Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) issued a joint statement demanding an immediate briefing on the firings in the Department of Energy by its secretary Chris Wright. “While there have been reports that the Department has halted firings of NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration] employees, we remain deeply troubled that the Department […]

Texas-based Fluor announced early Tuesday it is promoting chief operating officer Jim Breuer to chief executive officer while the current CEO and board chair David Constable will become executive chair effective May 1. Fluor, a publicly-traded company, which has a large footprint in nuclear power as well as government contracts with the Department of Energy […]

The Donald Trump administration paused on firing hundreds of federal employees that worked on the nation’s nuclear weapons for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, media outlets reported. Late last Thursday, over 300 of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) 1,800 employees were fired, including all probationary employees, through Trump’s Department of […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: February 18: Earnings call. Fluor Corp. will discuss quarterly and annual financial results with Wall Street analysts starting at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.  18: Meeting: The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management citizens advisory board or the Portsmouth Site will meet […]

White House efforts to reduce the federal workforce have hit the Department of Energy’s largest nuclear cleanup project, the Hanford Site, and it does not sit well with Democrats in Washington state. President Donald Trump is “indiscriminately firing workers at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said in a Friday Feb. 14 […]

With the White House seeking to dramatically shrink the federal workforce, sources told Exchange Monitor recently that senior executives with decades of experience in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex are leaving the government. Those who may be departing, either through taking the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) deferred resignation or other means, such as […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has posted an updated organization chart reflecting that Roger Jarrell is back with the nuclear cleanup office as a senior adviser. The organization chart is dated Feb. 12 and shows Jarrell, who served in a similar role during the early going in the first Donald Trump administration […]

The Republican chair and ranking Democrat of the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee Tuesday asked Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for quick action on Australia’s recent submarine industrial base investment payment. On Feb. 7 Australia sent the Defense Department a $500 million payment to invest in the U.S. domestic submarine industrial base […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not publish on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, in observance of Presidents’ Day.

A new Department of Energy prime contractor for liquid waste should take over Feb. 23 at Hanford Site in Washington state, the DOE manager for the nuclear cleanup property said Wednesday. The transition to BWX Technologies-led Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) from Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is nearly finished, DOE Site […]

Brian Vance, the Department of Energy’s manager of the Hanford Site in Washington state said Wednesday it is too early to tell how White House personnel policies might affect federal staff levels at the nuclear cleanup site. “At this point I can’t speculate what the numbers will look like over time,” Vance said in response […]

Kim Budil, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, said Wednesday the lab closed an office due to President Donald Trump’s executive order ending “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs in the federal government. “We did have an office that we closed,” Budil said at a hearing by the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee […]

Northern Virginia–based Leidos, a major Department of Energy contractor, ended a handsome 2004 with strong fourth quarter financial results and increased revenue across its operating segments. Net income rose 23 percent to $282 million, $2.12 earnings per share (EPS), in the quarter from $230 million ($1.66 EPS) a year ago. Excluding certain non-operating costs, adjusted […]

A representative from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Tuesday said government  urgency for plutonium pit production at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is “unnecessary” —and increases risk to workers. Dylan Spaulding, a senior scientist researching nuclear weapons production at the Union of Concerned Scientists, laid out his case […]

The U.S. government is appealing a Court of Federal Claims ruling that it should pay a combined $145 million to the operators of a trio of retired nuclear power plants in New England for the Department of Energy’s failure to remove spent fuel from the reactors. Lawyers with the U.S. attorney general’s office filed a […]

A major Department of Energy contractor recently added a new member to its board of directors, while a much-used smaller contractor in the weapons complex announced the retirement of one of its managers. Idaho-based North Wind Group said Jan. 30 that Linda Beach, the company’s project manager office director, has retired. Beach has been affiliated […]

Certain segments for the intercontinental ballistic missile Sentinel are being put on hold while the program undergoes restructuring, the Air Force said in a statement Monday. “The Air Force has ordered the Northrop Grumman Corporation to suspend the design, testing, and construction related to the Command and Launch Segment,” a spokesperson said in the statement. […]

The ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower subcommittee criticized President Donald Trump for his announcement of new steel and aluminum tariffs days after Australia sent its first increment of hundreds of millions of dollars of AUKUS submarine industrial base funding. On his way to the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump told reporters his […]

Multiple media sites reported over the weekend that members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency started working at the Department of Energy without security clearances. Chris Wright, the newly-confirmed Secretary of Energy, told CNBC Friday that three members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “have access to look around, talk to people and […]

A federal district judge in Massachusetts will continue to hold up the White House’s planned deferred resignation program for federal employees. CNN and other news outlets reported Monday evening that U.S. District judge George O’Toole, Jr. said from the bench he plans to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the latest deadline for President Donald […]

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s subcommittee on energy will hear from four Department of Energy lab directors on the labs’ ongoing research programs. The subcommittee hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2318.  The witnesses include: Kim Budil, director of […]

The area around the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio is under a winter weather advisory, while the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is under a flood watch, according to the National Weather Service forecasts. Upwards of two inches of snow could fall around Piketon, Ohio on Tuesday and Tuesday night, according to the […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services has hired Troy Eshleman, who has more than 34 years of experience in managing radioactive waste and decommissioning projects, to the newly-created position of chief operating officer. Eshleman was previously president of Oakleaf Environmental and held numerous senior management roles at EnergySolutions, Perma-Fix said in a Jan. 30 press release. “We’re looking […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 10: Hearing: A federal district judge in Massachusetts will hear arguments on a White House plan to offer deferred resignations to certain federal employees.  11: Earnings call:  Leidos will discuss its quarterly financial results during an earnings call starting at […]

The Piketon, Ohio Village Council has for now at least called off a plan, vehemently opposed by local union members, to annex 3,500 acres of land at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. The council abandoned the proposal after a Monday night meeting where perhaps 200 people showed up, according to coverage in the Scioto […]