Budget & Policy

Exelon Corp., Chicago, plans to split into a pair of companies by early 2022, separating its power generation businesses — including nuclear — from its electric and gas sales and distribution businesses, the company announced Wednesday. Exelon operates 15 nuclear plants across the country, though it plans to shutter the Byron and Dresden plants in […]

U.S. nuclear modernization is nothing like Russian or Chinese nuclear modernization, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), chair of the subcommittee that writes the first draft of the annual military policy bill for defense-nuclear programs, said Tuesday in a hearing. “When we use the term ‘modernization’ for our nuclear weapons, that leads to the possibility of false […]

The Senate has set up a vote this week on Jennifer Granholm’s nomination to be secretary of energy, following a procedural step on Monday. Around 4 p.m. Eastern time, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D) filed cloture on Granholm’s nomination, effectively signalling the start of a brief period of debate that typically lasts no longer […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking this week. February 22 BWX Technologies releases its quarterly results after the market closes at 4 p.m. Eastern time. 22-23 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Technology Options and the […]

President Joe Biden’s nomination of David Turk to be the deputy secretary of energy remained in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at deadline Friday, with no hearing scheduled. A deputy assistant secretary of energy for international climate and technology during the administration of former President Barack Obama, Turk is currently deputy executive director of […]

The Senate Armed Services strategic forces committee will retain some of its nuclear backbone in the 117th Congress with Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who has a major nuclear constituency in the form of the Triad’s land-based leg, retaining her leadership role. That’s less nuclear leadership than the panel, which writes policy for nuclear forces and […]

The Joe Biden administration ought to look at undoing the legal deadlines the National Nuclear Security Administration faces to begin production of new nuclear weapon triggers, a former senior official with the agency said this week. “I think the administration needs to look at how those statutory timelines really line up to the programmatically driven […]

Northrop Grumman “successfully conducted its first major design review” for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent engineering and manufacturing development baseline last November, the company announced this week. Northrop touted the milestone as the new Joe Biden administration prepares its first federal budget request and Congress continues its work confirming Biden’s nominees to top Pentagon posts. […]

Cynthia Anderson, a veteran Department of Energy manager, is interested in leading the agency’s office of environmental management in the Joe Biden administration, multiple people told Weapons Complex Monitor. Among other roles, Anderson has served as chief operating officer for the Office of the Environmental Management, with more than 20 years of nuclear and environmental […]

President Joe Biden’s nomination of David Turk to be the deputy secretary of energy was formally sent to the Senate late Thursday and referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Senate was not in session Monday due to the Presidents Day holiday and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had not […]

A New Mexico Senate committee this week passed a bill that would create a statewide task force to negotiate with the federal government over the siting of nuclear-waste storage sites in the Land of Enchantment. The state Senate Conservation Committee on Tuesday passed SB 82, introduced by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), on a 5-2 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission spent under $8,000 in December on planning activities for the moribund Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the agency’s chairman told the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a letter last week. In a letter dated Feb. 8, NRC chair Christopher Hanson told Energy and Commerce head Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) that […]

A New Mexico Senate committee on Tuesday passed a bill that would create a statewide task force to negotiate with the federal government over the siting of nuclear-waste storage sites in the Land of Enchantment. The state Senate Conservation Committee passed SB 82, introduced by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), on a 5-2 vote and […]

Northrop Grumman “successfully conducted its first major design review” for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent engineering and manufacturing development baseline last November, the company announced Tuesday. Northrop touted the milestone as the new Joe Biden administration prepares its first federal budget request and Congress continues its work confirming Biden’s nominees to top Pentagon posts. A […]

The Senate Armed Services strategic forces committee will retain some of its nuclear backbone in the 117th Congress with Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who has a major nuclear constituency in the form of the Triad’s land-based leg, retaining her leadership role. That’s less nuclear leadership than the panel, which writes policy for nuclear forces and […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission spent under $8,000 in December on planning activities for the moribund Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the agency’s chairman told the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a letter last week. In a letter dated Feb. 8, NRC chair Christopher Hanson told Energy and Commerce head Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) that […]

President Joe Biden’s nomination of David Turk to be the deputy secretary of energy was formally sent to the Senate late Thursday and referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Senate was not in session Monday due to the Presidents Day holiday and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had not […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking this week. February 16 Bid deadline for proposals on the potential $8.3-billion Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee. 

As of Tuesday, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy are still tinkering with a draft memorandum of understanding about sharing information at nuclear-weapon sites while a Donald Trump administration order limiting DOE interactions with the board remains in effect. That’s according to a spokesperson for the independent federal board, which […]

President Joe Biden plans to nominate David Turk as the deputy secretary of energy, according to a White House news release published this week. Turk, a member of Biden’s Department of Energy transition team, is currently deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), where he has worked since 2016 after leaving the Barack […]

The Department of Energy under the Joe Biden administration has decided, for now at least, to undo an organizational change made by the prior administration which had the Office of Environmental Management stovepiped below DOE’s undersecretary for science. The new organizational chart has the Office of Environmental Management (EM) reporting directly to the office of […]

President Joe Biden plans to nominate David Turk as the deputy secretary of energy, according to a Wednesday White House news release. Turk, a member of Biden’s Department of Energy transition team, is currently deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), where he has worked since 2016 after leaving the Barack Obama administration. […]

As of Tuesday, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy are still tinkering with a draft memorandum of understanding about sharing information at nuclear-weapon sites while a Donald Trump administration order limiting DOE interactions with the board remains in effect. That’s according to a spokesperson for the independent federal board, which […]

The former head of the National Nuclear Security Administration is one of the hundreds of people who will be caught up in the Joe Biden administration’s purge of Pentagon advisory boards this month. Ex-Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty got a spot on the Defense Policy Board during the eleventh hour of the Donald Trump administration, shortly after then-Secretary of […]

The chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s environmental subcommittee did not rule out interim nuclear waste storage sites as a part of the Biden administration’s climate agenda during a press conference this week. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), who heads up the Environment and Climate Change subcommittee, told RadWaste Monitor during the virtual presser […]

The Nevada Senate got another would-be Biden administration official to pledge no funding for Yucca Mountain on Wednesday during the confirmation hearing for Neera Tanden to be the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Tanden, former president of the Center for American Progress, told Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) during the hearing […]

A proposed bill in the New Mexico state Senate that would have created a state-level “radioactive waste consultation task force” was left in limbo Thursday after a split vote in the chamber’s Conservation Committee. Committee members tied 4-4 on motions to advance SB 82 to the full Senate. Proposed by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), […]

Amentum, Apex Systems and Leidos on Wednesday said they have formed Integrated ICBM Support Services, LLC, a joint venture aimed at capturing the Air Force’s next support contract for its current and future ICBM force. BAE Systems currently supports the ICBM Integration Support Contract (ISC), which is managed by the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center […]

The Nevada Senate got another would-be Biden administration official to pledge no funding for Yucca Mountain on Wednesday during the confirmation hearing for Neera Tanden to be the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Tanden, former president of the Center for American Progress, told Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) during the hearing […]

President Joe Biden plans to nominate David Turk as the deputy secretary of energy, according to a Wednesday White House news release. Turk, a member of Biden’s Department of Energy transition team, is currently deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), where he has worked since 2016 after leaving the Barack Obama administration.  […]