Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) said Wednesday it picked Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana as potential locations for nuclear microreactors. The decision comes under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program (ANPI), a partnership between the Air Force and DIU to deploy “advanced, […]

The House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development and related agencies scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, April 15 to review the Department of Energy’s budget request for fiscal 2027. This hearing comes after the White House issued a budget request for fiscal 2027 that would give $32.8 billion to the DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

The Los Alamos Study Group and Nuclear Watch New Mexico published separate statements this week criticizing the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 request for an increase in funding plutonium pit production and decrease to nonproliferation and non-weapons science programs. “Throughout this budget it is global dominance, not global cooperation, that is the stated theme. U.S. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff this week recommended NRC issue a construction permit allowing the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a small modular reactor (SMR) at the Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tenn. In the final supplemental environmental impact statement, published Monday in the Federal Register, NRC staff said it made the recommendation to […]

The Department of Energy approved Antares Nuclear’s documented safety analysis for its test reactor, Mark-0, under DOE’s reactor pilot program, the company said on Monday. The documented safety analysis marks the acceptance of Antares’s final design for its Mark-0 reactor. The company now enters the DOE’s readiness review process, which is the final phase of […]

President Donald Trump said on social media Tuesday evening a two-week ceasefire was negotiated between the United States and Iran to finalize an agreement between the two parties. “Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)  vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 nuclear cleanup budget for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is “a slap in the face to the Tri-Cities, threatening the Hanford cleanup mission and the community with this absurd budget request.” “This proposal is completely unacceptable,” […]

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) CEO Don Moul is set to retire from the federally-owned utility July 1, according to a Monday Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Moul became the president and CEO of TVA in April 2025 after then-CEO Jeff Lyash retired. His tenure will come to a close after nearly one year. Prior […]

Nuclear cleanup managers at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina expect to complete liquid waste remediation sometime between 2037 and 2041, according to an updated federal plan. The DOE Office of Environmental Management and contractor Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), a BWXT-led joint venture, issued the latest update of the site’s […]

Fluor has signed an agreement to support X-Energy’s small modular reactor project at Dow’s UCC Seadrift Operations in Seadrift, Texas. Under the contract, Fluor will provide Front-End Loading Stage 2 services for the project, according to the company’s Monday press release. There are five stages to the Front-End Loading process, Fluor said. Stage 2 focuses […]

Crews at the Y-12 National Security Complex have completed final concrete placement for a tunnel that will connect major sections of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF’s) enriched uranium mission. The project—known as the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility Connector (HCON)— is “in the dry,” signifying completion of the tunnel roof, allowing installation of internal systems […]

Former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff has been named chair of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, the university said Monday. Huff will succeed Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering Paul Wilson as the department chair starting July 1, the university said in a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a proposed rule to create an additional licensing path for the Department of Energy and Pentagon demonstration reactors seeking commercial use. NRC said in a Monday press release that within its new rule it will look to leverage design information from the DOE and Department of Defense reactor demonstrations […]

Under the Department of Energy’s budget request for fiscal 2027, the DOE Office of Legacy Management would receive $200 million or $2.2 million more than in fiscal 2026. If appropriators in the House and Senate should go along with the White House request, the Office of Legacy Management funding would represent a 1% increase over […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies (BWXT) said Tuesday it plans to apply for a uranium enrichment license to build a new defense nuclear facility in Erwin, Tenn.  The nuclear fuel company notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) so the agency can prepare to review the application, which BWXT will submit during the first quarter of calendar […]

Most Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites would receive modest reductions in their fiscal 2027 funding, under the budget justification document released over the weekend by the White House. The request for the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is $483 million, an increase of 12% from […]

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) has introduced legislation to codify into law President Donald Trump’s May 23, 2025 nuclear-related executive orders. The bill, Strengthening American Nuclear Energy Act of 2026, looks to make last year’s executive actions into law to protect the pro-nuclear policy from being undone via executive orders from future presidents, according to the […]

The Department of Energy is requesting $1.53 billion for its Office of Nuclear Energy in fiscal 2027, a slight funding reduction, despite the Donald Trump administration’s push for more nuclear power. The $1.53 billion request outlined in DOE’s fiscal 2027 budget justification document represents a $151 million or 9% budget cut from fiscal 2026, which […]

The Donald Trump administration is requesting $7.2-billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup in fiscal 2027, which accounts for most of the funding, for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. That would be down slightly from the $7.4-billion estimated figure for fiscal 2026, which ends Sept. 30. It would also be down from the $8.2-billion […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s biggest budget request yet for fiscal 2027 would include $27.4 billion for weapons activities, according to the Department of Energy’s budget justification document released over the weekend. That would be an increase of $7 billion, or 35%, from the fiscal 2026 enacted levels of $20.4 billion, which included the One […]

Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom has evacuated an additional 198 staff members from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, underscoring mounting safety concerns as regional conflict intensifies, according to Russian state media. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has acknowledged recent incidents in the vicinity on website X over the weekend, but has not reported any […]

Energy Capital Partners, a multi-billion-dollar energy-focused investment firm, will re-acquire EnergySolutions from TriArtisan Capital Advisors for an undisclosed price, the companies said Monday. EnergySolutions said in a press release that the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close this year. The investment firm said the decision to buy EnergySolutions again […]

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) announced Thursday April 2 his state has filed an application to make the area around the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site a DOE Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus. “Tennessee’s innovation has positioned the Volunteer State as the global epicenter of nuclear energy,” Lee said in a press release.  “As our […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  APRIL: 13: Meeting: The South Carolina Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council meets starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time in Columbia, S.C.  21: Conference: The Energy Communities Alliance sponsors a three-day conference on advanced nuclear opportunities starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on April […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico is looking to hire a deputy manager, a post with a payscale in the range of $199,000 to $228,000. The posting, available through USA Jobs, was shared on LinkedIn Friday by DOE Carlsbad Manager Mark Bollinger. The desired candidate would be an  executive who would […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on April 2 renewed the operating licenses for Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 in San Luis Obispo County, Calif. Diablo Canyon’s Unit 1 operating license will now expire in November 2044 and Unit 2 in August 2045. PG&E filed for an NRC license renewal in […]

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, criticized the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion defense spending request for fiscal 2027, specifically pushing back on the planned use of $350 billion in reconciliation funds.  The White House released a high-level budget request April 3 that only listed some toplines. It requested almost […]