Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Companies in the U.S. Energy Department nuclear cleanup sector are still trying to gauge the impact of Fluor’s decision to divest its government contracting business. There are still far more questions than answers among DOE contractors, subcontractors, and workforce, several sources said following the Tuesday announcement from the Texas-based engineering and construction giant. “Nobody really […]

The pace of transuranic waste shipments to the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico picked up after a slow start to 2019, although it is still seven shipments behind the 2018 tempo as of the end of August. The underground salt mine site near the city of Carlsbad received 225 shipments […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s timeline for completing its regulatory update on disposal of low-level radioactive waste has slid further to the right, though an agency official cautioned Wednesday the latest schedule remains tentative. During a meeting with nuclear industry stakeholders, the NRC presented a Sept. 17 schedule update on the Part 61 rulemaking. That […]

WASHINGTON —It will cost as much as $850 million to replace commercial capacitors unsuitable for use in two refurbished nuclear weapons, a senior National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official told lawmakers here. For the B61-12 gravity bomb, an ongoing homogenization of four different versions of the oldest deployed nuclear weapon, the costs will range from […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking public comment on the proposed five-year recertification of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico as meeting radiation standards for disposal of defense-related transuranic waste. The Energy Department filed the compliance recertification application with the EPA in March. Under the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act, […]

The House Energy and Commerce environment and climate change subcommittee is scheduled Thursday to vote on a bill aimed at advancing establishment of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 is among 15 bills scheduled for markup beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern time at 2123 Rayburn […]

The Senate will vote on whether to confirm U.S. Strategic Command Commander Air Force Gen. John Hyten to become the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chamber’s senior Republican leader said Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) affirmed in a floor speech Tuesday that by the end of the week, […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Tuesday said it had picked up $15 million in new contracts with the Department of Energy and other customers, for nuclear services including demolition and radiological cleanup. The projects cover 18 months of work, both in Canada and the United States, according to a press release. The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider […]

Fluor’s announcement Tuesday that it will sell off its government business unit opens the door for one of its peers to take full or partial ownership of multibillion-dollar contracts for the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The Irving, Texas-based engineering and construction multinational is lead partner […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will have to prepare at least one more environmental review of earthquake hazards to the Uranium Processing Facility under construction at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a federal judge decided Tuesday. An agency spokesperson on Wednesday said that “construction of UPF will proceed,” following […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Air Force in August completed three more flight tests of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb — a weapon whose first production date will be delayed because one of its non-nuclear components was not durable enough to last 30 years in the field. The latest three tests […]

An article in the Sept. 23 issue of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have stated that an internal report by utility Southern California Edison addressed concerns raised by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector about scratching on canisters of used fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

The U.S. Energy Department should focus on retired nuclear power plants and some of its own facilities as it plans for the eventual removal and transport of radioactive waste from dozens of sites around the nation, the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) said this week. That is one of three recommendations in a […]

The Department of Energy rejected a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommendation intended to better protect workers at the Savannah River Site’s tritium facilities from fires, explosions, and other accidents that could expose the public to radiation.  In doing so, DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) also rejected the independent agency’s […]

Nearly a month past its own declared schedule, the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management still has not issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) for further cleanup of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. On July 2, DOE said in a notice on the federal procurement website FedBizOpps that it anticipated issuing the […]

A former Tinder executive, the chairman emeritus of a national whiskey distiller, and the president of the California Institute of Technology are among the eight new members of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced Monday. The board is a sort of think-tank and sounding board for the energy secretary. […]

The U.S. government has paid at least $7.4 billion to nuclear power plant owners for failing to meet its Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin taking their spent reactor fuel for disposal, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The date was set in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which put the Department of […]

The Senate will vote on whether to support a seven-week long continuing resolution by the end of this week, the chamber’s senior Republican leader said Monday. Congress has just one week to pass a CR to keep funding the government at fiscal 2019 levels before the Sept. 30 deadline, and the Senate will vote on […]

Nevada should not be allowed to seek removal of one-half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from its borders by amending a lawsuit it filed against the Department of Energy last year, according to the federal government. “With no success in convincing this Court that DOE’s transportation of plutonium into the state is so dangerous that […]

Holtec International said Monday it has completed construction and testing of the interim storage facility for spent fuel from three reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. This effectively ends the New Jersey energy technology company’s role in the project. The state-owned Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) enterprise must now receive a license from […]

Texas-based Fluor, a pillar of the U.S. Energy Department’s nuclear operations and cleanup complexes, said Tuesday it will exit the government market as part of a company shakeup following recent hard times. CEO Carlos Hernandez and Executive Chairman Alan Boeckmann announced plans to divest the company’s government services business, as well as the AMECO construction […]

Former Los Alamos National Laboratory business manager Craig Leasure will become the full-time vice president for national laboratories at the University of California on Oct. 1, after about eight months on the job in an interim capacity. The university is a senior partner in the management contractors for two U.S. Energy Department nuclear-weapon labs. “I […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Monday formally announced it would demolish the final 18 structures at the former Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California. The plan is laid out in a new record of decision for remediation of the DOE-held Area IV and Northern Buffer Zone at Santa […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) anticipates within a matter of months further narrowing the number of locations being considered for a spent nuclear fuel disposal repository. “The NWMO is working to identify a single, preferred location for a deep geological repository for used nuclear fuel, in an area with informed and willing hosts. There […]

A Colorado-based company has won a roughly $2.8 million litigation support contract for the U.S. Energy Department’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Cincinnati-based procurement center for the DOE Office of Environmental Management published the award to TLI Solutions on Sept. 19. The contractor will support the EMCBC chief counsel in “simple and complex litigation” […]

Andrea Thompson, the State Department’s point person for nuclear arms control, has left her post after 15 months on the job, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced late last week. “Andrea Thompson is a dedicated public servant who brought over 25 years of military experience to her role at the [State Department],” Pompeo wrote Friday […]