Publications: Morning Briefing

The Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) will hold its annual conference in Washington, D.C.,  Oct. 12-14 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The event arrives as the Army is currently without Senate-confirmed top leadership, with both Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle and Army Vice Chief Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who is also currently the […]

The U.S. and China are discussing reciprocal visits to each other’s nuclear facilities, a potential transparency measure as Washington raises concerns about Beijing’s nuclear activities. The Donald Trump administration has held talks with Chinese officials about allowing each country to visit nuclear facilities operated by the other, the Washington Times reported Oct. 8, citing U.S. […]

Urenco USA completed the installation of its sixth new cascade at the National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico, hitting the 75% completion mark in its enrichment expansion plan.  Urenco USA, an affiliate of the European company Urenco, said in a press release the production of the sixth cascade began Oct. 8. The company expects to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received the first part of Blue Energy’s construction permit application to build a BWRX-300 small modular reactor in Texas, NRC said last week. According to NRC’s Oct. 8 Federal Register notice, Blue Energy filed the application on Sept. 15, with a limited work authorization to perform certain early construction work […]

A full week into fiscal 2027, the Department of Energy had still not appointed members for the newly-configured Hanford Advisory Board. A DOE spokesperson said late Thursday Oct. 8 that the new members of the citizen advisory board for the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., have yet to be finalized. DOE had previously targeted Oct. […]

Leidos, the Reston, VA.-based government contractor, has tapped Stephen Vather to be its new senior vice president of investor relations. Vather comes to Leidos from Leonardo DRS, where he was senior vice president of corporate development and investor relations, Leidos said in an Oct. 6 press release. Vather will take over from the retiring Stuart […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  OCTOBER: 13: Virtual Forum: ANWA Deterrence Center Forum on “Modernizing the Nation’s Strategic Nuclear Deterrence: The Strategic Role of Golden Dome” at 3-4:30 p.m. Eastern time. 14: Hybrid meeting: The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board meets starting at 6 p.m. Eastern […]

The Department of Energy’s final request for proposals (RFP) for operation of the 70,000-square-foot 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., could be out this month, DOE said in a recent procurement update. That projection, shared Sept. 29 on the online procurement site, SAM.gov, is consistent with the timeline posted by the DOE […]

The United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) appointed Michael Janicke to be its executive director effective Monday, the independent federal agency said. Janicke takes over as the official head of the NWTRB almost a year after the former executive director Daniel Ogg retired from the position in December 2025. Neysa Slater-Chandler was the […]

The Navy awarded more than $170 million in Trident II D5-related contracts Oct. 1, extending flight-test, missile operations, rocket motor storage and other support as the Columbia-class submarine program moves toward service entry. The largest award, a $46.85 million contract to L3Harris Technologies’ Interstate Electronics Corp., covers engineering, logistics, installation, operation, maintenance and modification of […]

If you are in the mood to travel back in time more than a half century and watch government-made black-and-white films designed to make the public feel better about nuclear technology, the Department of Energy can fill that need online. DOE’s Office of Legacy Management recently announced it is offering films from the Atomic Energy […]

Berkeley, Calif.-based Deep Isolation was issued a drilling permit by a Texas state agency for its full-scale, non-nuclear borehole demonstration project in Cameron, Texas, the company said Oct. 1. The Texas Railroad Commission issued the permit. With this regulatory approval, Deep Isolation said in its press release, the borehole disposal pilot project can move from […]

The Air Force and Northrop Grumman have broken ground on a new B-21 Raider final assembly line in Palmdale, Calif., putting a previously announced effort to accelerate bomber production into construction. The new assembly line at Air Force Plant 42 is part of over a million square feet of planned facilities expected to increase annual […]

Anduril Industries and the White House Tuesday announced plans for a new 2 million square foot shipbuilding facility in Maryland that will focus on producing Virginia-class attack submarine (SSN) parts. The new facility, built with a combined $6.6 billion in private capital investment and federal contracting, will be called Arsenal-2 as a nod to Anduril’s […]

BWX Technologies’ microreactor was selected by Prodigy Clean Energy and two Canadian Indigenous tribes to be the technology for the Transportable Nuclear Power Plant at Belledune in New Brunswick, Canada. The BWXT Advanced Nuclear Reactor – or BANR – is designed to be a high-temperature gas-cooled transportable microreactor with a generating capacity of 22 megawatts […]

The Department of Energy’s Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) microreactor project progresses towards criticality after recently hitting some milestones, DOE said Tuesday. The MARVEL microreactor project, led by DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), had its final documented safety analysis approved by DOE’s Idaho Operations Office, INL said in its press release. The lab […]

Ashton Ellaboudy, a Department of Energy employee who has worked at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., will appear in federal court Thursday in connection with Justice Department allegations that he aided foreign terrorists, according to an article in the Tri-City Herald. Ellaboudy is in the Benton County jail after being arrested on Thursday Oct. […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Oct. 1 that Russia could use nuclear weapons if NATO attacked Kaliningrad, renewing Moscow’s nuclear threats amid growing military tensions between Russia and the alliance. Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin said Russia would respond to an attack on its territory with “all weapons” available to it, according to […]

Constellation Energy continues its pursuit of uprating several of its operating reactors as the company signs its latest power purchase agreement with Google Tuesday. Constellation and Google agreed to a 20-year “clean energy collaboration” to add 890 megawatts of nuclear energy onto the PJM Interconnection grid, according to the press release. The agreement includes investments […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing issued a conditional loan up to $4.2 billion to provide uprates at several of Vistra Corp’s nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Monday. The announcement came during Wright’s visit to the Vistra’s Perry Nuclear Plant on Monday afternoon. According to […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed two state bills into law on Sept. 30 that focus on exploring the viability of advanced nuclear fission and fusion there. The first bill, Assembly Bill 2647, introduced by California Assembly member Lisa Calderon (D), is aimed towards conducting a study on the potential role of advanced reactors in […]

Members of the New Mexico Congressional delegation serving the area around the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) have lined up $10 million for upkeep of the haul road leading to the nation’s only disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste. The federal money will help shore up the U.S. 285 Relief Route, a […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has promoted Greg Ennis to senior vice president and chief financial officer of its Mission Technologies division, the company announced Oct. 2. Ennis will lead Mission Technologies’ financial organization and oversee accounting, financial reporting, financial planning and analysis, rates and budgets, and program cost control across the division, HII said. Ennis […]

BWX Technologies has received a contract worth approximately $189 million to manufacture nuclear reactor fuel for the U.S. Navy, the company said Oct. 1. The award calls for BWXT subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) in Erwin, Tenn., to manufacture and deliver fuel for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. Work is scheduled to be completed in […]

Constellation Energy’s Calvert Cliffs Clean Energy Center in Lusby, Md., will add 190 megawatts to its current capacity under a new power purchase agreement (PPA) between the company and Amazon.  Amazon and Constellation announced this 20-year-long deal on Sept. 30. Constellation said the deal “will enable more than $3 billion in Maryland infrastructure investment, including […]

After being replaced by a new facility earlier this year, the old water treatment plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., is being taken down. DOE announced Sept. 22 that the 283W water treatment plant has been removed from service and is being decommissioned after spending more than eight decades treating […]