Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Technicians completed power line repairs near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant with aid from a local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog’s Director General Rafael Grossi said Dec. 30. “I would like to thank both the Russian Federation and Ukraine for engaging constructively with us in making this possible […]

The Department of Energy said Monday it was awarding $2.7 billion total in task orders to three companies with the goal of strengthening domestic uranium enrichment over the next ten years. American Centrifuge Operating, a Centrus company, and General Matter are both receiving $900 million to create a domestic high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment capacity. […]

Nuclear industry officials and the director of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory are scheduled to testify before a House Energy & Commerce Committee subcommittee Wednesday morning in Washington, D.C. House Energy & Commerce’s subcommittee on energy will convene a hearing at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time Wednesday on “American Energy Dominance: Dawn of the […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said Monday it has submitted the Initial Project Description for the Deep Geological Repository for Canada’s Used Nuclear Fuel Project. The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission are now seeking public comment from Indigenous Peoples and other community members on the project by Feb. 4, […]

Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank has been awarded $275,000 to install a nuclear control room simulator at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise (UVA Wise) in Wise, Va. According to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) Dec. 18 press release, the installed nuclear control room simulation will be from NuScale’s Energy Exploration Centers. UVA Wise […]

A maintenance outage last year at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina helped improve operations at the site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), DOE said recently.  The DOE Office of Environmental Management contractor installed larger, higher-capacity cross flow filters at the SWPF during a planned system-wide operational outage in 2025 to […]

President Donald Trump wants to see deployment of a nuclear power reactor on the moon by 2030, according to a recent executive action. In the Dec. 18 executive order 14369, “Ensuring American Space Superiority”, the Trump White House called for Americans to return to the moon by 2028 through NASA’s Artemis Program, a program centered […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:    January 08: Webinar: :The Energy Communities Alliances hosts a webinar starting at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on nuclear generation and spent fuel storage sites.  26: Conference: Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit is set for Jan. 26 through 28 in Arlington, Va.  […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have finished excavating a new landfill disposal cell, which should lengthen the lifespan of the radwaste facility by 15 years.  DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced just before Christmas that workers for contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company have finished digging out Super Cell 11 […]

New York Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that establishes a framework for collaboration on the development of advanced nuclear technologies. The MOU, first announced Dec. 18, will explore large-scale and small modular reactors (SMRs) in an effort to decarbonize and strengthen energy reliability and affordability in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding a hybrid public workshop on probabilistic risk assessment Wednesday at its headquarters in Rockville, Md. from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Probabilistic risk assessment is a tool NRC uses to assess plant safety by estimating the likelihood and consequences of potential accidents, according to NRC’s Dec. 19 […]

Charlotte, N.C.-based energy utility Duke Energy has submitted an early site permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a site near Stokes County, N.C. The site will be near Duke’s Belews Creek Station in Stokes County. The submission of the application comes after two years of environmental assessment and technical analysis, Duke said […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Dec. 23 it was renewing a $25 million grant for five more years to a consortium of nine universities for research and development in nuclear science, engineering and security. The Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC) will fund $5 million every year for five years […]

As the anchors of a “Golden Fleet,” President Donald Trump pledged to build 20 to 25 gun and missile-equipped battleships named after himself that are to carry the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N). Flanking Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate Dec. 22 for his pledge were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan and Secretary […]

In observance of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not publish again until Monday Jan. 5. Exchange Monitor staffers are off Dec. 25-26 as well as Jan. 1-2. The Monitor wishes you a happy and safe holiday season!

Doug Weaver was officially sworn in as a Nuclear Regulatory Commission member on Monday. Weaver, nominated in November by President Donald Trump, was confirmed by the full Senate last week in a 71-to-29 vote. He will now serve the remainder of former commissioner Annie Caputo’s term, set to expire on June 30, 2026. Weaver, a […]

As it has for major events in the past, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will make low-altitude helicopter flights over the Las Vegas Strip area leading up to New Year’s Eve celebrations in the desert city. The flights by NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) Aerial Measuring System aircraft will measure […]

Centrus Energy has started manufacturing centrifuges in Tennessee for the company’s advanced uranium enrichment plant at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio. New enrichment capacity is expected to come online in 2029, according to Centrus’ Dec. 19 press release. The centrifuges are being made at the company’s manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, […]

The husband-and-wife team at the helm of Longenecker & Associates (L&A) have pledged to donate $500,000 over time to the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. Longenecker & Associates said in a Dec. 9 press release that L&A CEO John Longenecker and Founder/Board Chair Bonnie Longenecker have made an immediate grant of $250,000 to […]

The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s four nominees for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board of Directors in a 53 – 43 vote on Dec. 18. The confirmation of Arthur Graham, Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood and Randall Jones were among a large bloc of other Trump nominees who were awaiting confirmations. The four confirmed […]

A Bechtel National company has landed a Department of Defense contract modification worth nearly $928 million for naval nuclear propulsion components, the Pentagon said last week. Bechtel Plant Machinery., Monroeville, Pa., was awarded the modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, according to a Dec. 19 summary of contract news from the Pentagon. About two-thirds […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and other Department of Energy branches said last week they have made big strides toward recovering rare plutonium-244 from old Cold War-era material at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. A new radiochemical separation capability successfully recovered valuable isotopes from a Mark-18A target at the Savannah River National […]

The Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management has agreed to allow Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions to dispose of Class A low-level radioactive waste from Ontario, Canada at the company’s Clive, Utah disposal facility. EnergySolutions got an affirmative vote Friday for its proposal to import the Canadian waste at the Clive facility located in […]

The Department of Energy has revealed its first selections for its Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear’s (GAIN)nuclear energy voucher program. According to DOE GAIN’s Dec. 18 press release, the first round of recipients for fiscal 2026 are: BWX Technologies Advanced Technologies, based in Lynchburg, Va.  NuScale Power, in Corvallis, Ore. Orbia Fluor and Energy […]

New nuclear projects have the potential to provideup to 30% of electricity for developing countries, according to a December report by the Rockefeller Foundation. The report, “The Role of Nuclear Energy in Powering Universal Energy Abundance for Emerging Economies”, said countries with an emerging market and developing economy could use nuclear power to deliver up […]

During fiscal 2025, the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico shipped more than 190 cubic meters of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). That’s according to a quarterly update distributed Wednesday by Brad Smith, president and general manager of Newport News Nuclear-BWXT-Los Alamos […]