Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The U.S. Energy Department expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., to grow by more than 50% between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2023. The agency anticipates it will receive about 400 shipments of defense-related TRU waste at the underground disposal site in fiscal 2020, which […]

Calling the Department of Energy’s 2018 shipment of plutonium to Nevada a “nuclear incident” and a nuisance, the state is asking a federal judge to boot half a metric ton of the fissile material out of the Nevada National Security Site (NSS) and prohibit further shipments. The draft amended complaint filed Friday is the latest change of legal […]

Nearly two years after it said the complexity of remediating the Santa Susana Field Laboratory was responsible for missed cleanup deadlines, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has still not published two key environmental reports In its summary of June activity at the 2,850-acre chemically and radioactively contaminated site in Ventura County, the […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is looking for a new manager for its Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico, according to a want ad on an official federal jobs board. There are seven NNSA field offices, where local officials who report directly to the NNSA administrator oversee the agency’s multibillion-dollar […]

A Finnish construction company has received another contract for excavation of tunnels for the nation’s spent fuel repository. Posiva Oy, the organization in charge of the project, on Wednesday announced the award of the 17 million-euro contract to Helsinki-based YIT. The contract will cover two central tunnels and five disposal tunnels, according to a YIT […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday, in observance of the Labor Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking public comments on a draft rules package that would set specific radioactivity limits and other restrictions on disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM) waste in the state. This is the state’s second effort to establish regulations on TENORM disposal: A package issued in […]

Nine containers of transuranic waste stored at Area G of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico did not, as of late July, meet the acceptance criteria for disposal further south at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The situation was cited in a nonconformance report from the U.S. Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office, […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Wednesday it had completed the last of four new funding agreements for private manufacturing of the medical isotope molybdenum-99. This means Northwest Medical Isotopes, of Corvallis, Ore., will now receive $15 million from the NNSA that it must fully match. The announcement comes almost five weeks after […]

In an era when many people buy a new smartphone every couple years, the information technology (IT) network at the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is 20 years old and needs to be replaced. “If the site network infrastructure is not updated to newer technology, client disconnects and disruption […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed Wednesday that Stephen Younger will retire as director of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico effective Dec. 31, after two years managing the nation’s nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory. The local Albuquerque Journal reported the news first, on Tuesday. “I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Younger for his […]

Claire Chase, government affairs director for a New Mexico oil and gas company, intends to seek the Republican nomination to represent the congressional district that covers the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. If successful in a GOP primary for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, Chase would challenge Rep. Xochitl Torres […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s guidance on decommissioning of nuclear power plants has not kept up with an increasingly popular business model in the industry, the agency’s Inspector General’s Office said in a report this week. The “Audit of NRC’s Transition Process for Decommissioning Power Reactors” found generally that the federal agency effectively oversees sites […]

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is joining the board of directors for medical isotope manufacturers SHINE Medical Technologies. Ryan represented Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District for 20 years, until the beginning of this year. The district includes the city of Janesville, where SHINE is headquartered and Ryan has lived since leaving Congress (though he […]

An article in the Aug. 22 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing provided incorrect shifts for plutonium downblending operations at the Savannah River Site. Current operations cover one 12-hour shift per day, seven days a week. A scale-up that could come in fiscal 2020 would cover two 12-hour shifts per day, seven days a week. An article […]

Boston Government Services disclosed Tuesday it is partnering with Cincinnati-based Trinity Engineering Associates in the BTP Services joint venture that on July 31 won a potential $49.5 million technical support services contract from the Energy Department. Oak Ridge-based Boston Government Services previously said it is majority owner of the partnership. Headed by founder and President […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management has received 117 questions from prospective bidders on the next remediation contract for the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The office posted the latest tranche of questions Monday on the potential 10-year, $350 million successor award to the business held through January 2020 by Navarro Research and […]

The contractor that operates the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has mismanaged security incident reports over the past two years, with problems ranging from late submission of documents to the federal agency to providing incomplete information when they are delivered. In one instance, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) was supposed to close out a report within 90 days. However, […]

The U.S. Energy Department expects in coming years to speed up its waste emplacement rate at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant  in New Mexico to 14 shipments per week, according to the newly released draft five-year strategic plan. That would up from a current rate of less than 10 shipments per week during weeks of […]

A group of six scientists and nuclear waste experts on Monday renewed their call for Congress to fund the frozen federal licensing of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Advancing the licensing is both required by law and necessary to avoid extending the “financial liabilities” and potential environmental threats of keeping tens of thousands of […]

Merrick & Co. has opened a new office in Aiken, S.C., to get its foot in the door of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s expanding plutonium mission, the Greenwood, Colo., nuclear, defense, and infrastructure contractor said. Bill Taylor will manage the new Aiken office, the company said in a press release. Taylor spent the last […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Aug. 23 began the official procurement process for decommissioning of its long-retired SM-1 reactor on the ground of Fort Belvoir, Va. Prospective vendors have until 11 a.m. Nov. 4 Eastern time to submit bids. The Army Corps expects to select its contractor in the second half of 2020. […]

Entergy Corp. on Monday completed the sale of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts to Holtec International for an undisclosed amount of money. This follows the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval last Thursday of the transfer of Pilgrim’s federal operational and spent fuel storage licenses. “The successful Pilgrim transaction demonstrates continued progress on Entergy’s […]

Workers at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California have successfully moved the first two canisters of used reactor fuel to dry storage since restarting transfers on July 18. A third canister is on deck to begin movement this week. Officials with plant majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE) on Thursday briefed the SONGS […]

Senate Democrats — led by a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Democratic presidential candidate — are calling on committee leaders to adopt several House-passed measures that would ban low-yield missiles deployment and extend the new START Treaty during future conference sessions over the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). […]