Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Despite its dwindling number of board members, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) kept busy as a safety watchdog for the Department of Energy during fiscal 2025, according to a recent report. Set up 35 years ago by Congress as a five-member panel, DNFSB is down to a single member, Patricia Lee. Nevertheless, work […]

A Jan. 13 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing article on Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve), included a spelling error in the headline. 

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina has hired Roderick Jackson as its associate laboratory director for the science, energy and innovation directorate. The science, energy and innovation directorate focuses on integrating fundamental research, energy reliability and innovation within a cohesive and mission-driven framework, according to a Jan. 14 press release. […]

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant lost all off-site power due to “widespread military activity” in Ukraine, United Nations nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on the social media platform X Tuesday. According to IAEA on X, several Ukrainian electrical substations as well as powerlines to other nuclear power plants were affected. Ukrainian […]

Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit will feature speeches from big nuclear weapons complex players, including National Nuclear Security Administration head Brandon Williams and the first public appearance by newly sworn-in U.S. Strategic Command commander Adm. Richard Correll. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) whose state houses silos for the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, will also speak. […]

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has upped the ante on previous plans and called for the state to build up to five gigawatts or 5,000 megawatts of new nuclear energy. Hochul announced the increased demand during her 2026 state of the state address on Jan. 13. Last summer, Hochul announced plans for New York […]

The Department of Energy last week denied it has done away with long-time radiation safety standards as reported by a Washington, D.C.-based publication earlier this month. In a Friday Jan. 16 email reply to Exchange Monitor, a DOE spokesperson denied an earlier report by Politico’s E&E News that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright was ending […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management has hired a longtime federal hand, Lara Beasley, to be its deputy director.   Beasley comes to DOE Legacy Management from DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Legacy Management office announced in a December press release. A native of the Chicago area, Beasley has worked with […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  January 20: NRC meeting: The meeting on license renewal issues starts at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.  26: Conference: Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit is set for Jan. 26 through 28 in Arlington, Va.  27: Meeting the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board […]

Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions has filed a notice of intent with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) confirming the company’s plans to develop new generation at the shuttered Kewaunee nuclear plant site in Wisconsin. In a press release posted online Monday, EnergySolutions said it is working with WEC Energy, a Milwaukee-based utility holding company, on the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received fewer shipments of transuranic waste (TRU) in 2025 than it did during 2024, according to data from the facility’s public website. WIPP took in 33 shipments in December, to cap off the 2025 calendar year with 441 shipments, which is down from […]

The top lawmaker on the House’s Navy acquisition oversight panel on Wednesday backed the Donald Trump administration’s plan to build a new fleet of battleships, calling the initiative a “great idea.” Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), chair of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee also offered his support for the Trump administration’s recently […]

Brandon Williams, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), will give the keynote speech at an event hosted by the House Nuclear Security Working Group, Bechtel and the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance Deterrence Center on the Capitol Wednesday. The Congressional Nuclear Security Working Group is chaired by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose district abuts […]

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) has issued an executive order to establish a state nuclear energy task force to explore adding new reactors to the state’s current electricity portfolio. The Missouri Advanced Nuclear Energy Task Force will assist in providing recommendations to Missouri’s State Energy Office’s Department of Natural Resources’s new energy plan, which will […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a hybrid question and answer session Tuesday afternoon to discuss ways the agency can improve procedures for subsequent license renewals. The meeting will take place at NRC’s headquarters in Rockville, Md. from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. It can also be viewed through Microsoft Teams.  In addition […]

A bipartisan panel of radioactive waste experts are releasing a study today calling for an independent nuclear reactor owner-led corporation to be formed to oversee disposal of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear plants and high-level radioactive waste from  weapons production. The NuCorp, or Nuclear Corporation, would be required by federal legislation and established by reactor […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) cancelled the publication of a draft environmental report for public comment on plutonium use at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a local publication reported.  According to Livermore Vine, NNSA intended to release the draft, and said so in a notice of intent January 2025, for comments and feedback from the […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday Jan. 19 in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The next morning briefing will come out Tuesday Jan. 20.

The Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management could be active on new contract solicitations this month, according to a recent procurement update. According to a notice posted online during the week before Christmas, a final  request for proposals (RFPs) could come out this month for  the Portsmouth Infrastructure Support Services contract in Ohio. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received the first stage of a Holtec subsidiary’s two-part construction permit application for two small modular reactors (SMRs) at Palisaded nuclear power plant in Michigan. NRC is reviewing the application to see if it is complete. If so, the application will then be docketed for a detailed technical review […]

The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is now a Department of Defense-approved industry partner, DOE said last week. The Pentagon’s SkillBridge program allows service members up to a six-month internship paid for by the Department of Defense, according to a Jan. 8 press release. “SkillBridge offers the perfect opportunity for […]

The Department of Energy and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have signed a renewed memorandum of understanding, joining efforts to develop a nuclear power reactor on the moon by 2030. The Tuesday interagency MOU affirms President Donald Trump administration’s space goals, outlined in the Dec. 18 executive order “Ensuring American Space Superiority”, and its […]

Reinhard Knerr, acting manager of the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington, Ky., is retiring from federal service, he told co-workers in a Tuesday email. “It is with bittersweet excitement that I am sharing my decision to leave federal service and take a postponed retirement on January 24,” Knerr said in […]

Nano Nuclear and Ameresco signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore collaborating to deploy Nano’s KRONOS microreactor at commercial and federal sites. Nano Nuclear is currently developing the KRONOS modular microreactor, which is made to be portable and produce up to 15 megawatts of electricity and 45 megawatts of thermal energy.  Ameresco, headquartered in […]

President Donald Trump told the New York Times that if a U.S.-Russia nuclear agreement “expires, it expires” and he would “just do a better agreement,” a statement the Union of Concerned Scientists thinks could be dangerous. The New Strategic Arms Reduction (New START) Treaty, signed in 2010 by then U.S. and Russian presidents Barack Obama […]

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday denied a petition by the advocacy group Beyond Nuclear seeking to challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license approval for a Holtec International Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF). Beyond Nuclear hoped the high court would invalidate an NRC license that would allow Holtec to construct an interim waste storage in […]

A Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve) subsidiary said Tuesday it has hired Steven Downing to be program director overseeing the company’s Technical Support Services contract at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO). Pro2Serve subsidiary Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) said in the release the company hired Downing, who was formerly with Battelle.  Downing, who […]