Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

BWX Technologies said Thursday it has received a contract to procure long-lead components for U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, which including options is worth $806 million over seven years. In a press release, the Lynchburg, Va., company said the contract from the “U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program” has a one-year base period worth […]

Holtec International believes it can complete decommissioning of the three-reactor Indian Point Energy Center by 2036, assuming it receives federal authorization to buy the nuclear power plant. The Camden, N.J., energy technology company laid out its schedule in a presentation to be given today to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in advance of the application […]

It could be 2020 before the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) incorporates the latest federal earthquake data into the agency’s environmental review of a planned next-generation uranium hub, a spokesperson said Wednesday. As part of a lawsuit brought by environmental and nuclear watchdogs, a federal judge in late September ordered the semiautonomous Department of […]

The Jacobs-led company in charge of cleanup of the former gaseous diffusion plant at the U.S. Energy Department’s Paducah Site in Kentucky has reportedly selected a new top executive. The appointment of Myrna Redfield at Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership was reported Tuesday by WKMS-FM, a public radio station for Murray State University in Murray, Ky., […]

President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to break with the longstanding norm of not disclosing the location of U.S. nuclear weapons deployed abroad by telling a reporter he was “confident” weapons stored at Turkey’s Incirlik air base remained safe. Turkish military forces last week crossed into Syria after Trump — in a move widely criticized […]

Parsons carried out four proficiency drills between July and September at the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), which is expected to open in December at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina The contractor in charge of building and starting up the plant plans five more drills through November,  according to a […]

Just two days after officially completing the reorganization of its nuclear materials office, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday announced it had combined two offices that provide oversight for nuclear power reactors. As of Sunday, the federal agency has merged its Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation with its Office of New Reactors. The new […]

A 45-day comment period began Monday on proposed changes to the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) that governs cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The parties to the agreement – the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Washington state Department of Ecology – will accept comments through Nov. 29. The […]

It’s official: Brian Vance is the sole manager of both the Richland Operations Office and the Office of River Protection at the U.S. Energy Department’s sprawling Hanford Site in Washington state. The longtime manager and U.S. Navy veteran had filled this dual role in an acting capacity since February. Energy Secretary Rick Perry informed Congress […]

Rose Gottemoeller, the Obama administration’s lead negotiator of the New START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.nited States and Russia, began saying public goodbyes Wednesday as part of her long-planned departure as deputy secretary general of NATO. “I will be heading back to the United States and I’m looking forward to writing a book […]

It could be two years before a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission board holds a hearing in the single contention it allowed against licensing of a consolidated interim storage facility in Texas for spent nuclear power reactor fuel. The anticipated “trigger date” for parties to begin filing various paperwork and then the evidentiary hearing itself is […]

EnergySolutions is no longer partly owned by investment firm Lindsay Goldberg, although it still is listed on the Goldberg website. Due to an editing error, the ownership status was listed incorrectly in the Tuesday edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.

The U.S. Energy Department has now formally announced plans to keep the three current providers of technical support services for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) on the job through June 2020. The agency filed a formal notice Thursday announcing plans to keep Albuquerque, N.M.-based Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) on the job for up to […]

The Senate is expected to vote to confirm Barbara Barrett as the next secretary of the Air Force as early as Oct. 16, after resuming consideration of her nomination Oct. 15. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed cloture on the nomination Sept 26, before the upper chamber left for its annual two-week October recess, […]

EnergySolutions on Tuesday said it had sealed the deal for acquisition of reactor Unit 2 (TMI-2) at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which famously partially melted down 40 years ago. The Salt Lake City-based nuclear services firm will buy TMI-2’s assets and obtain its licenses from reactor owner FirstEnergy Corp. It […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration cleared the future transfer of some U.S.-origin uranium and plutonium, currently in irradiated fuel rods, from South Korea’s state-owned Korea Electric Power Co. to Studsvik Nuclear AB, in Nykoping, Sweden, according to a Federal Register notice published Tuesday.  In Sweden, the rods “will be used for testing the fuel […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined without comment to hear South Carolina’s argument that an appeals court illegally denied the state its right to contest the Department of Energy’s decision to close an over-budget, behind-schedule plutonium-disposal plant last year. The decision from the high court, for which there is no appeal, spells the end […]

AECOM announced Monday it plans to sell its government contracting business for $2.4 billion to two investment firms rather than advancing its previous plan to spin the branch off into a stand-alone public company. Affiliates of New York City-based American Securities and Lindsay Goldberg are joining to buy AECOM’s Management Services business. In June, AECOM […]

The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) has reached a tentative deal for one-year extensions to existing labor contracts for hundreds of union members employed by major vendors at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In a Facebook post Monday, HAMTC announced that its negotiating committee had reached the agreement with contractors […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is accepting hearing petitions on proposed license transfers for the retired Crystal River nuclear power plant in Florida. Owner Duke Energy wants to transfer the facility’s operations and spent-fuel storage licenses to a subsidiary of Accelerated Decommissioning Partners (ADP). That company, a joint venture of NorthStar Group Services and Orano, […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management plans to extend the current technical services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky with Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Pro2Serve for up to six more months. On Thursday, DOE published a notice of intent to issue a sole-source extension to keep Pro2Service on the job at Paducah through […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formally accepted SHINE Medical Technologies’ application to obtain a 30-year operating license for a proposal medical isotope production facility in Wisconsin. The agency said in a Federal Register notice, issued Saturday and dated Tuesday, that it had docketed the application following its acceptance review. That license application will now […]