Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Idaho National Laboratory has concluded a first-of-a-kind safety experiment with high burnup fuel the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced on Tuesday. Text results should provide data that could help boost performance and lower the amount of waste generated at nuclear plants, the Office of Nuclear Energy said in its press release. […]

Half of the key assets the Department of Energy needs to dispose of defense-related transuranic waste in a New Mexico salt mine were in “substandard or inadequate condition in 2023,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Tuesday. In a report to congressional committees, GAO said DOE’s Office of Environmental Management should do a better job […]

Corey Hinderstein, the former National Nuclear Security Administration’s deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation during the Joe Biden administration, said increasing weapons and slashing nonproliferation spending in the budget is a “recipe for national security failure.” “Cutting nonproliferation funding would be lose-lose: harming programs with valuable near-term threat-reduction benefits and making deterrence less sustainable for […]

A welding machine reportedly caught fire in April during welding activities in the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation (PULSE) at Nevada National Security Site. The fire was reported in a June 6 report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). According to the report, a welding machine caught fire and the fire watch […]

The Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup office posted a new organizational chart earlier this month, reflecting that longtime fed Steve Trischman is now heading the office of corporate services. With the May 30 retirement of 32-year federal supervisor Dae Chung, Trischman  is now officially the acting associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the DOE […]

New York plans to build an advanced nuclear power plant in Upstate New York that can produce “at least one gigawatt of electricity”, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Monday Hochul has directed the New York Power Authority to develop a zero-emission electricity advanced nuclear plant to support a reliable electric grid, according to Hochul’s Monday […]

Numerous Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex sites are sweltering under heat advisories due to what television weather forecasters are calling a “heat dome.” “Extreme HeatRisk impacts will expand from the Midwest into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast today,” the National Weather Service said on its website Monday. Localities with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit and […]

TerraPower recently raised $650 million for new nuclear projects, the company said in a press release.  The Bellevue, Wash. advanced nuclear technology company raised the money from both new and current investors. The venture capital arm of multinational technology company NVIDIA and NVentures contributed as the new investors. Current investors Microsoft co-founder and TerraPower founder […]

Iran reportedly launched airstrikes on U.S. military installations in Iraq and Qatar in retribution of the United States. bombings of Iran’s main nuclear sites, Iranian state media reported Monday. “With the US aggression on Iran, it became clear for all that the Zionists’ evil acts have been an extension of the Americans’ planning,” The Islamic […]

Nobody was hurt last month when a four-foot broken slab of concrete fell 1,400-feet down a utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a safety board report. Likewise, no equipment was damaged in the May 27 incident that happened while a subcontractor crew from Harrison […]

Amentum and a joint venture partner have been selected by the Norwegian Nuclear Commission to study technology options for a potential nuclear power program.  Chantilly, Va. based Amentum said in a Monday press release it will work with partner Multiconsult Norge AS to provide an overview of various reactor technologies and power plant designs. , […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said June 18 it has decided three policy matters designed to hasten deployment of microreactors. Microreactors are small nuclear reactors capable of producing electricity from a range of 1 to 20 megawatts. These reactors also can be fabricated in a factory and then shipped to the final location. First, NRC decided […]

The Department of Energy has released its fourth loan reimbursement to Holtec for about $100 million to support efforts to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan.  Secretary of Energy Chris Wright made the announcement this past Friday, saying that the efforts to restart the Palisades plant further align with one of President Donald Trump’s […]

Energy Secretary Chris Wright used an appearance before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week to plead for the upper chamber to confirm more DOE nominees. “If I can ask one thing for the whole senate is please help confirm my people,” Wright said during a hearing last week on the DOE budget […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking: June 25: Hearing: Senate Environment & Public Works Committee meets at 10 a.m. E.T. to consider the re-nomination of David Wright to another term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  25: Industry Day Online Program: DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program starting at 3 p.m. […]

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on June 18 expressed skepticism that the wide-ranging Golden Dome missile defense initiative is realistic, and also questioned the wisdom of planned cuts to the Pentagon’s top weapons testing office. In a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kelly told Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that getting the system to […]

The United States attacked Iran’s three key nuclear facilities early over the weekend in an attack President Donald Trump said “totally obliterated” the enrichment facilities. The strike, called Operation Midnight Hammer, solidified the nation’s involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran, media analysts said late Saturday night. The attack involved American B-2 bombers, which […]

Interest groups and nuclear policy insiders have started to weigh in on a Wednesday decision by the U.S. Supreme Court effectively upholding a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for a private interim waste storage facility in Texas. When asked for a comment the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) simply said via email: “The Supreme Court decision upholds […]

The Department of Energy has announced a new pilot program to expedite the testing of advanced nuclear reactor designs at the department’s national laboratories. The DOE intends to streamline the nuclear reactor testing and hopes to have “at least three reactors achieve criticality by July 4, 2026,” according to its Wednesday press release. Created in […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee expressed their disapproval Wednesday to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on a proposed 11% cut in the Department of Energy’s budget for the labs. “I love the national labs, they deliver tremendous value to us in our history, and they will in the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said the National Nuclear Security Administration’s upgrade to safety controls, including to gloveboxes, is a “significant improvement” to safety at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. The safety watchdog’s comments come in a letter dated May 21 to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, as well as to Teresa Robbins, […]

Oklo’s subsidiary Atomic Alchemy has begun site characterization work for a potential radioisotope production facility at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Santa Clara, Calif. based advanced nuclear technology company Oklo made the announcement in a Tuesday press release. Its subsidiary, Atomic Alchemy, is based in Idaho Falls, Idaho and focuses on providing […]

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-to-3 Wednesday that the state of Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals are not eligible to seek legal review of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license issued to Interim Storage Partners for a private spent fuel facility in West Texas. “Because Texas and Fasken were not parties to the Commission’s licensing […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), in a naval hearing last week, said an aircraft carrying a B61 bomber will be a “much reduced cost” alternative to the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile aboard a conventional submarine. “I am not opposed to, you know, having a tactical nuclear option at sea,” Kelly said at a Senate Armed Services […]