Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  September: 22: Hybrid Meeting: Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board meets starting at 9 a.m. Eastern Time at Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, 4345 Trolley Line Road, Aiken, South Carolina 29801. 23: Hybrid meeting: The West Valley Citizen Task Force meets starting at 6:30 […]

The Department of Energy’s environmental contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has started building its final supersized Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the nuclear property near Aiken, S.C. Like its half-dozen jumbo-sized SDU predecessors, SDU-12 will be 43 feet high, 375 feet in diameter, and have a total capacity of 34.5 million […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a Wednesday hearing will take its turn to discuss recent developments in the United States efforts to close the back end of the fuel cycle. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in Room 406 in the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C. This Senate committee […]

The Virginia State Corporation Commission has added two new  in-person hearings in November to hear more from the public about NextEra Energy’s proposal to merge with Dominion Energy. The commission previously ordered a hearing to discuss the proposed $67 billion merger between the two utility holding companies on Nov. 5. However, it announced Sept. 9 […]

Congressional Democrats have introduced a resolution seeking to block a U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation agreement, citing concerns about uranium enrichment and limits on international inspections. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), and Don Beyer (D-Va.), introduced the joint resolution […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should use private-sector investment and technology to expand inertial confinement fusion capabilities for nuclear weapons research, according to a Washington Post op-ed published Sept. 17. Abigail Remler, an adviser to the Special Competitive Studies Project, and David Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, argue that NNSA could […]

The Department of Energy is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from vendors that could potentially help recover valuable critical materials from nuclear cleanup sites. DOE expects it can reclaim rare earth elements and other materials important to industry from Cold War and Manhattan Project sites overseen by the department’s Office of Environmental Management, according to […]

The state of Tennessee, the United Kingdom and the federally owned utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have agreed to work together on bringing commercial fusion energy online. According to the Monday announcement, the three entities will additionally collaborate to work on fusion supply chain needs, workforce development and a regulatory pathway that could scale the […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – Someone who mistakenly stumbled into the Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop without an agenda might be excused for confusing it with a conference on artificial intelligence (AI). Many conversations from the podium and in the hallways here this week have focused to some extent on the potential and perils of AI. […]

Senate and House Democratic appropriators are seeking answers from Secretary of Energy Chris Wright over Project Velocity, a DOE effort to revise operating directives at national laboratories and nuclear security sites. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking members of the Senate and House Energy and Water Development Appropriations subcommittees, said in […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working to continue navigating the management of Greater than Class C (GTCC) waste through recent rulemaking, Commissioner Matthew Marzano said Wednesday here. The NRC Commissioner opened up the third and final day of the Nuclear Cleanup Workshop with a keynote address focused on the agency in the […]

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The ground support segment for the future LGM-35A intercontinental ballistic missile by Northrop Grumman “has really turned the corner,” U.S. Air Force Gen. Dale White, direct reporting portfolio manager for critical major weapon systems, told reporters here Monday. The Pentagon may undertake a re-certification of Sentinel for engineering and manufacturing development […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – Legislation challenges, particularly the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), could pose a potential roadblock to the full implementation of the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, a Department of Energy official said. During Wednesday’s session at the National Cleanup Workshop, several panels discussed the early progress of the innovation campuses. Marla […]

The Navy awarded General Dynamics Mission Systems a $194.1 million contract modification to support development of the fire control subsystem for its nuclear-armed Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) program. The Sept. 3 award provides $194.1 million in engineering and technical support for the SLCM-N Fire Control Subsystem, according to the Pentagon’s contract announcement. Work is expected […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told the National Cleanup Workshop here on Wednesday he expects the Energy & Water Development bill for fiscal 2027 to pass during the so-called “lame duck” session after Congress returns following the November election. Fleischmann, a member of the House Appropriation Committee, chairs the Energy & Water subcommittee […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., will spend about half of 2027 down for maintenance, DOE and contractor officials told the National Cleanup Workshop here Tuesday. WIPP will be essentially offline and not receiving waste for two three-month cycles during 2027, said Ken Harrawood, president and […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – The anticipated expansion of missions and private-sector projects around Savannah River Site could require the surrounding region to build as many as 17,000 homes over the next five years, according to a local official here Tuesday. Chuck Smith, a former city councilman in Aiken, S.C. where Savannah River Site (SRS) is located, […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is about a third smaller than it was a few years ago, although more people could be brought on following a pending regional reorganization. “You know today we are at about 820 federal employees,” Tim Walsh, the head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said […]

WASHINGTON – The Department of Energy could consider using the Nuclear Waste Fund to help fund waste management-related facilities to go online at Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses. During the House Energy and Commerce’s Energy subcommittee hearing Tuesday, DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish told the panel that the department and Congress need to […]

Energy Secretary Chris Wright continues to call on Iran to fall in line with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards agreement in a Monday speech. Wright told the IAEA’s General Conference in Vienna, Austria, that Iran’s lack of transparency and failure to abide by the NPT-required safeguards has been “unacceptable.” […]

The Air Force and Northrop Grumman Monday said they have completed a full assembly of the LGM-35A Sentinel future intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in its “operational orientation,” setting the stage for initial flight testing in 2027. The “vertical stacking” demonstration at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), Calif. was completed in parallel with a critical design […]

ARLINGTON – The head of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear cleanup branch said here Tuesday the Office of Environmental Management (EM) is indeed being renamed. In his “State of EM” speech, Walsh again said the Environmental Management office is being rebranded as the “Office of Nuclear Restoration and Revitalization. His remarks came at the […]

ARLINGTON, Va. – The biggest challenge for the National Nuclear Security Administration is receiving “stable, predictable, sufficient, timely funding” from Congress, Thomas Ashlock, the agency’s associate administrator for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, said Tuesday. “Everyone would agree that a CR [continuing resolution] is not good,” Ashlock said, referring to a short-term stopgap spending bill that […]

The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at Idaho National Laboratory is still in an outage that began in June, a Department of Energy spokesperson said Monday. “The IWTU entered a scheduled outage in early June to replace the facility’s process gas filters,” the DOE spokesperson said in a Monday email reply to an Exchange Monitor […]

The New Mexico State Land Office issued an executive order Sept. 4 that would ban any new uranium mining activities in the state. The order, issued by New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, pushes for the state agency to prioritize nuclear cleanup at legacy uranium sites, according to a press statement. It will also […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released more overarching regulations in its latest rulemaking that will affect decommissioning, reactor licensing and oversight. Proposed on Sept. 11, the newest rulemaking in the NRC’s regulations as a part of Executive Order 14300 implementation. The 339-page proposal will have changes that are “intended to make NRC regulations more efficient, predictable […]

The United States would be willing to provide nuclear fuel to Iran if Tehran resolves concerns surrounding its nuclear program, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said, potentially offering a path for civilian nuclear cooperation. Wright reportedly told Bloomberg that the U.S. could provide Iran with nuclear fuel from outside the country. He tied the proposal to […]