Office of Nuclear Energy

Texas A&M University announced Tuesday it would offer land to four advanced nuclear reactor companies to build small modular reactors. According to a press release by the university, reactor manufacturers have been looking for a piece of land large enough to build clusters of reactors to generate a power supply “needed for artificial intelligence endeavors, […]

The Senate voted 59-to-38 Monday evening to confirm Chris Wright as the 17th secretary of energy. Wright is CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, a publicly-traded company that provides services and technology to the oil and natural gas industry. Wright’s confirmation was expected given he was not considered one of the more controversial picks so […]

President Donald Trump has nominated a veteran federal executive Theodore (Ted) Garrish to be the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy. Garrish has been assistant secretary for nuclear power previously, and has generally been a fixture around DOE and the nuclear energy circuit for more than three decades, according to his bio. His […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has found no big environmental harm should result from Holtec International’s proposed restart of the 800-megawatt Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Mich. Between now and March 3, the NRC is taking public comment on its draft environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact, according to a Federal Register […]

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators are reintroducing a bill to reauthorize and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation (RECA) Act. A similar bill passed the Senate last session but never made it to a vote in the House of Representatives. On Thursday Jan. 23, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) announced he and Sen. Ben Ray Luján […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) panel will hear oral arguments Feb. 12 on the potential restart of the  Holtec Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel proceedings in Rockville, Md., will be open to the public. Information on how to listen to the oral arguments can be found here. […]

The White House this week invited employees of the federal government, including those connected with nuclear energy, weapons and cleanup, to take something akin to a buyout, by submitting a “deferred resignation.” . In a memo dubbed “fork in the road” the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said federal employees can submit deferred resignations by […]

Department of Energy defense-nuclear programs will keep their 2024 budgets for almost half of fiscal year 2025, under the year’s second continuing resolution, signed into law Saturday. President Joe Biden (D) signed the bill early Saturday, the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, hours after federal funding had technically lapsed under the previous […]

A bill that would create a nuclear waste agency outside the Department of Energy has “good bones” and could be a rallying point for the nuclear industry, a federal official said Wednesday. The bill, filed Sept. 24 by Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and August Pfleuger (R-Texas), is the latest legislative pitch to remove management of spent […]

A bill that would create a nuclear waste agency outside the Department of Energy has “good bones” and could be a rallying point for the nuclear industry, a federal official said Wednesday. The bill, filed Sept. 24 by Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and August Pfleuger (R-Texas), is the latest legislative pitch to remove management of […]

The Department of Energy’s drive to site an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel was designed to survive the consequences of U.S. elections and seesawing annual appropriations, an agency official said Thursday. “We’re creating a process that is agnostic of politics,” Marla Morales, director of the Office of Consent Based Siting in the Department […]

WASHINGTON — After passing the House and being rushed to the Senate, a three-month continuing resolution was agreed to by both chambers days before the end of fiscal year 2024. The bill, voted on Wednesday as Congress prepared to leave town until November, passed 341-82 in the House, with unanimous Democratic approval, 132 Republicans for […]

The Department of Energy on Oct. 2 will host a webinar for people interested in shaping a request for information about conducting a series of violent tests on a container being developed to transport spent nuclear fuel. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the webinar on Monday in a press release. On Friday, the office […]

The Department of Energy on Oct. 2 will host a webinar for people interested in shaping a request for information about conducting a series of violent tests on a container being developed to transport spent nuclear fuel.  DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the webinar on Monday in a press release. On Friday, the office […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Groups helping the Department of Energy define both consent and who may give it, when it comes to storage of spent nuclear fuel, will give the agency a progress report in December, an official said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. That should give DOE time to incorporate feedback from the 13 […]

WASHINGTON — After lurching back to the House floor Wednesday, the House speaker’s six-month continuing resolution again failed to rally enough support to pass the chamber. The bill went down 202-220, with 14 Republican holdouts, two Republicans voting present and three Democratic supporters. It was mostly clean for the Department of Energy, aside from an […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Groups helping the Department of Energy define both consent and who may give it, when it comes to storage of spent nuclear fuel, will give the agency a progress report in December, an official said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. That should give DOE time to incorporate feedback from the 13 […]

During a time of much political division in the United States, Democrats and Republicans both support nuclear energy, but lack concensus on nuclear weapons, according to their 2024 party platforms. Now that the Democrats and GOP have concluded their respective national conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee, Exchange Monitor scanned their policy platforms with an eye […]

The Department of Energy next year plans to ask potential host communities of a future federal interim storage for spent nuclear fuel to step forward, an official said Thursday. But ahead of that request for information, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy plans to inform state governments about its search, Paul Murray, deputy assistant secretary for […]

A transformer fire was put out Tuesday afternoon at the Vogtle nuclear complex in Waynesboro, Ga., Southern Co. utility Georgia Power said in a news release, saying the incident did not threaten public safety. The alert was declared around noon Tuesday, which prompted notification of the both state agencies and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

Publicly-traded companies involved with Department of Energy nuclear programs were not exempt from Monday’s stock market nosedive, although most rallied by the close of trading Thursday. Companies that are big players in both the DOE Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Nuclear Energy posted per-share declines on Monday, […]

In a notice published online Tuesday, the Department of Energy formalized a $1.5 billion loan needed to restart the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant next year. DOE announced its guarantee of the loan to plant operator Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., in a Federal Register notice. The agency conditionally approved the loan in March. Holtec has said […]

Earnings more than doubled year-over-year at Centrus, Bethesda, Md., in the second quarter, during which the company’s flagship uranium brokerage business almost tripled, according to a press release.  The company’s quarterly earnings call was scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Centrus often has what it sometimes calls lumpy quarters, where uranium fuel orders […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meets on Thursday, Aug. 29 near the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to review DOE’s plans to dispose of spent nuclear fuel.  The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) plans a hybrid in-person/online meeting from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in North Augusta, S.C., the board […]

Senate appropriators this week approved a roughly $1.7-billion budget for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, more than requested but less than what House appropriators recommended. The fiscal year 2025 budget, approved unanimously on Thursday by the Senate Appropriations committee as part of a larger Energy and Water appropriations act, is down $10 […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday started market research for high-profile, public demonstrations of the many severe kinds of abuse transport systems for spent nuclear fuel are designed to withstand. The agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Wednesday released a request for information about a wide range of things it might need to conduct what […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday started market research for high-profile, public demonstrations of the many severe kinds of abuse transport systems for spent nuclear fuel are designed to withstand. The agency’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Wednesday released a request for information about a wide range of things it might need to conduct what […]

After hours of debate on more than 60 amendments this week, the House of Representatives canceled a planned vote on several 2025 appropriations bills, including the one that funds the Department of Energy. Media reported Wednesday that a fractious, razor-thin Republican majority could not wrangle enough votes in their own party to pass the bills […]

A subprogram responsible for consent-based siting of spent nuclear fuel from power plants would drop by more than half if a bill approved this week by the House Appropriations committee becomes law. The Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) within the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would get $25 million for fiscal year 2025, […]

The Department of Energy seeks industry input about a long-term contract to design, build, license and operate a federally owned interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel, according to a notice released last week. Responses to the request for information are due Sept. 6, the Friday after the U.S. Labor Day holiday. DOE released the […]