Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

After two days of debate, the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the House floor mainly on party lines at 216-212. The defense policy bill, which also sets spending caps for the appropriations bills, would authorize $32.76 billion in funding for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

A Virginia-based environmental group claims Florida-based NextEra Energy’s merger with Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Energy is incomplete and seeks to challenge the acquisition. On Monday, Clean Virginia said in a press release the merger petition, as it is currently written, is incomplete and that the companies need to complete their application. It urged a Virginia state […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is requesting feedback from industry on potential reuse of roughly 530,000 gallons of heavy water stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) posted a request for information (RFI) July 21 in the Federal Register. “The purpose of this RFI is […]

WASHINGTON – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will pair shared artificial intelligence infrastructure with mission-focused research challenges under the Department of Energy’s Genesis initiative, according to DOE Undersecretary of Science Dario Gil. Gil, speaking to Exchange Monitor on the sidelines of Wednesday’s Genesis Mission summit in Washington, described NNSA as a “core element” of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has removed the last high-risk cesium-137 source from North Dakota, making it the 14th U.S. state or territory to eliminate high-risk quantities of the radioactive material. The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous agency announced the milestone Wednesday, describing it as part of its broader effort to reduce the risk that […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this week denied a challenge brought by Beyond Nuclear and the Sierra Club to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) process for reviewing reactor license renewals. “Petitioners argue that the commission did not adequately consider how aging components and climate change affect the risk of […]

WASHINGTON – As the Genesis Mission Summit kicked off here Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced its selection of 278 projects under the Genesis Mission request for applications (RFAs). The Genesis Mission, established through President Donald Trump’s November 2025 executive order, aims to bring use of artificial intelligence (AI) into DOE’s operations and real-life applications. […]

July 30 is the deadline for interested parties to file comments for the Department of Energy’s draft request for proposals (RFP) for the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. The 70,000-square-foot facility, which recently turned 75, analyzes highly-radioactive samples from Hanford tank waste. It is currently run by Navarro-ATL under a $636-million […]

The Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration awarded a five-year, $31 million grant to an Idaho, Wyoming-based nuclear initiative this week. The Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Corridor Tech Hub initiative led by the Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium received the grant Monday. The consortium is made up of more than 45 organizations, including the Department of Energy’s […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has made Michael DeBernardis vice president and chief counsel of its Mission Technologies division to oversee legal strategy for the defense contractor’s fast-growing national security business. HII announced Tuesday that DeBernardis will advise senior management and oversee the delivery of legal services across the business in his new role. Mission Technologies […]

So far in 2026, emergency crews from the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky have responded to 20 requests for assistance from a volunteer fire department in neighboring McCracken County, DOE said Tuesday. In 2025 the Paducah Site helped out on 115 requests from the West McCracken Fire Department under a mutual aid agreement […]

ROCKVILLE, Md. – With the completion of the Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program on July 4, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission turns its attention to creating a formulaic pathway for reactor designs authorized by other agencies. In April, NRC published a proposed rulemaking that would create an additional licensing pathway for reactors authorized by DOE […]

The White House said in a July 16 statement that it “strongly supports the immediate passage” of the House of Representatives budget resolution for a third reconciliation bill, which includes $60 billion for defense.  “This budget resolution is a crucial first step in allowing congressional Republicans to quickly pass a budget reconciliation bill that protects […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Materials that used to be considered purely radioactive waste are increasingly being recycled into usable products for everything from medical treatments to advanced nuclear reactors, federal officials said last week. That was the word July 15 from the Department of Energy’s Under-Secretary for Science Dario Gil along with DOE Environmental Management (EM) […]