Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Targets in the End State Contract Model the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office started using in fiscal 2020 are often ill-defined and the program needs better record-keeping and oversight, a congressional watchdog said this week. Those are among the takeaways from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report publicly released Wednesday on the DOE Office […]

Legislation introduced this week in the House Science, Space and Technology Committee would direct the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to set up an artificial intelligence (AI) nuclear evaluation program. The bipartisan bill is sponsored by Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) and is cosponsored by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.). The Advanced Artificial Intelligence Nuclear Evaluation Program […]

Constellation Energy, Blue Energy and NANO Nuclear have formally expressed interest in building new nuclear energy in Illinois. The three nuclear entities responded to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s (D) notice of inquiry that was conducted by the Illinois Commerce Commission through a February executive order. That gubernatorial action set out a target goal of adding […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Field Office in Richland, Wash., plans to award a no-bid contract to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Academy to hold a four-day process safety “boot camp,” according to a recent online procurement notice. In the notice, the Academy is called “the only responsible source that can provide the management […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed changes to its transportation regulations in preparation for the development of microreactor technologies. The proposed rulemaking, announced on July 22, would make changes to Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 71 – or 10 CFR Part 71 – and would update package approval requirements suitable for microreactors and new […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) hosted Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy at its Newport News Shipbuilding Charleston Operations facility in Goose Creek, S.C. July 27, with aims to underscore cooperation under the AUKUS security partnership. Under the tripartite AUKUS agreement, the U.S. government plans to sell three to five nuclear-powered attack submarines, or SSNs, […]

For the second time in two weeks, the Department of Energy unveiled plans for a new data center at one of its nuclear installations, this one at the Paducah Site in Western Kentucky. In a Wednesday morning news release, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said DOE is teaming up with several energy organizations to help […]

A joint venture between Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and BWX Technologies said Tuesday it is meeting its goals for moving legacy transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. “This fiscal year has been N3B’s most productive year in reducing legacy transuranic […]

DAYTON, Ohio – The Air Force is modifying a B-52H bomber to resume testing the Radar Modernization Program (RMP), which will feature an active electronically scanned array radar system based on RTX’s APG-79 to replace the bomber’s Northrop Grumman APQ-166. The dual-capable B-52 bomber delivers the Long Range Standoff cruise missile, which carries the W80-4 […]

The White House on July 22 announced plans to invest $5 billion into its new Genesis Mission initiative to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for science-related efforts.  “America has no shortage of bold ideas or talented scientists, and the response to the Genesis Mission proves that,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in the White House statement, […]

With a flammable gas analysis complete, the Department of Energy said Tuesday the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, S.C., could soon be ready to resume shipments of the more radioactive type of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. SRS can soon resume shipping drums of remote-handled transuranic waste […]

Washington state’s open primary Aug.4 will decide what two candidates will be on the November ballot to succeed Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) to represent the 4th congressional district, which includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. There are 11 candidates running for the office that Newhouse is vacating in January, according to the Spokesman-Review newspaper. […]

The Department of Energy formally selected Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah as potential host states for its Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus initiative. Last week, Exchange Monitor reported that Utah, Oklahoma and Tennessee were among the top of the list of potential states to be selected for the program. According to DOE’s Tuesday press release, […]

The Donald Trump White House has drafted a memo to Congress, pushing for legislation to remove Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the sole site for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The 1987 amendments of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act established Yucca Mountain as the sole repository for high-level waste. However, plans for Yucca were […]

Rian Bahran, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactors, left DOE last Friday and joined microreactor developer Antares Nuclear. Bahran, who was with DOE since January 2025, will now serve as the chief nuclear officer at Antares, beginning this week. In his new role, he will lead the […]

In pursuing a pathway to waste disposal through the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, the Department of Energy will still likely need one to two deep geological repositories for spent nuclear fuel, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) said.  The NWTRB, established through the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1987, penned a July 24 letter […]

South Carolina would consider deep borehole disposal of radioactive spent nuclear fuel as part of a federal nuclear lifecycle hub program; the state Department of Commerce told the Department of Energy earlier this year. That is according to a news release last week from the Savannah River Site Watch nuclear watchdog group, following a response […]

While the Department of Energy announced a nuclear agreement was reached and signed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump said on social media the agreement “will be approved” but hasn’t yet. DOE said July 22 that U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman […]

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has received a $156 million contract from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to provide mobile counter-unmanned aircraft systems for the Office of Secure Transportation’s Project Solar Shield. The sole-source, single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract will support the NNSA Office of Secure Transportation (OST), Kratos announced July 21. OST is responsible for […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Isotope Research and Development and Production (IRP) needs to implement better practices for managing critical isotopes in the U.S. market, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said last week. In a July 23 report, GAO said IRP, a subagency in DOE’s Office of Science, is the sole domestic supplier of […]

Chantilly, Va.- based Amentum said July 23 it has won a contract, worth $85 million spread over three years, to design and overhaul key infrastructure for the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program. The work will take place at the Naval Reactors Facility located at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, according to an Amentum […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  July: 30: Earnings call: Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) will discuss its quarterly financial performance during a conference call with analysts starting at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.  August: 02: Conference: The Women in Nuclear Conference kicks off in Seattle, Wash.  03: Earnings Call: […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will host several webinars during the week of Aug. 3 to Aug. 7 going over its recent proposed rulemaking that would make extensive changes to nuclear licensing processes.  NRC will have three webinars, via Microsoft Teams, to provide an overview of the rulemaking followed by a question-and-answer session. The discussions will […]

A week after becoming a public company, Standard Nuclear said July 22 that construction is nearly finished on two of its new nuclear fuel facilities in Idaho and Tennessee. SN-TN in Tennessee and SN-ID in Idaho are two identical fuel facilities, which once operational, should produce up to one metric ton of uranium of tri-structural […]

On its quarterly earnings call last week, Northrop Grumman reported favorable cost adjustments on the Air Force’s Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program.  Sentinel remains on track for its first flight test in 2027, Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman’s chair, president and CEO, said Tuesday July 21 on the company’s second quarter earnings call, highlighting a recent […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has delivered its fifth next-generation Global Burst Detector (GBD) sensor payload to the U.S. Space Force to monitor nuclear detonations above-ground globally. The payload will be integrated onto a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite before launch, where it will join an existing constellation of sensors that continuously monitor the […]