Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

OCTOBER: 06-08: Conference: The Nuclear Energy Institute Workforce Summit is scheduled at NEI headquarters on F Street in Washington, D.C.  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. 27: Conference: The Energy Technology & Environmental Business Association (ETEBA) […]

Early delivery of equipment for a Savannah River Site (SRS) training facility is helping accelerate preparations for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plutonium pit production mission, the agency said in a press release. NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Scott Pappano visited SRS in September to review construction of the High-Fidelity Training and Operations Center (HFTOC), […]

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is on the move again and back to Ohio to visit Vistra Corp.’s Perry Nuclear Plant in Perry, Ohio on Oct. 5. According to a Department of Energy media advisory, Wright is expected to make an announcement that “will help lower electricity costs and strengthen grid reliability for the American people.” […]

The United States and South Korean governments reached a $120 billion investment agreement on Sept. 30, collaborating on building eight large-scale reactors in the United States. The initiative, named Project Power, involves efforts from both governments, Westinghouse, Korea Electric Power Corporation and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. Under the project’s framework, the two countries will […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration conducted a “subsurface, non-nuclear chemical high-explosive experiment” at the Nevada National Security Site aimed at improving U.S. detection of low-yield nuclear explosions, the agency said Sept. 30. The experiment was conducted in the P Tunnel in Area 12 at NNSS and involved chemical high explosives and radiotracers, according to the […]

Houston-based startup Deployable Energy was selected by the Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) to test its reactor design at the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) testbed. The full-power testing at the DOME testbed, located at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, will commence in 2027. The Deployable Energy selection for microreactor testing comes after […]

The Navy’s W93/Mk7 nuclear warhead and reentry system has entered the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase after achieving Milestone B, advancing the first new U.S. nuclear warhead program initiated in nearly four decades. The Navy’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive Strategic Systems Programs announced Sept. 24 that the W93/Mk7 program had entered the EMD phase of […]

WASHINGTON – To meet the incoming energy and artificial intelligence (AI) demand, the United States’s nuclear supply chain needs a major uplift to help make reactor construction economical and timely, nuclear industry panelists said Tuesday here.  Nuclear power has been tied with AI as a baseload source of energy for data center operations over the […]

The Department of Energy is preparing a Manhattan Project-era facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex for demolition while recovering equipment that can be reused across dozens of National Nuclear Security Administration facilities. The department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and NNSA are working with their respective contractors, United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) […]