Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Boeing on Wednesday reported big drops in sales and earnings in its third quarter as it continues to struggle with the grounding of its 737 MAX passenger plane, which it expects to return to service later this year. The safe return to service of the 737 MAX, which suffered two tragic crashes in the past year, […]

Three workers at a Westinghouse plant in South Carolina were briefly hospitalized last week after reporting an “unusual taste in their mouths” while handling equipment contaminated with hydrofluoric acid. The incident occurred Oct. 14 at the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility, according to an Oct. 16 event notification report submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

Environmental groups whose lawsuit forced the U.S. Department of Energy to partially redo an environmental review of its Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) on Monday asked the federal judge who ordered the do-over to halt construction of the next-generation weapons-uranium hub. While she ordered the agency on Sept. 24 to incorporate federal earthquake hazard data into […]

One local mayor is throwing his support behind the Department of Energy’s recent move to consolidate operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state under one manager. “It’s the natural evolution of things,” Richland Mayor Bob Thompson said in a telephone interview. He spoke a week after Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced that Brian Vance […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a revised emergency response plan for the radiologically contaminated area of the West Lake Landfill in Missouri. The Oct. 15 approval came after the agency in August rejected both the emergency response plan and the site management plan prepared by contractor Parsons on behalf of the “potentially responsible […]

The U.S. Air Force has pulled the plug nearly a year early on Boeing’s contract to mature technology for the next generation of silo-based, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, the company said this week.  This is another setback for the incumbent on the current Minuteman III missile fleet, which hoped the remaining year or so of […]

Lockheed Martin on Tuesday posted strong third-quarter financial results driven by gains in three of its reporting segments and the company raised its earnings guidance for the year due to a tax benefit. Net income increased 9 percent to $1.6 billion, $5.66 earnings per share (EPS), from $1.5 billion ($5.14 EPS) a year ago, torching consensus […]

The members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are considering a staff recommendation to terminate a limited update to regulations on security of special nuclear material. “The staff conducted a preliminary cost and benefit analysis in which it has identified that the rulemaking is not cost justified,” Margaret Doane, NRC executive director for operations, wrote […]

An organization representing 20 Pueblo nations in New Mexico and Texas has formally voiced its opposition to plans for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel in the states. During a meeting last week, the All Pueblo Council of Governors adopted a resolution against federal licensing for construction and operations of the facilities planned by Holtec […]

The U.S. Energy Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have extended the public comment period from 30 days to 60 days for the next stage of remediation of the 100-BC Area of the Hanford Site in Washington state. The agencies said in a Monday email announcement they are pushing back the comment deadline […]

Nevada will be allowed to seek removal of half a metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium sent to the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site by amending a nearly year-old lawsuit, a federal judge ordered Monday. Nevada sued DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in U.S. District Court for Nevada in […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is mulling whether to establish an umbrella human-resources contract to help the entire nuclear security enterprise recruit and retain new personnel. In a request for information last week, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency said it was considering a seven-year contract worth a maximum of $8 […]

The House of Representatives’ Science, Space, and Technology Committee last week advanced legislation that would assign the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to assist in disposal of radioactive waste. Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson’s (D-Texas) ARPA-E Reauthorization Act of 2019 now awaits action by the full House. The bill would make a […]

Mechanical and industrial contractor Intermech will build a dry storage area for highly radioactive cesium and strontium now stored underwater at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The North Carolina-based company on Thursday received a $5.5 million subcontract from Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Construction of the dry storage […]

In an escalation of an ongoing turf war, the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said last week it would send personnel to the Department of Energy’s secretive nuclear explosive safety study meetings, despite that agency’s position that it should not. “We have directed our staff to attend all phases of the NES [nuclear […]

A number of companies with broad experience in nuclear and environmental remediation operations sent representatives to a Sept. 16 site visit for the decommissioning procurement for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ retired SM-1 reactor at Fort Belvoir, Va. Among the participants were Westinghouse, AECOM, Bechtel, APTIM, Atkins, EnergySolutions, and BWX Technologies, according to the […]

Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance (MSA) appears set to remain in place another six months, through May 25, 2020, as the support services contractor at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The department’s Office of Environmental Management cited the timeline in an email sent Monday to employees at the Hanford Site. The current […]

Solutient Technologies is near final approval to start taking air and dust samples at Zahn’s Corner Middle School and other properties near the U.S. Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio, in order to check on potential radiological contamination. In September, the Canton, Ohio-based radiological services and remediation specialist submitted its final scope of […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday will hold its confirmation hearing for the Navy’s top submarine official to become the next leader of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM). Vice. Adm. Charles Richard assumed his current duties in August 2018 as commander of Submarine Forces, commander of Submarine Force Atlantic, and commander of Allied Submarine Command. In […]

An independent opinion that could help determine the outcome of a federal lawsuit claiming a Savannah River Site contractor overcharged the federal government by $5 million is still being decided after nearly three years, according to a status report recently filed in the case. The joint status report was submitted by the U.S. Department of Energy and […]

The new method used by the U.S. Energy Department to calculate waste-disposal volumes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is significantly increasing the amount of radioactive material that can be interred, an advocacy group says. Last December, the New Mexico Environment Department approved a modification to DOE’s hazardous waste permit for the […]

The schedule for startup of the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) has been pushed back to early next year, following initial efforts to begin operations in December 2018 and a more recent target of December 2019. The SWPF Operational Readiness Review should be completed by January, according to Bryce McDevitt, […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management should revamp its 2017 nuclear cleanup policy to make its remediation decisions more risk-informed, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Reports issued since the 1990s by the GAO and DOE’s Office of Inspector General urged the nuclear cleanup office to make its decisions more risk-based  — […]

Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord on Friday defended the Air Force’s request for proposals for the forthcoming contract for production of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missiles. Lord called the document a “well-written RFP that will give us the insight we need” with regard to cost and pricing for replacing […]

President Donald Trump said Friday he would nominate Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to replace Rick Perry as head of the Department of Energy. Brouillette has been Perry's deputy secretary for just over two years. When Trump first nominated him, a source said the longtime insurance lobbyist — Brouillette spent more than a decade […]

All of the U.S. military services officially have a permanent leader for the first time since May as the Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Barbara Barrett as Air Force secretary. The Senate confirmed Barrett by a vote of 85-7. Senators who voted no include Senate Armed Services Committee members Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth […]