Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va. in the second quarter, which the company attributed to strong performances in government operations.  “We had exceptionally strong second quarter 2025 financial results driven by solid operational performance and pacing of work, particularly in Government Operations, which was complemented by robust bookings in both segments, leading to record […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy will brief the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board later this month on DOE management of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel. The hybrid summer meeting, announced recently by the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), is scheduled Wednesday Aug. 27. The all-day session kicks off at 8 […]

New Mexico is citing the Department of Energy and its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with violations and giving them until Sept. 24 to deliver a plan for fixing aging assets at the disposal site for transuranic waste. An order by a branch of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) gives […]

A federal safety panel wants to know how the Department of Energy will ensure nuclear safety given reduced staffing and restructuring. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on July 25 formally requested DOE brief it within 30 days on continuing to ensure safety at the department’s nuclear cleanup and weapons stockpile branches. “Per statute, […]

The top nuclear cleanup official at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site on Aug. 1  sought to ease public concern over radioactive wasp nests found last month at the federal complex near Aiken, S.C. “The U.S. Department of Energy is managing the discovery of four wasp nests with very low levels of radioactive contamination […]

The Department of Energy has signed a lease with a California-based nuclear startup for reuse of 100 acres of the Paducah Site in Kentucky for a new private-sector domestic uranium enrichment facility that could employ 140 people and be worth $1.5 billion.  Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said in a Tuesday press statement the project […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) on Thursday reported a drop in second quarter net earnings despite higher sales largely due to lower performance on the Virginia-class submarine program and aircraft carrier construction at the Newport News Shipbuilding segment. Net income fell 12% to $152 million, $3.86 earnings per share (EPS), from $173 million ($4.38 EPS) a […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico says a recent government watchdog report on rundown infrastructure at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was mostly a “retrospective” on the former prime contractor. DOE Carlsbad field manager Mark Bollinger addressed a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found key […]

Earnings rose at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the second quarter, despite what the engineering and construction company described as hesitancy in world trade markets. Over the next 12 months, Fluor expects to pursue Department of Energy contracts for work at the Savannah River Plutonium Pits Project and to support high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear fuel […]

As if coping with South Carolina’s July heat isn’t bad enough, workers at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site recently encountered a radioactive wasp nest. On July 3, a radiological control staffer “discovered a wasp nest on a stanchion near 241-127F (adjacent to Tank 17) in a controlled area,” according to an occurrence report […]

-=The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Wednesday morning in an 11-to-nine vote advanced the nomination of Tim Walsh to head the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management. Ranking member Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) led the committee Democrats in voting against Walsh and two other nominees, in an identical partisan split in something […]

The Department of Energy and Washington state have agreed to grant federal and contract managers a 75-day extension until Oct. 15 to start making glass from some of the less-radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Site at Richland, Wash. The prior deadline was Aug. 1 and DOE officials announced this latest extension in a Monday […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said last week the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General needs better cost estimates for audits of DOE’s big contractors. Four years ago, DOE’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) set up an Incurred Cost Audits Division in order to get a better handle on management and operating (M&O) contractors. […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says demolition and disposal has been completed at the old Albuquerque Complex on the grounds of the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The $8.4 million demolition, started in March 2024, was overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alabama District through an interagency […]

While the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA),  was one of hundreds of organizations affected by a massive SharePoint hack, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) was not.  “It was not,” a DOE headquarters spokesperson said Thursday in response to an Exchange Monitor question While the bug was discovered last week, Microsoft […]

Deep Isolation announced Thursday it is moving to become a public company and merge with Aspen-1 Acquisition. The Berkeley, Calif. based nuclear disposal technology company has closed a reverse merger transaction with the U.S.-based blank check company Aspen-1 Acquisition, according to Deep Isolation’s Thursday press release. A reverse merger is a transaction where a private […]

RSI EnTech, based in Oak Ridge, Tenn., has acquired Albuquerque-based Sigma Science, another well-known small contractor with the Department of Energy nuclear complex, the companies announced recently.  RSI EnTech, which is part of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) Industrial or AIS, an Alaska Native corporation, did not disclose the value of the transaction in the […]

The Department of Energy is publishing its Supplement Analysis and Amended Record of Decision for blending down roughly 2.2 metric tons of highly enriched uranium in order to make about 3.1 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The document should soon be published in the Federal […]

The Department of Energy has picked four nuclear complex sites to be used for deployment of new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. DOE announced the Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Kentucky and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will host the AI data centers, according […]

The staff at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky has completed an environmental baseline study that could set the stage for transferring 188 acres of land to local authorities for redevelopment. The 169-page study was completed by DOE contractor Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership and forwarded to Kentucky officials and the Environmental Protection Agency […]

A trio of experts told a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee Tuesday that expanded debriefings on federal contract awards might reduce the number of bid protests. More detailed debriefings, which explain to bidders the rationale behind contract awards, are being used by the Department of Defense and other agencies might consider them as well,  […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina hopes to officially open its $66 million, offsite research center next month, following a greenlight this week from the Department of Energy to begin operations. During a bimonthly meeting of the Savannah River Site (SRS) Citizens Advisory Board, Edwin DeShong, field boss for the Office of Environmental Management […]

A team led by Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions has won $240 million worth of radiological support services business with the U.S. Navy, the company announced this week. EnergySolutions said it has won a position on the Navy’s Radiological Support Services (RADMAC III) multiple-award contract, valued at up to $240 million. The contract was issued by […]

The Department of Energy has announced a new pilot program to strengthen the U.S. supply chains for nuclear fuel and support the expedition of the development of new advanced reactors. The initiative is intended to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials, while allowing the private sector to invest […]

A Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state has finished taking down a 6,000-square-foot water treatment structure near the Columbia River that supported remediation work at the property. Crews from Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup carried out the work, DOE said in a Tuesday release. The facility provided water for firefighting and […]

The House Appropriations Committee Thursday night passed the Energy & Water Development Appropriations bill for fiscal 2026, which trims the budget of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to $7.7 billion, down from more than $8.4 billion in the current fiscal year. The measure passed 35-27 in the House committee and now moves […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 59 transuranic (TRU) waste shipments last month.  That is more than the 53 shipments it received in May and is the highest total the facility has received since the 64 shipments sent to WIPP in June 2024.  Of the 59 shipments, 45 […]