Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

After beginning physical decommissioning at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in 2019, NorthStar Group Services has nearly completed its work at the site, a company executive said recently. In a Monday article from local Vermont publication Manchester Journal, Scott State, NorthStar executive chairman and chief nuclear officer, said the 10-year-long project is “99% done.” […]

Uranium recovery at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will resume next month when the site’s H Canyon facility restarts head end operations, meaning it will begin the initial processing stage.  During an SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) meeting on Tuesday, the site’s DOE Office of Environmental Management executive Edwin Deshong […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup wing recently delayed or paused a couple of contract procurements, participants in the National Cleanup Workshop heard here Sept 15. The Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup solicitation in New Mexico has been delayed, as well as the Paducah Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract in Kentucky, said Aaron Deckard, […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is shopping for a contractor to support security services at its Oak Ridge Site facilities in Tennessee, according to a Tuesday procurement notice. “The mission of the support service contractor is to provide an array of site-wide security support functions that support Safeguards and Security responsibilities in a […]

An AtkinsRéalis company, in a joint venture with Aecon Group Inc, was awarded a three-year, $1.7 billion contract Monday for a refurbishment project at Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) Pickering nuclear plant. Candu Energy, AtkinsRéalis’ subsidiary company that designs and builds Canada Deuterium Uranium – or CANDU – reactors, will start work on Unit 5 as […]

K & K Industries has won a $13.65 million contract to construct a weapons release system storage facility supporting the Air Force’s B-21 Raider program at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. The firm-fixed-price award, announced by the Defense Department Sept. 21, has a total cumulative face value of $14.99 million. Work will be performed in […]

The Pentagon’s ongoing review of guidance for employing nuclear weapons is drawing scrutiny over whether it could expand the role of lower-yield and theater nuclear weapons in regional conflicts. The review, described by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby at an August conference as a “relook” at nuclear weapons employment guidance, is focused on […]

Atlanta-based Georgia Power plans to uprate its Vogtle and Hatch plants in Georgia through a new agreement with Google, the utility said Monday. The two entities’ agreement, which is subject to approval by the Georgia Public Service Commission, would support uprates that would bring about 96 megawatts to the electric grid, according to the Georgia […]

The Hanford Site’s Tank-side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system is back in operation for the first time since February, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said in a Sept. 15 press release. DOE contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) suspended operations Feb. 25 because Tank AP-106 was too full to take more […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The head of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Field Office in Richland, Wash., said at a conference here last week it would be feasible to treat 80% of the Hanford Site’s underground tank waste by 2040. Hanford Field Office Manager Ray Geimer made the remark during a Sept. 15 panel discussion during […]

Northrop Grumman has opened a new manufacturing facility in Utah as the Air Force increases B-21 Raider production capacity, backed by billions of dollars in procurement funding for the next-generation nuclear-capable bomber. The company opened its 845,000-square-foot East Gate 3 facility in Layton, Utah, Sept. 9., according to a company release. The expansion brings Northrop’s […]

South Korea-based Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group (Samsung C&T) made a strategic investment of up to $100 million in Kairos Power, the companies said in a Monday press release. According to the release, the $100 million will be made up of a “direct investment and in-kind engineering services,” which will be subject to regulatory […]

Bechtel and TerraPower have parted ways on the Natrium reactor project in Kemmerer, Wyo. after failing to come to an agreement on the next stages, according to public disclosure papers filed in Virginia. The news was included in a Sept. 15 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notification, in which Bechtel informed Fairfax County […]

Senate and House Democratic appropriators seek more clarity from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Chair Ho Nieh on the recent overarching changes at the agency initiated by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14300. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), respective ranking members of the Senate and House Energy and Water Development Appropriations subcommittees, […]

JRC Integrated Systems is receiving a $47.4 million contract modification to provide technical and engineering support for the Navy’s Nuclear-armed, Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) program through 2030. The $47,393,736 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification, which includes optional line items, was awarded by Strategic Systems Programs under previously awarded contract N0003026C7001, according to the Pentagon’s contracts page on Sept. […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  September: 22: Hybrid Meeting: Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board meets starting at 9 a.m. Eastern Time at Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, 4345 Trolley Line Road, Aiken, South Carolina 29801. 23: Hybrid meeting: The West Valley Citizen Task Force meets starting at 6:30 […]

The Department of Energy’s environmental contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has started building its final supersized Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the nuclear property near Aiken, S.C. Like its half-dozen jumbo-sized SDU predecessors, SDU-12 will be 43 feet high, 375 feet in diameter, and have a total capacity of 34.5 million […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a Wednesday hearing will take its turn to discuss recent developments in the United States efforts to close the back end of the fuel cycle. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in Room 406 in the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C. This Senate committee […]

The Virginia State Corporation Commission has added two new  in-person hearings in November to hear more from the public about NextEra Energy’s proposal to merge with Dominion Energy. The commission previously ordered a hearing to discuss the proposed $67 billion merger between the two utility holding companies on Nov. 5. However, it announced Sept. 9 […]

Congressional Democrats have introduced a resolution seeking to block a U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation agreement, citing concerns about uranium enrichment and limits on international inspections. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), and Don Beyer (D-Va.), introduced the joint resolution […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should use private-sector investment and technology to expand inertial confinement fusion capabilities for nuclear weapons research, according to a Washington Post op-ed published Sept. 17. Abigail Remler, an adviser to the Special Competitive Studies Project, and David Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, argue that NNSA could […]

The Department of Energy is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from vendors that could potentially help recover valuable critical materials from nuclear cleanup sites. DOE expects it can reclaim rare earth elements and other materials important to industry from Cold War and Manhattan Project sites overseen by the department’s Office of Environmental Management, according to […]

The state of Tennessee, the United Kingdom and the federally owned utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have agreed to work together on bringing commercial fusion energy online. According to the Monday announcement, the three entities will additionally collaborate to work on fusion supply chain needs, workforce development and a regulatory pathway that could scale the […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – Someone who mistakenly stumbled into the Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop without an agenda might be excused for confusing it with a conference on artificial intelligence (AI). Many conversations from the podium and in the hallways here this week have focused to some extent on the potential and perils of AI. […]

Senate and House Democratic appropriators are seeking answers from Secretary of Energy Chris Wright over Project Velocity, a DOE effort to revise operating directives at national laboratories and nuclear security sites. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking members of the Senate and House Energy and Water Development Appropriations subcommittees, said in […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working to continue navigating the management of Greater than Class C (GTCC) waste through recent rulemaking, Commissioner Matthew Marzano said Wednesday here. The NRC Commissioner opened up the third and final day of the Nuclear Cleanup Workshop with a keynote address focused on the agency in the […]