Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A recent fire that burned large swaths of Ventura County, Calif., has not damaged the Santa Susana Field Laboratory or the portion of the site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy, a DOE spokesperson said late Friday. DOE’s Energy Technology Engineering Center, a 90-acre chunk of Santa Susana where DOE and its forerunner […]

Two members of the House Appropriations Committee, one a Washington state Republican who voted to impeach Donald Trump, and the other a member of congress from Ohio for more than 40 years, are still clinging to small leads in their races. Based on figures filed with the Washington secretary of state office Saturday night, Rep. […]

The Washington Department of Ecology Nuclear Waste Program’s promoted Eddie Holbrook to be its new permanent deputy program manager, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. Holbrook, acting in the No. 2 nuclear role for the state agency since February, introduced himself to the Hanford Advisory Board during a meeting Wednesday. “Holbrook has eight years of experience […]

The chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies to cease “partisan work” until a new Congress and President arrive in January. “As a traditional part of the peaceful transfer of power, the NRC should immediately stop work on any partisan or controversial item under consideration, consistent […]

A joint venture led by BWX Technologies started its transition Oct. 21 to take charge of the roughly 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical liquid waste at the Department of Energy Hanford Site in Washington state, an advisory board heard Wednesday. The 120-day transition to Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) should be […]

The U.S. Space Force tested the intercontinental ballistic missile’s ability to strike targets with multiple warheads in a Minuteman III launch Tuesday at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. According to a press release by the Space Force base, an airborne command post controlled the  intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test. “These tests are demonstrative of what […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries Wednesday named Kari Wilkinson, currently president of the company’s Ingalls Shipbuilding segments, as the incoming president of its nuclear shipbuilding operations in Virginia effective Jan. 1, 2025. The Newport News segment is HII’s largest, generating $6.1 billion in sales in 2023. Newport News has more than 26,000 shipbuilders. The business builds and […]

Almost every incumbent lawmaker representing big nuclear constituencies will return to Washington next year along with Donald Trump, who was reelected president Tuesday night, media including the Associated Press reported. Along with a convincing victory for Trump, who had secured 277 electoral votes as of Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press, U.S. voters also […]

Federal judges on Monday worried that the owner of California’s last nuclear power plant has not checked the condition of a reactor core for more than a decade but questioned whether environmentalists had grounds to force such a check. “Your argument from practicality and so on is really disturbing,” Marsha Berzon, a senior judge in […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory looked at ‘every possible alternative’ for building a powerline through Caja del Rio Plateau, the lab’s top federal manager wrote in a local newspaper over the weekend. “After years of study, debate and consultation that included the brightest minds at one of the world’s premier science and engineering laboratories, we […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday proposed excluding waste from new plutonium pits and some nuclear-weapons waste generated before 1970 from part of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The restrictions, which would apply only to Panel 12 at the deep-underground facility, were part of DOE’s Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan for the Waste Isolation Pilot […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the third quarter, which the company attributed on Monday to contract wins and higher production in naval nuclear components and microreactors. Net earnings for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 were $69.6 million, or $0.76 a share, up 15% from $60.4 million, or $0.66 a share, in […]

A federal district judge in Washington state agreed last month to grant a motion by the Hanford Guards Union directing the Department of Energy’s landlord contractor at the Hanford Site to engage in arbitration. U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Eastern Washington ruled Oct. 17 that Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions be compelled to arbitrate […]

Jason Kemp will take over as resident inspector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board announced Monday. According to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) press release, Kemp’s duties as resident inspector would include advising on safety conditions for the defense nuclear facilities at Los Alamos, […]

The U.S. and the Republic of Korea reached a memorandum of understanding on principles concerning nuclear exports and cooperation on Friday Nov. 1, DOE said Monday. According to an agency press release, the countries as of Monday had yet to complete their final review of the memorandum of understanding (MOU).  According to DOE’s release, the […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Advisory Board meets this Wednesday in Pasco, Wash., to discuss progress on the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant and other cleanup issues at the former plutonium production complex. In addition to a presentation from DOE’s Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance, the advisory board will also hear from managers with the […]

Howard Markle was appointed vice president and general manager of the BWX Technologies Nuclear Operations Group’s Lynchburg facility, the company said Friday. Markle now will be responsible for operations of the Lynchburg facility, a little less than 200 miles southwest by road from Washington, which makes the reactor cores for nuclear powered warships and submarines. […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: November 04 – BWX Technologies Third quarter earnings call. Listen-only access for the public at the company’s website. 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. 05 – U.S. Federal election, including for President. 08 – Fluor Corp. Third quarter earnings call. […]

The Department of Energy’s award to a BWX Technologies-led joint venture of the new remediation contract for the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York continues positive procurement news for the Lynchburg, Va., nuclear services company. The company was scheduled to discuss its third quarter financial results Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time in a […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Dennis Carr, chief operating officer at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, told the Monitor here last week that the team’s parent company Fluor would compete for a follow-on management contract at Savannah River. In late September, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) published a special notice with a draft request for proposal (RFP) […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ strong momentum in 2024 came to a halt in the third quarter due to challenges in shipbuilding and notably delays in an award from the Navy for submarine work. Net income in the quarter slid 32% to $101 million, or $2.56 earnings a share from $148 million or $3.70 a share a […]

To avoid delaying construction of a plutonium pit factory in South Carolina and still comply with a judicial order in an antinuclear coalition’s lawsuit, the federal government could cancel a companion pit plant in New Mexico, an antinuclear activist said Wednesday. In September, the National Nuclear Security Administration lost a lawsuit against a group of […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Orano-USA has started the property transfer and licensing process for its planned uranium enrichment plant at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, the site’s top federal cleanup official said here Wednesday. Orano-USA announced in September that Oak Ridge was its “preferred site” for its uranium enrichment plant that it would build […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Consolidated Nuclear Security submitted a new rebaseline for the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the facility’s project manager said here. The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages. “There is a new rebaseline that’s been […]

There would be no significant environmental impact from keeping long-stranded transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory at Waste Control Specialists’ disposal facility in Texas for another two years, the There Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The commission published its formal finding of no significant impact in the Federal Register about five months after […]