Morning Briefing - February 01, 2018
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February 01, 2018

Perry to Visit to Savannah River Site This Week

By ExchangeMonitor

Energy Secretary Rick Perry will pay his first visit to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., today and Friday, the Department of Energy said.

A DOE spokesperson in Washington declined Wednesday to provide Perry’s agenda for the two-day visit.

Two people who were aware of the visit Wednesday said as far as they knew, Perry had not scheduled many — if any — meetings with civil servants and contractors at the sprawling South Carolina site.

The Savannah River Site is important for both DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Environmental Management (EM). The facility is home both to NNSA separation of tritium and deuterium for nuclear warheads and to a substantial Cold War liquid-waste cleanup overseen by EM.

Savannah River also houses the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility: a plant designed to turn surplus weapon-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel as part of an arms-control pact with Russia. The Donald Trump administration, like the Barack Obama administration, has proposed canceling the plant, which is being built by CB&I AREVA MOX Services.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is the site’s management and operations contractor, under an expiring 10-year deal worth about $9.5 billion, including options. The Fluor-led company’s contract runs out on July 31 and DOE has not yet started competition for a follow-on deal. The NNSA’s tritium work, which was projected to cost roughly $300 million in fiscal 2018, is part of this contract.

The Office of Environmental Management manages the site’s liquid-waste cleanup under a separate contract worth roughly $4.5 billion. Savannah River EcoManagement, a team led by BWXT Technical Services Group and featuring Bechtel National and Honeywell International, is supposed to take over that work under a contract award announced last year. However, the two losing bidding teams lodged protests with the Government Accountability Office, and the dispute is not expected to wrap up until February or March.

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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

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