Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Arizona Public Service has officially notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its intent to renew the operating licenses for the Palo Verde Generating Station in Tonopah, Ariz. The Phoenix-based energy utility said in a Monday press release it filed a notice of intent on March 13, informing NRC it plans to submit a subsequent license […]

Discussions continue about opening a second production line for the B-21, the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) head said on Tuesday at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) strategic forces panel. Former STRATCOM commander Gen. Anthony Cotton has said the service needs around 145 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bombers–at least 45 more […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the management and operating contractor at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Savannah River Site, established the Office of Innovation in September, the prime said in a press release Wednesday. The Office of Innovation will be a dedicated hub for research and technology at Savannah River Site and will craft a […]

Nevada, where memories of the Yucca Mountain saga still linger, will not seek to host one of the Department of Energy’s state lifecycle hubs, a state official told Exchange Monitor Monday. In an emailed statement to the Monitor, Fred Dilger, executive director of the Nevada Agency of Nuclear Projects, said the state will not respond […]

Oklo reached two key regulatory milestones Tuesday for a demonstration reactor being developed at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and a separate project also in Idaho. One approval came via DOE’s reactor pilot program while Oklo’s subsidiary company won a materials license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. DOE approved Oklo’s nuclear safety design […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has completed an annual maintenance outage that started in January. The outage, which ran from Jan. 5 through March 13, is finished and the underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is once again accepting shipments from around the DOE weapons complex, according […]

The Department of Energy is inviting teams from national laboratories, domestic industry, and universities to submit proposals as part of a $293-million requisition for application (RFA) being issued as part of the Genesis Mission. DOE said in a Tuesday press release it is inviting submissions for “The Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI […]

Sandia National Laboratories is hosting its 2026 Small Business Opportunities Fair March 26, the lab said in a press release. The third annual fair will take place at the Marriott Albuquerque Uptown in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the lab said. Registration begins at 9 a.m. Mountain time next Thursday.  “This event brings together small businesses, Department […]

The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request is coming “relatively soon,” a senior official said last week, saying it will outline a “generational investment in the joint force.” After last year’s delayed budget rollout that irked Congress, Jay Hurst III, the department’s acting comptroller, said the forthcoming request will offer a greater level of initial […]

AtkinsRéalis and Nvidia are working together to explore integration of the global tech company’s technologies to potentially advance nuclear-powered artificial intelligence (AI) factories. Montreal, Canada-based AtkinsRéalis said in a Monday press release that this collaboration could help it design a three-dimensional “digital twin” of infrastructure prior to real world construction.  With AtkinsRéalis having the exclusive […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a rule to revise the fees it charges for license applications and certain other activities.  Under the proposed March 12 rule posted in the Federal Register, NRC would establish fixed caps on its service fees. Through Executive Order 14300, NRC has replaced its non-binding milestone schedules with fixed deadlines […]

The United States should consider additional safeguards to civil nuclear reactors in the event of a military attack, a defense analyst said at a Monday hearing. A panel of nuclear experts discussed in the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe hearing the Russian seizing of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and lessons learned from […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is conducting low-altitude helicopter flights March 16 through March 19 over the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio, the agency said in an email last week. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last July extended the operating license for the Vistra Corp. nuclear plant by 20 years.  The NNSA’s aerial measuring […]

The United States should embrace a clear policy condemning military attacks on international  nuclear power plants, a senior think tank official said at a hearing Monday. Earlier this month the United States was one of only four countries that opposed a resolution for the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] Board of Governors that expressed concern […]

The Department of Energy’s Defense Waste Processing Facility, which turns radioactive tank waste into glass form at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, is now 30 years old. The facility for vitrifying tank waste into glass was commissioned in March 1996 by Hazel O’Leary, secretary of energy during the Bill Clinton administration, DOE noted […]

PHOENIX – Crews at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico are ending one maintenance outage while planning a longer one for 2027 officials said during the Waste Management Symposia last week. In January 2027, Bechtel-led prime Salado Isolation Mining Contractors will be launching an outage of perhaps six months […]

Michael Budney, who formerly led Department of Energy operations at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has accepted a director post at Mission Technologies, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) in Canberra, Australia. Budney announced the appointment Friday March 13 on his LinkedIn page. In the new role Budney will work with the […]

PHOENIX – The chair of an industry working group on waste management hopes sponsors of new nuclear projects will soon start sharing details on how they plan to deal with the resulting waste. “We have got SMRs [small modular reactors] … popping up, micro reactors, uranium enrichment, spent fuel recycle, “ said Firewater President and […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold  a hearing Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time to review the Department of Energy’s  implementation of President Donald Trump’s May 23, 2025 executive orders. Testifying at the hearing will be DOE Office of Nuclear Energy head Ted Garrish, DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner and Kairos […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has unveiled a new effort to add 2,500 megawatts of nuclear power to the grid by 2027 through uprates to existing plants and restarting some closed reactors. The Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort (UPRISE) program aims to bring 2,500 megawatts of additional power by 2027 and […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  March:  16: Ukraine Nuclear Briefing: The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe holds a briefing on “Nuclear Power and Nuclear Powers: Lessons from Ukraine” starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time at Cannon House Office Building, Room 360 in Washington, D.C.  19: […]

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, demanded a report by the Pentagon summarizing total war costs of Operation Epic Fury, or the Donald Trump administration and Israel’s combat operations in Iran. “I will not support a blank check for this war of choice,” Reed said on the Senate floor […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) said March 12 all five labor union bargain units at its Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Miss., ratified new collective bargaining agreements running through March 2031.  The company announced the labor agreements in a press release.  Huntington Ingalls Industries subsidiaries are part of major joint ventures doing business in the Department […]

The Donald Trump administration is considering deploying troops on the ground in Iran to secure the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), news reports say. “People are going to have to go and get it,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a Congressional briefing Tuesday about securing Tehran’s stockpile of uranium.  Other news […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., is scheduled to start shipping defense-related transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2028 and could start as early as 2027, a DOE contractor boss said here Wednesday. Michael Douglas, the head of waste projects for Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Company, made […]

PHOENIX — Installation of two major infrastructure projects at Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plan in New Mexico ended up costing about $770 million due to the pandemic, replacement of a major subcontractor and other factors, officials said here Wednesday. The cost of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS), renamed the Underground Ventilation […]