Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The public will have an in-person opportunity Thursday to weigh in on Westinghouse’s application for renewal of its federal license for the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, following multiple safety and infrastructure incidents that have drawn concern from state and federal agencies. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has scheduled a public comment […]

It’s getting real for Dan Brouillette, who is scheduled for a confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in his next official step to joining President Donald Trump’s Cabinet as secretary of energy. The hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. Eastern time and will be webcast. Brouillette sailed through his confirmation hearing […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is starting market research for vendors to provide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The nuclear cleanup office on Tuesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources-sought notice for waste treatment services at various sites across the DOE complex. The Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said […]

The Department of Energy has no authority to issue contracts for any commercially operated spent nuclear fuel storage services, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a recent letter to a member of Congress. That runs counter to the business plans laid out by both corporate teams seeking federal regulatory approval for consolidated interim storage facilities […]

The U.S. Department of Energy should be required to “show cause” why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should not dismiss its license application for shipment of weapon-grade uranium to Europe, according to a company that opposes the request. Failing that, Curium and other parties should be authorized to intervene in the NRC proceeding, according to a […]

European nations continue to struggle with establishing permanent disposal for tens of thousands of tons of radioactive spent nuclear fuel, and with determining how much it will cost, according to a new report published by the Berlin-based Heinrich Boell Foundation. Sixteen European nations held 60,500 tons of used fuel as of the end of 2016, […]

Strengthened whistleblower protections approved by Congress are now written into most but not all major contracts at the Energy Department, according to a DOE Office of Inspector General report dated Nov. 4. The office reviewed 30 of DOE’s largest contracts, together worth about $386 billion – or 94% of the agency’s $411 billion in current […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has signed off on the latest iteration of the performance assessment for two radioactive waste disposal facilities operated by Waste Control Specialists (WCS). The agency is the regulator for management of radioactive waste in the state, including the WCS complex in Andrews County. Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists must […]

AECOM, the international infrastructure company that is preparing its exit from contracting for the U.S. Energy Department, on Tuesday reported record annual revenue of almost $20.2 billion for fiscal 2019. The annual revenue is up 2% from $20.15 billion in fiscal 2018, according to AECOM. But the company suffered a net loss of $266 million, […]

A local nuclear watchdog said it is happy Idaho is forcing the U.S. Department of Energy to “clean up the radioactive mess” at the Idaho National Laboratory, but does not want more spent nuclear fuel coming into the state. “We strongly oppose additional nuclear waste coming into Idaho,” Snake River Alliance Executive Director Holly Harris […]

Nuclear services firm EnergySolutions said Tuesday it has completed physical decommissioning of the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor (LACBWR) in Wisconsin. That covers full remediation and extraction of radioactive materials in line with the license termination plan approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to a press release from the Salt Lake City-based company. […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) dinged the National Nuclear Security Administration recently for not providing 10 years’ worth of cost forecasts in an annual report to Congress on defense nuclear spending. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency by law must write a joint report each year with the Defense Department profiling the expected costs […]

Radioactive waste disposal startup Deep Isolation said Monday it has inked a cooperative agreement with spent nuclear fuel storage and transportation provider NAC International. The agreement covers collaboration in designing, developing, and producing Deep Isolation’s canister technology for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, according to a press release from the Berkeley, […]

U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten will officially turn over command of U.S. Strategic Command to Navy Vice Adm. Charles Richard on Nov. 18. The change of command ceremony will take place following a dedication ceremony for STRATCOM’s new command and control facility at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., according to a press release. Hyten […]

A group of current and former contractors at the U.S. Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio say a federal lawsuit accusing them of failure to contain radioactive contamination should be dismissed. Centrus Energy and the other companies say Ursula McGlone and other residents who live within 7 miles of the former gaseous diffusion plant failed […]

Key testing has wrapped up for the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, bringing the $2.3 billion plant closer to its anticipated startup in the first quarter of 2020. Parsons, the U.S. Department of Energy contractor that built the SWPF and is readying it for operations, announced Wednesday […]

The U.S. Energy Department said Monday it plans to retain a Richland, Wash., firm via a no-bid contract to provide technical expertise on treatment of nuclear tank waste at the Hanford Site. The agency’s Office of River Protection (ORP) plans to issue a sole-source time and materials contract potentially worth $870,000 to Jeffery L. Bird, […]

Even a temporary pause on construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee could cost the federal government nearly $1 billion, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week in asking a federal judge to refuse a request from a group of environmental organizations for a stop-work […]

House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) said Nov. 6 that he will not run for office again in 2020, ending a 35-year career in public office and opening up the chairmanship to new candidates should Democrats hold the majority after next year’s elections. “For my entire career I have worked to build support […]

The U.S. branch of French nuclear company Orano said Wednesday it is preparing to deploy the first of its next-generation radioactive waste transport casks. Columbia, Md.-based Orano TN has manufactured the initial NUHOMS MP197HB, but still must assemble the container, according to a press release. It is expected by the end of 2019 to be ready for […]

The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday in observance of Veterans Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Centrus Energy said Tuesday it expects to pay nearly $30 million out of its own pocket to develop a new, made-with-American-parts uranium enrichment cascade for the Department of Energy. Centrus on Monday announced it had finalized a three-year, $115 million contract with DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy to build the 16-machine cascade at the Portsmouth […]

The $506 million in quarterly revenue reported Monday by BWX Technologies is its highest ever, not just for the third quarter as indicated in a Tuesday article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions said Tuesday it has commissioned a second furnace to prepare for four planned tritium extractions next year at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. The Fluor-led site management and operations contractor said in a press release it had fired up a “previously unused” second furnace some time […]

BWX Technologies, trumpeting strong third-quarters earnings results Tuesday, said it is not under contract to build any more common missile compartment tubes for U.S. naval submarines, beyond those already contracted for production by 2021. After announcing in 2018 it had botched welds on 12 of the tubes, which were destined for both Columbia- and Virginia-class […]

A Jacobs subsidiary this week is commencing the final phase of tearing down the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “I am proud to report that our team has safely completed lower-risk demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant’s (PFP) Main Processing Facility,” CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation President and CEO Ty […]