Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy received hundreds of responses to a request for information, which closed earlier this month, seeking stakeholder input on placing data centers on DOE nuclear sites, officials said this week. The request for information that went out in April closed May 7, not only drew hundreds of responses, but the comments were […]

EnergySolutions, Salt Lake City, said Tuesday it is planning to seek an Early Site Permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the shuttered Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin. The company is collaborating with WEC Energy Group (WEC) to explore new nuclear generation in Wisconsin, EnergySolutions said in a press release. WEC is a Milwaukee-based […]

Shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) appear to be back at a normal pace, with the facility receiving 49 waste shipments in April. The numbers, posted on the public WIPP website as of May 15, would represent the highest monthly total since the 50 shipments the disposal site received in […]

The Senate Tuesday voted 52-to-44 to confirm James Danly, a former member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to be deputy secretary of energy. The vote was along party lines with four senators, two Democrats and two Republicans, not voting. Danly, an attorney and U.S. Army veteran from Tennessee, was nominated to the position by […]

BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., said this week that Rob LeMasters, who joined the company a decade ago as a board of directors’ member, has stepped down as chief financial officer and executive vice president. The current chief accounting officer, Mike Fitzgerald, becomes interim CFO, BWXT said in a Monday press release. Fitzgerald joined BWXT three […]

A federal appeals court has told the White House, and plaintiffs suing the government over mass layoffs, to file arguments next week on the Donald Trump administration’s “emergency motion” to block a lower court’s temporary restraining order. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Tuesday May 13 told plaintiffs, including the American Federation of […]

Earnings rose at AtkinsRéalis Group, Montreal, Canada, in the first quarter, which the engineering services and nuclear company attributed to various contracts for nuclear power, transportation and infrastructure. Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were Cnd $69.1 million (US $.49.5 million) or Cnd $0.39 a share (US $0.28) up from Cnd $45.5 […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization has announced a multi-contractor team, including WSP Canada, to design the deep underground spent fuel repository planned for Ontario. In a Monday press release, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said it has chosen a team of WSP Canada, Peter Kiewit Sons, Hatch Ltd., Thyssen Mining Construction of Canada Ltd. […]

A center for processing and storing transuranic waste could start up at the Hanford Site in 2033, Department of Energy and Washington state officials said during a public meeting last week. DOE and Washington state Department of Ecology managers on May 7 summarized plans to build and run a proposed Contact-Handled Waste Processing Treatment and […]

Work crews at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio have started removing asbestos-laden outer panels from the mammoth X-333 Process Building at the old uranium enrichment complex. Workers are removing 16,000 transite panels from the X-333 Process Building over the next year and a half, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in […]

Candice Robertson, who formerly led the Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup branch, has taken an executive position with BWX Technologies, the company said Wednesday. Along with Robertson, who led the DOE Office of Environmental Management for much of the past year, BWXT also announced former DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) executive Linda […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on April 30 favorably reported out two of President Donald Trump’s Department of Energy nominees. The committee endorsed Preston Wells Griffith to be undersecretary of energy and Dario Gil to be undersecretary of energy for science. Both nominations are being placed on the Senate executive calendar, one of […]

WASHINGTON – Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee, told Secretary of Energy Chris Wright Wednesday she has not received a “single response” to letters she sent him regarding firings at his agency. Kaptur said she and other lawmakers, over the past five months, on a “bipartisan” and […]

The Energy Communities Alliance has given its qualified support to a Department of Energy initiative to encourage development of data centers, used for artificial intelligence, on weapons complex installations. “ECA supports the AI infrastructure initiative and DOE’s commitment to engage with local public officials as a channel for DOE to create private sector deployment opportunities,” […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the company partly attributed to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s intent to award it a sole source contract for an advanced uranium enrichment project. “We had another quarter of strong commercial backlog growth and see robust opportunities for growth in our government markets, […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, which recently completed its long run as tank farm contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, is looking for a subcontractor to help audit the books. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), a joint venture of Amentum and Atkins, said in a federal procurement notice it is […]

The Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has deactivated the above-ground floors of a contaminated building at the Y-12 National Security Complex and is filling up the basement at the facility, DOE said last week. The DOE Office of Environmental Management contractor, United Cleanup Oak Ridge, is pouring more […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is putting liquid waste operations on hold due to a planned maintenance outage that started April 28. The annual break in operations is expected to last until July and should help increase liquid waste processing at the 310-square-mile site in South Carolina, a Savannah River Site (SRS) spokesperson […]

AtkinsRealis US Nuclear has added three industry veterans —Chris Kirchoff, Thomas Roddey, and Kirk Brower—to its business development management team, the company said recently. Kirchoff has been appointed vice president of business development and chief growth officer for the AtkinsRealis affiliate based in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He has more than 35 years of experience working […]

Earnings rose at Amentum, Chantilly, Va., in its second quarter, which the government contractor partly attributed Wednesday to demand for nuclear work and divestiture of a non-core asset.   Net earnings for the second quarter ended March 28 were $4 million, or $0.02 a share, up from a loss of $41 million or $0.46 a share, […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said despite proposed budget cuts, there should be no slowdown in remediation at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites. “Through doing things smarter, there won’t be any slowdown” in nuclear cleanup at Cold War and Manhattan Project sites, Wright told Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) during a Congressional hearing Wednesday. The […]

The Department of Energy is in no rush to transfer operation of the new Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to the new liquid waste contractor from the builder of the multi-billion facility, the Hanford Site Advisory Board heard Wednesday. Bechtel National, which in December 2000 acquired the contract to build the plant to convert  liquid […]

The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition announced April 25 it elected Katherine Peretick as chair of the coalition and Stacey Paradis as vice chair. The two will lead the commission in its aim to build a nuclear waste management program to dispose of spent nuclear fuel stored at both operating and shutdown nuclear plants nationwide, according […]

The Donald Trump administration released the fiscal 2026 budget proposal and topline discretionary funding request Friday, calling for a 13% increase in defense spending and a 22.6% decrease in non-defense spending. The request, obtained by the Exchange Monitor, said the Department of Defense would “re-establish deterrence” in coordination with Trump’s “peace through strength” agenda. The […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday it has completed its 2,000-gallon demonstration of the so-called Test Bed Initiative at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In a press release, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said it has sent two shipments of treated, low-level radioactive tank waste to commercial disposal sites in Texas and Utah. The […]

Earnings fell at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the first quarter, which the engineering and construction company that serves the Department of Energy and other federal clients attributed mostly to its non-government work. Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 reflected a loss of $241 million, or $1.42 a share, down from earnings of […]

During the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term he has moved aggressively to reduce the federal workforce and the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex has not been immune. Trump’s second term, which started Jan. 20, hit the 100-day mark this week on April 30.  A document shared with Exchange Monitor in […]