Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

After already being delayed several times, publication of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a proposed new landfill at the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee could slip into 2020. The document is supposed to be issued Dec. 19, but DOE managers have informed the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation of […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said Tuesday it had narrowed to three the number of communities being considered to host a deep geologic repository for spent fuel from nuclear power plants. In a site-selection process that began in 2010 with 22 candidate sites, the remaining locations are the township of Ignace in northwest Ontario […]

Nuclear power plant operator FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) said Monday it will be renamed Energy Harbor when it comes of out Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring as a stand-alone company. The company will continue to be headquartered in Akron, Ohio. It will employ roughly 2,800 people, according to a press release. The bankruptcy proceeding is expected to […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday urged a federal appeals court to reject two requests from the commonwealth of Massachusetts to freeze the license transfer of the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit does not yet have jurisdiction under federal law to rule on […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and other branches of the Department of Energy continue to struggle to improve their defenses against cyberattacks, according to the DOE Inspector General’s Office. The inspector general’s 2019 evaluation of the department’s unclassified cybersecurity program involved control testing and other evaluations of 28 DOE sites, largely overseen by […]

Based on conversations with the U.S. Department of Energy, the state of Idaho expects the long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) will start operating in late 2020 at the Idaho National Laboratory. However, the state for now will continue to assess financial penalties over DOE’s failure to meet the deadline for beginning operations at the […]

Dallas-based Jacobs said Monday it is “rebranding” itself, but one thing that remains constant is the company’s heavy reliance on the U.S. government for a large chunk of its revenue. The international provider of construction, business, and technical services is changing its legal name from Jacobs Engineering to Jacobs Solutions, as it puts less emphasis […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it has selected a longtime Department of Energy manager to lead its field office for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Michael Weis comes to Los Alamos after nearly 25 years with the department, most recently as site office manager for the Fermi National […]

The U.S. Department of Energy spent $8.6 million during the last fiscal year on remediation of a cesium-137 spill at a hospital research facility in Seattle. Remediation is ongoing at the Research and Training Building for the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center, according to Al Stotts, a spokesman for DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite one soil sample that showed an elevated level of radioactive contamination, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) thinks land near the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant poses no significant threat to people. “Our state experts and toxicologists do not believe there is any immediate threat to public […]

Jacobs Engineering on Monday posted $3.4 billion in revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 27, a step up from $3 billion in the same period a year earlier. The Dallas-based multinational reported earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 before the market opened for the day. Its earnings per diluted share was $0.16, a […]

The U.S. Air Force is still sticking to its plan to build 100 B-21 Raider strategic bombers, but if it does need to procure more, it should be able to boost production without renegotiating the contract with Northrop Grumman, Air Force Materiel Command Chief Gen. Arnold Bunch told reporters recently. “We’ve got the contract structured […]

The White House on Friday announced its intention to nominate David Wright to a full term on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Wright has served on the commission since May 2018. He assumed a seat vacated by Commissioner Jeff Baran, which expires on June 30, 2020. Baran, a commissioner since 2014, last year was confirmed […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday advanced three of the four Trump administration nominations for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The nominees approved on voice vote were: Bruce Hamilton, current DNFSB chairman; current board member Jesse Hill Roberson; and nominee Thomas Summers, former vice commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot […]

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation must suspend work in radiologically contaminated areas of Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state until it gets a handle on certain “negative trend,” according to a recent order from the U.S. Energy Department. The DOE’s Richland Operations Office “expects that workers at Hanford are protected from personnel radiological […]

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday reaffirmed the Trump administration’s disinterest in renewing a strictly bilateral U.S.-Russian New START nuclear arms control treaty past its expiration in February 2021. As Trump and other officials have previously, Pompeo indicated China must be brought into the nuclear arms-control fold. “President Trump will never allow America to […]

A board of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday reversed a prior order to allow the Sierra Club to argue one case against licensing of a facility in West Texas for temporary storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) also rejected the environmental organization’s motion […]

A House committee on Wednesday passed a bill intended to advance centralized storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste, while the long-promised Senate version of the legislation was finally filed. Rep. Jerry McNerney’s (D-Calif.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 contains a set of measures to assist the Department of Energy in […]

A multinational medical isotope company jumped the gun in demanding that the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “show cause” against termination of its application for a federal license to export weapon-grade uranium to Europe, according to a lawyer for the agency. In any case, the argument laid out by Curium has no merit, NNSA […]

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote at 11:30 a.m. today to extend stopgap funding for fiscal 2020 and avoid a shutdown of the federal government. A series of three votes are expected on the continuing resolution that would keep the government open until Dec. 20, according to the official Twitter feed for Republican Senate […]

The nomination of Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to become energy secretary easily cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday by a 16-4 vote. The full Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on the nomination, a source said. The previously announced resignation of Energy Secretary Rick Perry takes effect Dec. 1. […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday it has reached a contract closeout settlement with the company that was hired to build and operate a now-terminated plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The settlement covers all “contract closeout matters” with MOX Services, according to a press release from […]

The U.S. Energy Department has yet to actually issue its announced six-month extension for the incumbent support services vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Last month, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management signaled it plans to keep Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA) on the job after its current extension expires Monday. That next extension […]

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation to extend the continuing resolution until Dec. 20, to provide lawmakers with an extra month to agree upon outstanding fiscal year 2020 funding bills. The bill, a House amendment to H.R. 3055, passed by a vote of 231-192, with 12 Republicans voting to support the bill and […]

The U.S. government on Nov. 15 urged a federal judge to dismiss a revised lawsuit from the state of Nevada requesting the removal of half-a-metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium from the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The U.S. District Court for Nevada “lacks subject matter jurisdiction to decide this matter because Plaintiff […]