Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy said Tuesday workers at its sprawling nuclear cleanup site in Washington state have installed one last piece of piping needed for the plant that will vitrify liquid radioactive waste into a solid glass form. Crews have finished the final connection between underground tanks storing radioactive waste and the multi-billion-dollar Waste Treatment […]

The Donald Trump administration’s nuclear executive orders are a “significant step forward” for accelerated nuclear deployment, but could undermine the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an American Nuclear Society expert group said recently. On May 23, the Trump administration released a handful of executive orders to speed up new reactor licensing and construction and generally bolster the […]

Radiant has appointed former Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal as its first-ever chief nuclear officer on June 3. The El Segundo, Calif. based nuclear startup company adds Baranwal to its executive team subsequently after it closed off a $165 million Series C funding round on May 28 and was selected […]

SAVANNAH, GA.— Exchange Monitor’s 19th annual Radwaste Summit kicks off here Tuesday with discussions on expanding nuclear energy generation, a priority with the White House, while addressing spent fuel issues. This year’s conference starts at 2 p.m. Eastern Time with an introduction by senior nuclear safety consultant Larry Camper followed by a panel discussion on […]

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on June 2 abruptly canceled an industry summit for the Golden Dome air and missile defense initiative.  The summit was set to occur in downtown Huntsville, Ala., on June 11. MDA said that “an announcement will be made on SAM.gov if/when a new date and location are planned.”  In a […]

The House energy and commerce energy subcommittee will hear testimony Tuesday on the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2026 budget from Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. This will be Wright’s third hearing on the DOE budget, with the first one taking place with the House appropriations energy and water subcommittee and the second taking place with […]

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on June 5 that the Trump administration’s detailed fiscal year 2026 budget request will likely not be available for “several more weeks.”  While the White House has put forth a skinny budget outline and an appendix with additional topline details it has yet […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced on June 5 that it has awarded vouchers to three nuclear companies from its Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program to research nuclear fuel and materials. The DOE’s GAIN vouchers allow for companies to use research facilities and expertise through DOE’s national laboratories to […]

U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said on Thursday that the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future intercontinental ballistic missile has consumed the most of his time than any program thus far in his two and a half weeks on the job. Meink said this as the Air Force restructures the program after a Nunn-McCurdy cost […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has turned to a former DOE executive with more than 35 years in nuclear management to succeed its retiring CEO. Flour-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) Friday announced Jeff Griffin, a senior vice president, has been picked to succeed Dennis Carr […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking: June  10-12: Exchange Monitor Publications and Forums. 19th Annual RadWaste Summit. The DeSoto Hotel, 15 E Liberty, Savannah, Savannah, Ga. No remote access. Agenda and registration online. 12: San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Community Engagement Panel Regular Meeting. The virtual meeting […]

Ukraine’s Pavutina–“Spider Web”–operation points to budget decisions ahead for the U.S. Air Force in hardening its bases in the United States and abroad, especially in the Indo-Pacific, where analysts have pointed to the significant kamikaze drone threat. More than 100 small quadcopter kamikaze drones hidden in trucks took off on cue on Sunday to destroy […]

Senate Armed Services committee chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) released legislative text to the House-passed reconciliation bill Tuesday that would request $96 million to classified nuclear deterrence programs. The $96 million is a $74 million increase from the House version of the bill, passed in May with a razor-thin majority. It is part of the section […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear remediation office announced this week that demolition is complete for the Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse (S1W) naval reactor prototype plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. In a Tuesday announcement, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and Jacobs-led contract Idaho Environmental Coalition finished taking down the structure at the Naval Reactors Facility […]

President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request is seeking $45 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), which is 7% more than the $42 million enacted for fiscal 2025. “This increase to safety oversight is imperative for DNFSB to keep pace with NNSA’s [the National Nuclear Security Administration] significantly increased weapons production schedule […]

NuScale has announced the opening of its newest Energy Exploration Center at George Mason University in Virginia.  The nuclear company partnered up with George Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing to open its largest Energy Exploration center in the United States, according to NuScale’s Wednesday press release. The NuScale center is designed to engage students […]

Three of President Donald Trump’s nominees to key jobs at the Department of Energy recently took a step closer to confirmation. The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on May 21 backed the nominations of Jonathan Brightbill to become general counsel, Tina Pierce to be chief financial officer along with Conner Prochaska to head DOE’s […]

After acting as the Department of Energy’s top remediation boss at the Savannah River Site since February, longtime DOE hand Edwin Deshong, III was promoted June 1 to head of the Environmental Management field office. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) announced Tuesday Deshong is getting the Savannah River field office job permanently. Deshong, who […]

Constellation Energy has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Meta to provide the tech giant nuclear power from its Clinton Nuclear Clean Energy Center in Clinton, Ill.  Meta will purchase energy output from Constellation’s Clinton plant to progress its clean energy goals and operations. The deal between the two companies will uprate Clinton’s energy […]

On Monday, the United Kingdom’s defense minister said the government plans to ultimately field 12 SSN-AUKUS attack submarines. Minster of Defense John Healey’s assessment came in the foreword of a new defense review report. Under the tripartite AUKUS agreement, the United States and U.K. agree to help Australia field nuclear-powered attack submarines, starting with at […]

The Department of Defense, in an online source sought notice May 29, requested industry responses for demilitarizing the Boeing LGM-30 Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile motors. The notice on procurement site sam.gov said the Space Systems Command’s Rocket Systems Launch Program is collecting information on vendor capabilities for demilitarization of motors through a method called […]

Opportunities for nuclear deployment are available, but the extent of the industry’s expansion remains to be seen, nuclear insiders said during a Columbia University webinar. Former deputy secretary of Joe Biden’s Department of Energy (DOE) Dave Turk led a webinar on Tuesday on the Donald Trump administration’s May 23 nuclear industry-based executive orders. Turk was […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the nation’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, would undergo one of the larger Environmental Management spending cuts in fiscal 2026, according to recent administration data. Carlsbad, in charge of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), would receive […]

BWX Technologies has appointed Gonzalo Cajade as its chief human resources officer effective June 1. Cajade has been in human resource management for more than two decades. He was most recently executive vice president and chief people officer at TERREPOWER. Lynchburg, Va.,-based BWXT made the announcement in a May 29 press release. Cajade will report […]

China could have 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles by 2035, an increase from 400 now, according to a Defense Intelligence Agency single page unclassified graphic released  in mid-May. The graphic illustrates potential threats to the U.S. Homeland that the Golden Dome would guard against. The assessment, called “Golden Dome for America: Current and Future Missile Threats […]