Budget & Policy

Once again, the Congressional Budget Office’s biennial cost estimate for the 10 years of nuclear modernization spending has arrived just in time for the yearly federal budget debate on Capitol Hill. The latest congressionally mandated report from the non-partisan office covers planned spending from 2021 through 2030, during which Pentagon and Department of Energy programs […]

The former Sandia National Laboratories director nominated by President Joe Biden to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration was scheduled for a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Jill Hruby was slated to appear alongside three other Biden administration nominees, including Frank Rose, the man nominated to be her deputy at […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: May 27 – Confirmation hearing: Senate Armed Services Committee. Nominations — Hruby, Rose, Rosenblum, Maier. Includes Jill Hruby, nominees for administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Frank Rose, nominee for principal deputy administrator […]

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a reliable vote against the nuclear-modernization status quo in the House Armed Services Committee, told disarmament advocates this week that the Joe Biden administration should pause development of the next U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile. It was one of two steps Garamendi said Biden should take as part of the administration’s nuclear […]

The Department of Energy’s goal of establishing a “clean energy standard” for zero-carbon sources of electricity will ensure that demand for nuclear power stays high in the face of mounting plant closures, the Secretary of Energy said this week. “The number one solution the [Joe Biden] administration believes is very important for nuclear’s future is […]

A federal judge said he is concerned that FirstEnergy may have obstructed justice in an ongoing bribery investigation by filing a separate lawsuit against a whistleblower who raised issues about the company’s compliance with federal corporate accountability law. While the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Ohio “expresses no opinion” on the ongoing investigation […]

The existing nuclear fleet is essential in giving the Joe Biden administration time to expand the capacity of renewable generating sources, the White House’s climate czar said Tuesday. Nuclear energy provides a “very stable baseload” of electricity generation, national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said at a virtual event hosted by the Columbia University Center on […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission isn’t looking too closely at disposal or repurposing of spent nuclear fuel from future advanced reactors, the agency’s fuel safety chief told a National Academies panel Tuesday. NRC won’t regulate the back end of the advanced fuel cycle until it has “a firmer idea of what advanced reactor developers are looking […]

A Northern Arizona University researcher, Michael Ketterer, recently reasserted findings from 2019 that radioactive contamination from the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio poses a concern for people outside the fence, and local leaders are using his analysis to press for federal money to replace a shuttered school. In an April 28 letter to […]

While the numbers won’t be out for another week, House and Senate committees used Wednesday hearings to press Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and other DOE officials about the progress of nuclear cleanup. During a four-hour hearing before the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, Granholm said the Joe Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget request […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is often described in Congressional hearings and other forums as one the most costly and complex cleanup projects in North America — if not the world. But it is this complexity that oddly appeals to David Bowen, who became the Washington state Department of Ecology’s nuclear […]

In a budget hearing that was mostly a best-of, a couple Senators asked the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration about alternative means of meeting the mission objectives of the day, including by producing pits at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or buying, instead of enriching, uranium needed to produce weapons-tritium in the […]

The Department of Energy’s goal of establishing a “clean energy standard” for zero-carbon sources of electricity will ensure that demand for nuclear power stays high in the face of mounting plant closures, the Secretary of Energy said Wednesday. “The number one solution the [Joe Biden] administration believes is very important for nuclear’s future is to […]

While the numbers won’t be out for another week, House and Senate committees used Wednesday hearings to press Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and other DOE officials about the progress of nuclear cleanup. During a four-hour hearing before the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, Granholm said the Joe Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget request […]

House and Senate subcommittees were scheduled to hold hearings about the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2022 budget request on Wednesday, even though the White House was not expected to release the full budget request until May 27. The Senate-side hearing will be the first of the season dedicated to the civilian nuclear weapons programs managed […]

The existing nuclear fleet is essential in giving the Joe Biden administration time to expand the capacity of renewable generating sources, the White House’s climate czar said Tuesday. Nuclear energy provides a “very stable baseload” of electricity generation, national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said at a virtual event hosted by the Columbia University Center on […]

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a reliable vote against the nuclear-modernization status quo in the House Armed Services Committee, told disarmament advocates Monday that the Joe Biden administration should pause development of the next U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile. It was one of two steps Garamendi said Biden should take as part of the administration’s nuclear posture […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 2021 May 17 – Arms Control Association virtual meeting: Smarter Options on U.S. Nuclear Modernization. Includes remarks from Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), member, House Armed Services Committee. 2:00 p.m. – 3 p.m. Eastern time. Register […]

Early in-person voting started last week and runs through May 29, for the June 1 special election in New Mexico’s Congressional District 1, which is home to the Sandia National Laboratories. The seat was vacated by Rep. Debra Haaland (D), she was confirmed as the Joe Biden administration’s secretary of interior on March 16. The special election […]

The Joe Biden administration will start its nuclear posture review soon and work on it into the fall, there’s no new Minuteman III life-extension study at the Pentagon and bad welds on some missile tubes won’t delay delivery of the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, witnesses testified late Wednesday before a Senate Armed Services panel. […]

As part of a flurry of Department of Energy appointments on Monday, the Joe Biden administration made nuclear engineering professor Kathryn Huff the acting head of DOE’s nuclear energy office. Biden appointed Kathryn Huff principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy, second in command at the DOE office that oversees research on nuclear energy and […]

Early in-person voting started last week and runs through May 29, for the June 1 special election in New Mexico’s Congressional District 1, which is home to the Sandia National Laboratories. The seat was vacated by Rep. Debra Haaland (D), she was confirmed as the Joe Biden administration’s secretary of interior on March 16. The […]

The Joe Biden administration will start its nuclear posture review soon and work on it into the fall, there’s no new Minuteman III life-extension study at the Pentagon and bad welds on some missile tubes won’t delay delivery of the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, witnesses testified late Wednesday before a Senate Armed Services panel. […]

The Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee was scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday evening on the budget needs and posture of U.S. nuclear forces. Vice Adm. Johnny Wolf, the Navy’s director of strategic systems programs, and Gen. Timothy Ray, commander of Air Force global strike command, are the scheduled headline witnesses. The hearing will […]

The Department of Energy was scheduled to brief a local agency-chartered advisory group on Wednesday about plans for a new landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.  A DOE draft record of decision is expected in July on the proposed Environmental Management Disposal Facility, designed to handle low-risk construction material from building demolition at […]

Early in-person voting started last week and runs through May 29, for the June 1 special election in New Mexico’s Congressional District 1, which is home to the Sandia National Laboratories. The seat was vacated by Rep. Debra Haaland (D), she was confirmed as the Joe Biden administration’s secretary of interior on March 16. The […]

As part of a flurry of Department of Energy appointments on Monday, the Joe Biden administration made nuclear engineering professor Kathryn Huff the acting head of DOE’s nuclear energy office. Biden appointed Kathryn Huff principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy, second in command at the DOE office that oversees research on nuclear energy and […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 10: Jacobs holds a quarter earnings call at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. 11: Online briefings start on the draft request for proposals for the new Savannah River Site operations contract. 12: Hearing: Senate Armed Services strategic […]

During a nearly three-hour budget hearing into which nuclear weapons seldom figured, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Thursday she supports building a two-state complex to produce at least 80 plutonium pits annually.  That’s among the most, if not the most, definitive statement of support any senior Biden-administration official has made for the National Nuclear […]

The Department of Energy is working on a “strategic approach” for developing a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, the Secretary of Energy told members of Congress this week. Jennifer Granholm, testifying Thursday on DOE’s 2022 budget request before the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Thursday, said the department “want[s] to use, […]