Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Holtec International has issued its first major contract for decommissioning of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey. The contract went, as anticipated, to Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a joint venture of Holtec and Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin formed specifically for cleanup of retired nuclear power plants. The contract is worth hundreds of millions […]

The Sheep Fire, which burned more than 112,000 acres, is the largest blaze ever at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, a spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. It eclipsed the old record set by the Jefferson Fire, which in 2010 burned almost 109,000 acres, including 79,000 acres within the INL property, according to laboratory spokeswoman Sarah Neumann. […]

The advocacy group Nuclear Watch New Mexico wants New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) to renegotiate a 2016 consent order with the U.S. Department of Energy on cleanup of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The organization in June urged Grisham to have the New Mexico Environment Department revisit the deal reached with the […]

Debating nine of her rivals for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made her case again for a U.S. policy against first use of nuclear weapons. “The United States is not going to use nuclear weapons preemptively, and we need to say so to the entire world. It reduces […]

The Senate’s top nuclear-weapon authorizer pumped Air Force Gen. John Hyten during a Tuesday confirmation hearing for ammunition to use in upcoming budget negotiations with House Democrats over spending levels for the ongoing modernization and maintenance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. President Donald Trump in April nominated Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command since 2016, […]

Senate leadership is eager to bring the House-passed Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 to the floor this week before members leave for recess Aug. 2. But with multiple GOP members still reportedly undecided and eight Democrats out of town this week for presidential debates, it is still unclear whether the votes are there to pass […]

The White House is expected to submit two nominations in tandem for positions on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an informed source said this week. Senate Appropriations Committee staffer Christopher Hanson would be nominated to succeed Stephen Burns, who retired from the commission in April ahead of the end of his term on June 30. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 22 issued a regulatory exemption allowing Entergy Nuclear Operations to use money in the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s decommissioning trust fund for spent fuel management and site restorations activities. Entergy requested the exemption in November 2018 for the Massachusetts facility. On July 1, the NRC staff issued an environmental […]

The Department of Energy will probably deliver the first nuclear warhead for the next U.S. air-launched cruise missile a year later than the agency’s official fiscal 2025 forecast, according to an internal report. The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is “highly unlikely” to complete the Long-Range Standoff Weapon’s W80-4 warhead — a refurbished […]

Longtime Department of Energy manager Ed McGinnis has left the agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy to take a position at the White House, a source said Monday. McGinnis served as principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy from May 2017, effectively leading the office until Rita Baranwal was sworn in as assistant secretary for nuclear […]

The Energy Communities Alliance says the U.S. Energy Department’s reinterpretation of the definition for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) could expedite disposal of such material now held at four nuclear cleanup sites. The ECA said it “can reasonably interpret that the waste streams to which this interpretation may apply” are the canisters of waste that have […]

The AECOM-led contractor in charge of liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site earned $28.57 million of a potential $30.28 million for its latest fee period. That represents better than 94% of the possible fee, according to the DOE performance scorecard. During the period from June 1, 2018, through March 31 […]

A power outage at the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility (DAF) interrupted some of the site’s nuclear stockpile stewardship operations for about two weeks this month, a spokesperson said. The outage happened July 1, after a series of mishaps in replacing the DAF’s uninterruptible power source — a backup power supply system that […]

An unidentified Energy Department nuclear facility needs to remedy shortcomings in its cybersecurity program, according to DOE’s Office of Inspector General. “Furthermore, we found that limited cybersecurity resources at the site impacted the ability of the site to ensure that all security controls were fully implemented,” the Energy Department IG said in the memo dated […]

NorthStar Group Services has requested approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to switch the means of transport to disposal of 200,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The company plans to move the wastewater primarily by rail to a disposal site in Idaho, rather by truck as previously OK’d […]

Executives from Fluor, one of the larger contractors in the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons complex, are scheduled to discuss second-quarter earnings at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. The financial numbers for the quarter ending June 30 will be posted after the market closes on Thursday. The call with Wall Street analysts will be webcast. Fluor […]

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler is expected to rule in August on a dispute over waste discharge standards at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. Mary Walker, administrator for EPA Region 4, said in March the new on-site waste landfill planned at Oak Ridge lacks adequate protections against discharges of contaminated wastewater […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee announced will this question Strategic Command Commander and Air Force Gen. John Hyten as the nominee to become the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The confirmation hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G50. The committee has been conducting a series […]

Fluor Marine Propulsion plans to move some 200 Naval Reactors Facility employees in Idaho off-site in 2020, when the prime contractor for the federal Naval Nuclear Laboratory expects to enter a five- to 10-year lease for office space. The Naval Reactors Facility, which stores spent fuel from nuclear warships and submarines, employs a total of […]

The Department of Energy is assessing potential vendor interest in processing, shipping, and disposing of radioactive waste from the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in New York state. In a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice Wednesday, the DOE Office of Environmental Management requested capability statements from interested parties with the expertise to do the […]

The Air Force is currently expecting to see first flight of the B-21 next-generation bomber around December 2021, the service’s number-two military official revealed Wednesday. Speaking at an Air Force Association Mitchell Institute event on Capitol Hill, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson said according to a software app he tracks on the new […]

Boeing, which designed and built the current fleet of U.S. nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, confirmed Thursday it will not bid on the contract to build the successor Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) missiles. Boeing and Northrop Grumman are the only two companies eligible to bid on the Air Force’s contract to build the next-generation ICBMs. “After […]

In a federal discrimination lawsuit seeking $3.5 million, an African-American woman formerly employed by the Savannah River Site’s security contractor says she was terminated for accidentally leaving her gun in a bathroom, while a white employee kept her job after making the same error. In the complaint, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South […]

An air tunnel at a degrading Savannah River Site nuclear materials processing facility should be able to withstand an earthquake, according to a detailed analysis for the Department of Energy, despite concerns raised two years ago by a federal safety board. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), management and operations contractor for the 310-square-mile DOE facility […]

City officials from Oak Ridge, Tenn., want to meet with Energy Department representatives before the federal agency issues a draft record of decision in August for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill planned for the Oak Ridge Site. City Manager Mark Watson made the request in a July 12 letter to Jay Mullis, manager of DOE’s […]

Northrop Grumman on Wednesday reported a strong second quarter on higher earnings and sales, while strong order flow also drove a substantial increase in the company’s backlog. Net income increased 9% to $861 million, $5.06 earnings per share (EPS), from $789 million ($4.50 EPS) a year ago, beating consensus estimates by $0.38 per share. Sales increased […]

A wildfire that has burned 113,000 acres since Monday no longer poses a threat to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Sheep Fire, started by a lightning strike, was 60% contained as of Thursday morning. As a result, the Idaho National Laboratory expects to resume normal operations today, the Energy Department said in an […]