Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking: July: 09: Forum: The Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association kicks offr the Savannah River Federal Business Opportunities Forum starting at 8 a.m. Eastern Time and running through July 10 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in North Augusta, SC.  16: Virtual meeting: […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, on Thursday July 3 voted in favor of President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation package dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill. In a statement after the vote, Newhouse said the final version of the bill preserves production tax credits for nuclear power plants […]

The House Appropriations subcommittee on Energy and Water will mark up its fiscal 2026 budget bill, which would appropriate funds to the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration, on Monday July 7. The hearing is scheduled to start on Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Also, on Thursday, July 17, the full House […]

The final version of the budget reconciliation package signed into law July 4 by President Donald Trump includes a long-sought bipartisan proposal to extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). “After nearly two years of negotiations—and two separate passages of RECA packages by the Senate in 2023 and 2024,” the RECA expansion was included in […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said June 17 it has removed waste from two more radioactive waste tanks at the 310-square-mile facility near the Georgia state line. Tanks 11 and 15 are the fourth and fifth waste tanks in 12 months to meet the “preliminary cease waste removal” designation, DOE’s […]

Access Intelligence and Exchange Monitor  staff will be off on July 3 and 4 in observance of the Independence Day holiday.  As a result, we will not be publishing Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Wednesday July 2 and Thursday July 3. The Morning Briefing will resume its normal publication schedule starting Monday July 7.  Exchange […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel has rejected the latest contentions filed by citizen groups against restart of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. The three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel ruled on June 20 against the petitioning organizations of Beyond Nuclear, Don’t Waste Michigan, Michigan Safe Energy Future, […]

In a study on the environmental effects of nuclear war, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said to focus less on extreme cases and more on the “realm of possible outcomes,” the organization said in a public panel announcing the study. The nonprofit, in tandem with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), released […]

Sizewell C has selected three construction companies to build a new nuclear plant in Suffolk, England. Sizewell C has signed a Program Alliance Agreement with construction companies Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke and Bouygues Travaux Publics to form the Civil Works Alliance, according to its Monday press release. Within the Civil Works Alliance with Sizewell C, […]

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, will not seek re-election, he said over the weekend after opposing President Donald Trump’s signature reconciliation bill, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” While Tillis liked tax credits and other elements of the legislation, “I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and […]

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 […]

The Government Accountability Office, which serves as Congress’s watchdog over federal programs, would see its budget nearly cut by nearly half in fiscal 2026, under a bill advanced by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The Legislative Appropriation Act for fiscal 2026, which passed through the committee Thursday 34-to-28, provides  $415.4 million for the Government […]

The Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) is now projected to be ready by early 2029, Navy officials told lawmakers last week. The Navy says its highest priority program is the Columbia-class, starting with the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN-826), which it intends to gradually replace the aging Ohio-class SSBNs. Acting Chief of Naval […]

A dozen universities, two developers of small modular reactors and some national laboratories, have landed Rapid Turnaround Experiment projects with Nuclear Science User Facilities, from the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. The 23 award winners were announced June 26 and DOE said their work would support advanced nuclear deployment and nuclear materials. Rapid […]

The Senate voted 53-to-47 Friday evening to defeat a resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that would have directed President Donald Trump to seek approval from Congress before launching further military attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The vote fell along party lines with a couple of notable exceptions. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted […]

A Centrus Energy subsidiary American-Centrifuge Operating has delivered 900 kilograms, or 1,984 pounds, of high-assay low-enriched uranium to the Department of Energy, Centrus said last week. The Bethesda, Md.-based nuclear energy company has now achieved phase two of its DOE contract, which called for it to produce the 900 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) […]

Holtec International, known for decommissioning reactors and developing nuclear power projects, could become a publicly-traded company within the next year. In a Monday interview with Barrons, Holtec CEO Kris Singh said the company was looking at an initial public offering sometime in the January through April 2026 time period, a Holtec spokesperson confirmed Wednesday via […]

Nearly 30 former Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff members and one ex-chair criticized President Donald Trump’s firing of Commissioner Christopher Hanson in a Tuesday letter. On June 13 Trump fired Hanson from his position on the Commission in a move that shook up the nuclear industry. The Tuesday letter was written to the agency’s four remaining […]

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a new bill aimed at streamlining defense industrial base collaboration with Australia and the United Kingdom. for the AUKUS submarine technology sharing agreement. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee, and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) introduced the AUKUS Improvement Act last week to exempt […]

Despite the recent executive order to overhaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, safety will continue to be the independent agency’s highest priority, NRC Chair David Wright told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday. “Safety is our strike zone over home plate, it is our North Star and it will continue to be that,” […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration transitioned into the final stage of construction at the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency announced Tuesday. The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages. Once construction is complete, UPF will […]

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority to license consolidated interim storage, clears the way for Holtec to move forward on a spent fuel storage site in New Mexico, according to the company. At the same time, however, Holtec said last week major issues remain to be worked out both […]

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 […]