Budget & Policy

The head of U.S. Strategic Command told lawmakers last week that nuclear modernization remains the Pentagon’s top investment priority, while signaling openness to expanding the Navy’s next-generation ballistic missile submarine fleet beyond current plans. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Adm. Richard Correll said recapitalizing all three legs of the nuclear triad is essential […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  APRIL: 21: Conference: The Energy Communities Alliance sponsors a three-day conference on advanced nuclear opportunities starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on April 21 at the Augusta, Ga. Marriott at the Convention Center.  27-29: Conference: Louisiana Nuclear Strategy and Supply Chain at […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Energy needs to figure out a waste management strategy before pushing for more nuclear power, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told DOE officials in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last week. “I can’t stress this enough; this to me is the issue we deal with first: […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), is unenthused about the Department of Energy’s interest in rebranding its Office of Environmental Management (EM), Rep Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) is fine with the idea. Exchange Monitor asked both DOE weapons complex lawmakers about their thoughts on the issue this week between Congressional hearings.  “What they […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Energy needs to figure out a waste management strategy before pushing for more nuclear power, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told DOE officials in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last week. “I can’t stress this enough; this to me is the issue we deal with first: […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:    March:  24: Hearing: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will meet to examine arms control functions at the State Department, featuring testimony from Thomas DiNanno, undersecretary for arms control and international security at the State Department. The hearing will start at 10:30 a.m. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a rule to revise the fees it charges for license applications and certain other activities.  Under the proposed March 12 rule posted in the Federal Register, NRC would establish fixed caps on its service fees. Through Executive Order 14300, NRC has replaced its non-binding milestone schedules with fixed deadlines […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States needs to reestablish a robust domestic uranium enrichment program in order to meet future nuclear goals, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said here Thursday. “When I first came onboard, I recognized this really is the biggest risk to the nuclear industry,” Garrish said of […]

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) recently laced into the Department of Energy over a recent categorical exclusion to bypass certain safety requirements for certain advanced reactors. On Feb. 2, DOE established a categorical exclusion from certain National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures. The new exclusion could effectively allow certain advanced reactors to be approved without first […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States needs to reestablish a robust domestic uranium enrichment program in order to meet future nuclear goals, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said here Thursday. “When I first came onboard, I recognized this really is the biggest risk to the nuclear industry,” Garrish said of […]

The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request is coming “relatively soon,” a senior official said last week, saying it will outline a “generational investment in the joint force.” After last year’s delayed budget rollout that irked Congress, Jay Hurst III, the department’s acting comptroller, said the forthcoming request will offer a greater level of initial […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States needs to reestablish a robust domestic uranium enrichment program in order to meet future nuclear goals, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said here Thursday. “When I first came onboard, I recognized this really is the biggest risk to the nuclear industry,” Garrish said of […]

Citizen groups that are frequent critics of the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex greeted news of a possible name change for the DOE Office of Environmental Management with a shrug. DOE Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management Tim Walsh told the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix last week that EM could soon be rebranded  as […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program could see “three to four” demonstration reactors reach criticality by July 4, DOE Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish told a Senate committee Thursday morning. Garrish, along with John Wagner, DOE Idaho National Laboratory director, and Mike Laufer, Kairos Power CEO, testified before the […]

Nevada, where memories of the Yucca Mountain saga still linger, will not seek to host one of the Department of Energy’s state lifecycle hubs, a state official told Exchange Monitor Monday. In an emailed statement to the Monitor, Fred Dilger, executive director of the Nevada Agency of Nuclear Projects, said the state will not respond […]

The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request is coming “relatively soon,” a senior official said last week, saying it will outline a “generational investment in the joint force.” After last year’s delayed budget rollout that irked Congress, Jay Hurst III, the department’s acting comptroller, said the forthcoming request will offer a greater level of initial […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold  a hearing Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time to review the Department of Energy’s  implementation of President Donald Trump’s May 23, 2025 executive orders. Testifying at the hearing will be DOE Office of Nuclear Energy head Ted Garrish, DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner and Kairos […]

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright called for Indian Point Energy Center, located in Buchanan, N.Y. to be “rebuilt and reopened” to bring down New York’s energy costs.  “New Yorkers are now paying nearly 60 percent more for electricity than the national average, and prices have risen dramatically over the past […]

March 11 marked the 15th anniversary of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami that caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to melt down.  In the aftermath of the Fukushima accident, Japan temporarily shut down all 54 of its commercial reactors. Since then, several of the reactors have been permanently shut down and are […]

PHOENIX – One year after organizers of the Waste Management Symposia experienced a slew of last minute attendee cancellations sparked by federal layoffs the annual gathering here in Downtown Phoenix seemed to enjoy a comeback. During the Monday keynote session, Fluor executive and Waste Management official Greg Meyer announced this year’s attendance was 2,800. That’s […]

PHOENIX – The Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management will soon change its name, DOE Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management Tim Walsh told the 52nd annual Waste Management Symposia here Monday morning. The new name will be something along the lines of the Office of Nuclear Restoration and Revitalization, Walsh said at the […]

Edwin Deshong is the Department of Energy Environmental Management office manager at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Erik Olds is EM manager for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and he is also acting head of the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office. Their names were misspelled in a March 10 Morning Briefing article.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 15 – 4 Wednesday morning in favor of the renomination of Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Doug Weaver. Weaver, who was confirmed by the Senate in December, was renominated by President Donald Trump on Jan. 29 to serve a new term that will expire on June 30, 2031. […]

Cumulative cost and schedule overruns have increased since 2023 for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) portfolio of major projects in the execution phase, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). As of June 2025, the NNSA’s portfolio’s cumulative cost overrun has increased from $2.1 billion in 2023 to $4.8 billion, the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a new rule that would streamline its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board adjudicatory hearings on most license applications, which include new reactors and license renewals. “This rulemaking would enable the NRC to meet these deadlines for applications even when they are the subject of hearing requests by reforming its […]

President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to “immediately cease” working with technology from artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has designated the company a “supply chain risk.” The Pentagon last July awarded Anthropic along with Google, OpenAI and xAI deals each worth up to $200 million to leverage their generative […]

Texas, home to commercial and government nuclear facilities, must wait until May to learn what Republican will square off against upstart Democrat James Talarico in November’s U.S. Senate election. Longtime GOP incumbent Sen. John Cornyn appears to have edged out state Attorney General Ken Paxton and finished far ahead of Rep. Wesley Hunt in Tuesday’s […]

Senate Armed Services Committee leadership on Tuesday criticized the Trump administration’s new National Defense Strategy, including for its absence of stance on nuclear weapons, and pressed Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, to explain the document’s priorities. “Previous National Defense Strategies, authored by both Republican and Democratic administrations, have been sober, analytical assessments of […]

The Department of Energy’s projected cost for cleaning up the radioactive waste legacy of the Cold War and Manhattan Project continues to mount, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report made public this week. “As of May 2025, EM [DOE’s Office of Environmental Management] estimated that the remaining cleanup work at all its […]

The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee voted largely along party lines Wednesday morning to advance President Donald Trump’s nominees for under-secretary of energy as well as director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) . Both Trump nominees Kyle Haustveit for under secretary of energy as well as Steve Pearce for BLM […]