A group of 11 nuclear security and health experts on Wednesday urged the heads of the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services to find that the federal government no longer needs to export weapon-grade uranium for foreign production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). The American Medical Isotopes Production Act (AMIPA), enacted […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published during the week of Dec. 23-27, in observance of the Christmas holiday. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Monday, Dec. 30.