Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee pushed back by at least one day its review of legislation intended to jump-start centralized storage and ultimately disposal of radioactive waste now dispersed around the country. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, from Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), was one of 18 bills scheduled for markup on […]

The U.S. Energy Department has roughly 6,500 cubic meters of transuranic waste yet to be shipped from the Idaho National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson said by email Friday. That is about 10% of the 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste supposed to move from the […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has set a March 3, 2020, primary followed by a May 12 special election to replace U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who resigned on Nov. 1 after being targeted for investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Hill, who represented the state’s 25th Congressional District that adjoins the Santa Susana Field […]

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Monday said she was committed to studying the potential use of advanced reactors in recycling radioactive spent fuel. Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal, though, said that storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste also remain […]

A Bechtel subsidiary on Nov. 15 received three contract modifications worth over $1.4 billion in total to supply parts for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. The U.S. Navy issued cost-plus-fixed-fee modifications to existing awards to Bechtel Plant Machinery, based in Monroeville, Pa. The modifications are respectively worth $913.5 million, $483.7 million, and $31.8 million. The […]

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote to push the current continuing resolution deadline to Dec. 20, with hopes that lawmakers will complete negotiations for outstanding fiscal year 2020 funding bills in the extra month. The vote, which was announced Monday by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), comes two days before the current […]

Bechtel National has failed to sufficiently review the costs of subcontractors supporting construction of the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a recent agency audit. Between December 2000 and June 2018, Bechtel paid nearly $2 billion for 392 subcontracts with flexible prices, such as […]

Nuclear contractor UniTech Services Group, which provides laundry services for radioactive clothing in North America and Europe, has hired industry veteran Kevin Bumpus as business development manager for government accounts. Bumpus has 36 years in the nuclear business, including management experience in facilities and operations, and helped support key U.S. Energy Department initiatives, the company […]

The House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled Tuesday to consider legislation intended to advance storage and disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, from Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), is one of 18 bills due for markup starting at 10 a.m. The bill contains various amendments […]

Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering on Monday named Bill Pragada as its president and chief operating officer overseeing global operations, and said Kevin Berryman will be appointed president and chief financial officer. As president and COO, Pragada will still lead Jacobs’ Buildings, Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities (BIAF) business. The executive vice president and COO for Aerospace, Technology […]

Two U.S. senators last week pressed the top appropriators in each chamber of Congress to ensure communities near retired nuclear power plants receive millions of dollars of economic assistance in the current federal budget year. “Strong funding is necessary to support public works investments and economic diversification initiatives in communities across the country,” Sens. Tammy […]

The U.S. Air Force has not yet addressed any plans to export the B-21 Raider as the next-generation bomber moves through development, Will Roper, the service’s acquisition chief, told reporters Nov. 12. “I’m going to keep my head focused on getting to initial operational capability on time and then I’ll let the debate go where […]

The United States must finally settle on a strategy for disposition of spent nuclear fuel if it hopes to revitalize its atomic energy sector, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Wednesday, without offering a timeline for introduction of a bill intended to help achieve that goal. Barrasso discussed the matter in starting off a hearing of […]

The National Academies committee studying supplemental treatment of low-activity waste at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state is accepting public comments until Nov. 20 on its upcoming report. The comment period was originally scheduled to end Oct. 13. A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel is reviewing a predecisional report […]