Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

LIVERMORE, Ca. — The W80-4 warhead’s final design reviews are complete and its first production unit is still on track for fiscal year 2027, a senior official at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory official told the Exchange Monitor here Tuesday. “We’re in a phase called production engineering,” Brad Wallin, Livermore’s deputy director for strategic deterrence, […]

The House on Tuesday evening published the text of a continuing resolution that would mostly hold federal agencies to their 2024 budget through March 14. Federal funding will run out Friday unless the bill passes Congress and President Joe Biden (D) signs it. The House planned a vote later this week, according to a press […]

After getting bad marks from the Department of Energy during fiscal 2023 for upkeep of fire suppression systems at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a Leidos-led landlord contractor won 85% of its subjective fee from the feds during fiscal 2024. The improved performance by Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), which only took home 35% […]

Federal and state agencies on Tuesday said they did not look for a radiation source, since recovered, that went missing in New Jersey earlier this month. Spokespersons for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection all said in emails Tuesday that they did […]

The new BWX Technologies-led contractor that will oversee tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state expects to start making job offers to incumbent employees Jan. 6, the joint venture said recently. Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) expects to start extending employment offers to workers now employed by Amentum-led […]

Earnings fell at Amentum Holdings, Chantilly, Va., in fiscal 2024, although the company, which consolidated this summer with the government contracting and cyber wings of Jacobs, sees better days ahead with new  contracts entering the pipeline, such as at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington. For the company’s 2024 fiscal year ended Sept. […]

The Senate on Monday easily cleared a procedural hurdle to tee up a vote on an annual defense policy bill while the House prepared for a vote on another stopgap budget. The Senate voted 83 to 12 to end debate on a version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that drew widespread, though […]

Procurement bosses at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management could roll out the next solicitation in March, according to a DOE notice dated Monday. A draft request for proposals (RFP) for the next Infrastructure Support Services for DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky could be out as early as March, the Environmental Management Consolidated […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received at least 36 shipments of transuranic waste in November, according to its public website. It takes about two weeks for shipments to appear on the DOE website. As of Monday, the latest received shipment posted was on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving. […]

Chantilly, Va.-based Amentum Holdings, a reconfigured mega-player in the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex, is poised to release its first earning report as a publicly-traded company. Amentum Holdings was created in its current form in July through the consolidation of then privately held Amentum and the cyber and government contracting business lines of Dallas-based […]

Roger Rocha was appointed president of the prime contractor at Nevada National Security Site effective Monday, the site announced in a press release Monday. Rocha, the interim president since September when his predecessor resigned, now will take responsibility for all activities overseen by the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) at the Nevada National […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: December 17 – Earnings call: Amentum will hold an earnings call  at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its financial results for fiscal 2024.  20 – Funding for federal agencies under the 2025 Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act […]

Centrus Energy Corp. said its domestic supply chain is in place to produce uranium usable in defense programs.  A spokesperson for Centrus told the Exchange Monitor in an email last week that Centrus’ manufacturing supply chain spans 13 states and 14 major suppliers, all of which are American companies.  “That gives us the ability to […]

Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Exchange Monitor Friday that the U.S. does not need to critically test, even in a new administration. “If it’s based on purely technical considerations, we are confident that we can get the information we need staying subcritical,” Adams said. “We […]

The Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state said Friday its recent proposal to unionized guards, locked out since Thanksgiving, is not likely to get much different. The proposal voted down by Hanford Guards Union Local 21 earlier this month represented “our best and final offer,” a spokesperson for Leidos-led […]

Before government types and contractors around the Department of Energy complex clear out for the winter holidays, many still have items to check off their 2024 to-do lists. Here are a few: Dec. 19: Is the deadline for responses to an Office of Environmental Management request for information on Deactivation and Remediation work at the […]

The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the National Nuclear Security Administration’s spending cap at $24.9 billion, passed the House 281-140 Wednesday. The bill now heads to the Senate, which is still controlled by a 51-member majority of Democrats and Democratically aligned Senators in the lame duck session that will end in a matter […]

With time expiring soon on this congressional session, a longtime federal manager is still awaiting Senate confirmation to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The nomination of William “Ike” White to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in September. The full Senate has yet to […]

Mission Operations Alliance, a limited liability corporation, has filed a second bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s $2.3-billion award to an Atkins-led group at former uranium enrichment sites in Ohio and Kentucky. The latest bid protest by the Bechtel-led Mission Operations Alliance was filed Dec. 6 with the Government […]

Reps. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Scott Peters (D-Calif.) last week introduced a bill that they said would “streamline” licensing requirements for nuclear fuel recycling facilities.  Latta, the Republican, took the lead on the bill, announcing the filing Dec. 6 in a press release that linked to the text of what he has titled the Nuclear […]

In the face of what so far has been united Republican opposition, Senate Democrats have teed up a vote on Matthew Marzano’s nomination to join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  In a procedural move Tuesday, Majority Leader Sen. Charles Schuember (D-N.Y.) filed cloture on the nomination, meaning that if a majority of voting Senators agree, the […]

With field work done, a groundwater monitoring study is underway for a new low-level radioactive waste landfill being built at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE said Tuesday. Earlier this year, 30 acres were cleared and roads rerouted so subcontractor CTI and Associates can study groundwater at the site of the […]

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fell Tuesday during the Senate Republican lunch in the Capitol, media reported. According to a statement from the 82 year-old McConnell’s office, the Senate Republican leader “sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist,” but is “cleared to resume his schedule.” This most recent fall followed a few […]

A bill that would cap the amount of radioactive waste allowed Michigan awaits floor consideration this week in the state Senate after a committee vote. The state Senate’s Energy and Environment Committee last week approved an amended version of Senate Bill 1052 10-4. Michigan Sen. Darrin Camilleri (D), whose 4th Michigan Senate District is just […]

The Department of Energy said Monday it added half a dozen companies to an indefinite-quantity, indefinite contract to supply low-enriched uranium for commercial nuclear power generation.  The contract has a total value of $3.4 billion over 10 years. Each company will get at least a task order worth $2 million, DOE said in its solicitation […]