Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The Department of Energy’s cleanup office has resumed its efforts to control a longstanding hexavalent chromium plume at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, local managers said last week. Partial resumption of what DOE calls its “interim measure” started Sept. 30 with up to to 3 injection wells and 3 extraction wells, Jessica […]

KNOXVILLE — Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told the Monitor here Tuesday that “regardless” of what happens election night Congress needs to get the budget done by Dec. 20. “It’s my hope that we can conference our appropriations bills with the Senate and get a budget passed by Dec. 20,” Fleischmann told the Monitor. “I think […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it has removed cesium and solids from about 2,000 gallons of radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state in preparation in connection with the Test Bed Initiative demonstration project. In a news release, DOE said Hanford tank contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has pretreated the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s in-house legal advisors this month recommended tweaking the agency’s mission statement to clarify that regulation does not unnecessarily limit beneficial civilian use of nuclear energy. Separately, NRC’s Office of the Executive Director, helmed by the agency’s top civil servant, recommended a slightly different change to the mission statement. NRC’s Office of […]

Residents of South Bruce, Ontario, Canada, on Monday voted to become a potential host site of a deep geologic repository for nuclear waste. The difference between consenting to the repository and not came down to fewer than 100 votes, according to official results dated Tuesday. Consent carried the day though, with 1,604 voters for the […]

A documentary film, the “Half-life of Memory — the hidden legacy of Rocky Flats, America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory,” opens in Denver soon. As part of the Denver Film Festival, the film by Jeff Gipe whose father worked at the plant, has showings set between Nov. 2 and Nov. 8 at the Sie Film Center, […]

While the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Eddy County, N.M., received 490 shipments during fiscal 2024, DOE envisions a more modest 425 shipments during fiscal 2025, top managers said during a public meeting last week. For the short term at least, the rate of defense-related transuranic waste shipments is “probably going to […]

Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., had a net loss in the third quarter, which the uranium broker and enrichment technology developer attributed in part to costs associated with a Department of Energy uranium contract. Centrus lost about $5 million, or $0.30 a share, in the third quarter, compared with earnings of about $8.2 million or […]

Community members from Santa Fe, N.M., marched Friday to protest a project by Los Alamos National Laboratory that would build a power line through the Caja del Rio Plateau, local media reported. Pueblo tribe members and other community members walked through Santa Fe, from the County Administration Building to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

Vehicle mishaps at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory complex continue to worry the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, according to a staff report dated Oct.4 and posted on the board’s website. There were four onsite wrecks during September, including one involving an overturned dump truck, although no one was injured, according to the […]

Judge rejects motion to reconsider ruling on Hanford liquid waste contract A federal judge recently rejected a motion to reconsider a September ruling upholding the Department of Energy’s award of a liquid waste contract, potentially worth $45-billion, to a team led by BWX Technologies. Judge Marian Horn in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims rejected […]