Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Senate confirmed Mark Esper to become the next permanent secretary of defense on Tuesday by a landslide vote, ending months of uncertainty about the Pentagon’s leadership. Esper, who previously served as Army secretary since 2017, was confirmed by a vote of 90-8 Tuesday afternoon. Eight Democrats voted against his confirmation, and two senators – […]

The new federal budget caps deal provides $2.5 billion more in base defense spending than the 2020 budget the House of Representatives has already approved, and the National Nuclear Security Administration would need a 25% share of the extra funding to reach its preferred nuclear-weapon budget. To get the money, the semiautonomous Department of Energy […]

The California Coastal Commission is expected in September to decide whether to issue a permit that is necessary for major decommissioning to begin on two retired reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The commission had been scheduled in June to take up Southern California Edison’s application for a coastal development permit, but […]

A good 2019 keeps rolling for Lockheed Martin, which on Tuesday reported strong increases in earnings and sales in its second quarter, building on handsome gains in the first quarter. The results led the company to increase its guidance for sales, earnings, and cash this year. Net income in the quarter increased 22 percent to just […]

Nuclear services firm EnergySolutions on Tuesday announced its first foray into the burgeoning business for acquiring retired nuclear power plants for decommissioning. The Salt Lake City-based company said it had inked a term sheet with a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. for the asset transfer of reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating […]

The Ohio state government on Tuesday approved a $150 million annual bailout for FirstEnergy Solutions’ two nuclear power plants in the state. The Ohio House of Representatives voted 51-38 to approve its bill following recent modifications by the state Senate. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) then quickly signed the measure into law. The bill translates […]

A large fire has prompted evacuation of nonessential employees at several major nuclear operations at the U.S. Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. Sites affected by the evacuation include the Advanced Test Reactor, Naval Reactors Facility, Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, and Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, according to a post […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on Monday issued a presolicitation notice for a contract covering environmental remediation under its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) and other federal cleanup programs. The pre-placed remedial action contract, with multiple indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task orders, would be conducted under the Army Corps’ Multiple Environmental Government Acquisition (MEGA) […]

The Department of Energy on Monday issued a request for proposals for the Nevada Environmental Program Services contract, which could be worth up to $350 million over 10 years. Navarro Research and Engineering holds the current $80 million contract, which began in March 2015 and runs through January 2020. The RFP for the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) […]

Three industry sources said recently Fluor’s government services group, if not the entire company, could be an acquisition target for another player in the nuclear cleanup industry, Jacobs. Such a deal could further consolidate Jacobs’ hold on the business of environmental remediation for the U.S. Department of Energy, following its December 2017 purchase of CH2M. […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it had issued three cooperative agreements, each worth $15 million in matching funds, to companies aiming to produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). The companies are: Niowave, of Lansing, Mich.; NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, of Beloit, Wis.; and SHINE Medical Technologies, of Janesville, Wis. Talks are continuing […]

The Donald Trump administration has not “committed wrongdoing” by authorizing U.S. companies to share nuclear-energy technology with Saudi Arabia, Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform said Monday. The committee minority published the conclusion in a nine-page report posted online almost six months after the House Democratic majority announced it was investigating the […]

Wyoming legislative leaders voted earlier this month to explore whether the state should host a consolidated interim storage site for used nuclear reactor fuel — similar to projects underway in New Mexico and Texas. The 7-6 email vote on July 8 by the state Legislature’s Management Council paved the way for establishment of the seven-member […]

Senior leaders at the Department of Energy offered condolences Monday for the family of Yukiya Amano, who died late last week after announcing he would resign as director general of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The agency, which guards against the spread of fissile material and promotes the peaceful use of nuclear […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office on Friday posted its first new organizational chart since April 1, before the June departure of Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White. Following Anne White’s May resignation, reportedly due to strained relations with her boss, Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar, the Office of Environmental Management is […]

A federal court has awarded two southern utilities over $143 million for the U.S. government’s continued failure to meet its legal obligation to remove used reactor fuel from their nuclear power facilities. The June 12 ruling from U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith was made public on July 3. The case consolidates lawsuits […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday opened the public comment period on a new finding that most Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste could be disposed of via near-surface facilities. Stakeholders have until Sept. 20 to submit comments on the draft regulatory basis issued last week by NRC staff, according to a filing in […]

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology are taking public comments through Sept. 16 on a proposed change to the dangerous waste permit for the Hanford Site. If approved, the state permit modification would allow DOE to connect a backup waste transfer line from the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s […]

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Thursday that negotiators from the White House, Senate, and House are close to “sealing a deal” to avoid triggering automatic spending cuts in fiscal 2020. “We hear that tremendous progress has been made and they have agreed basically in principle,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill. However, […]

Honeywell, the parent company of several Department of Energy site-management contractors, posted an annual increase in sales and profits in the second quarter, after accounting for businesses the company spun off in the last year. Net income rose to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2018, while sales fell 15% to […]

Holtec International beat two competitors to take a roughly $4.8 million, firm-fixed-priced contract to design and build transportation equipment for tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, a spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said Friday. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which Battelle Memorial Institute manages for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, awarded the contract […]

FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) on Wednesday came closer to securing passage of a sought-after bailout bill for two struggling nuclear power plants in Ohio. But potential full passage of the state legislation is not expected until Aug. 1 at the earliest, which would be two weeks after the company’s Wednesday deadline. On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate […]

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that the vast majority of Greater-Than-Class C low-level radioactive waste could be disposed of via a near-surface facility. The waste, under existing federal regulations, must be interred in a geologic repository unless the federal commission approves a request for another means of disposal. The United States […]

A federal appeals court ruled this week that Bechtel National is not due reimbursement from the U.S. government for $500,000 in legal fees the company incurred prior to settling discrimination litigation brought by two former employees at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In an opinion issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Wednesday it has removed a breached cesium-137 source from a University of Washington medical research building in Seattle, clearing the way to begin remediation of the facility following its May 3 contamination.  The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency on Tuesday moved the cesium-137 source to the Pacific […]

The contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is working on a five-year strategic plan that should be submitted to the agency and made public in August or September. Workshops on the contents of the plan will be held in Carlsbad and Santa Fe, N.M., sometime in those two […]