Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Consolidated Nuclear Security, the prime contractor at Y-12 National Security Complex, signed an agreement May 30 with University of Tennessee to create a new nuclear deterrence- and security-focused center in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The partners will develop the National Security Prototype Center to use both Y-12 and University of Tennessee resources to enhance manufacturing, a […]

Southern Nuclear is seeking a second license renewal that extends its operation at the Edwin Hatch Nuclear Power Plant in Baxley, Ga. for an additional 20 years. The Southern Co. subsidiary on May 15 applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), to renew the two reactor licenses at the Hatch plant from 60 years to […]

Despite recent executive orders to speed up nuclear deployment, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would see a sizable reduction under the White House’s fiscal 2026 budget request. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  on May 30 released its 1,220 paged technical supplement to its budget request for fiscal 2026, […]

Ukraine took credit for a coordinated drone strike on Russian air fields on Sunday, destroying around one third of Moscow’s nuclear triad, media reported. “An absolutely brilliant result,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the website X Sunday about operation “Spider Web.” “A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days […]

In addition to trimming its budget, the Department of Energy’s cleanup program for Cold War and Manhattan Project sites could have roughly a quarter fewer federal employees in fiscal 2026 than it did two years earlier. That is one of the takeaways from the White House Office of Management and Budget’s 1,220-page technical supplement to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the final environmental assessment for the Palisades nuclear plant finding no significant impacts. Holtec previously purchased the Covert Township, Mich. nuclear plant from Entergy to decommission it. However, the company has changed plans and has made an effort to restart the plant. In cooperation with the Department of Energy’s […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  June  04: Hearing: Senate Appropriations Energy & Water hearing on NNSA 2026 budget request. 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 […]

In a split decision, a federal appeals court panel Friday kept in place a lower court’s order temporarily blocking the White House from carrying out more mass layoffs at the Departments of Defense, Energy, Interior and many other agencies. In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit kept in place […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has received a priority rating by the Department of Commerce to speed up the construction of the lab’s first two microreactor test beds. The National Reactor Innovation Center, led by INL, will operate the two microreactor test beds of the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) and Laboratory for […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has only 400-odd containers of legacy transuranic (TRU) waste left for shipment to DOE’s underground disposal site in New Mexico. The Savannah River Site has loaded and shipped more than 35,000 containers of the legacy waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, […]

North Augusta, S.C., a city near the Savannah River Site, recently opened its $2 million waste transfer station, a facility paid for with money from a $600 million settlement in South Carolina’s case against the Department of Energy.  The settlement stemmed from DOE cancelling of the SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication (MOX) Facility, one that […]

Ukraine has protested to the International Atomic Energy Agency about Russia’s building power lines from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to Russia’s main power grid, a Kyiv official told a Ukrainian news agency. Yuri Vitrenko, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, told the news outlet Wednesday that Kyiv sent a […]

The Bonneville Power Administration has approved Energy Northwest’s plans to increase the nuclear energy output at its Columbia Generating Station in Richland, Wash. by 186 megawatts by 2031. The extended power uprate project is estimated to cost $700 million and should increase the station’s electrical output by 162 megawatts. The project will involve nearly 30 […]

Deep Isolation this week praised President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions expediting nuclear energy deployment and even opening the door to potential spent fuel recycling. . The Berkeley, Calif. based nuclear disposal company said the orders set out a clear directive to develop policy addressing spent fuel and evaluating the potential of recycling and reprocessing […]

The BWX Technologies-led joint venture doing liquid waste cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Wednesday its president is retiring and will be succeeded by the vice president. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) President and Program Manager Dave Olson, who has held the top job since SRMC won the […]

One of President Donald Trump’s Friday executive orders instructs the secretary of energy to replace the surplus plutonium dilute and dispose program with one to process excess plutonium for fuel for advanced nuclear technologies. Trump’s executive order entitled “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” one of four nuclear-themed executive orders released last week, said the program […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel National said Tuesday they have taken another incremental step in cold commissioning of a multi-billion-dollar plant to convert liquid radioactive tank waste into a solid glass form at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Ammonia and nitrous oxide-producing chemicals are being introduced into the melters for the Waste Treatment […]

The Department of Energy could announce the first site for a data center to support artificial intelligence, which would be located on one of its federal installations, within 90 days, according to one of the nuclear executive orders Friday from President Donald Trump. Nuclear and non-nuclear support structures for such data centers on DOE installations […]

President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday ordered an overhaul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission within 18 months in order to speed approval of advanced nuclear energy projects.  In the May 23 executive action “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission”, Trump directed a major redesign of the independent regulatory agency’s structure and regulations.  NRC […]

The percentage of U.S. Air Force bombers available for missions is in the 50s—a trend consistent with service-wide aircraft availability statistics, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, said last week. Such availability takes into account aircraft in depot, while mission capability rates are typically higher, as they do not count […]

Amentum and a joint venture partner have been awarded a contract by Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning to deliver safety case management for the nation’s nuclear cleanup program. The contract awarded to Amentum and partner Multiconsult Norge AS is focused on delivering a new approach for safety cases for new design and existing legacy nuclear facilities. Existing […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:   May 27: Online meeting on National Nuclear Security Administration environmental review for plutonium pit production. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. 28:  Online meeting on National Nuclear Security Administration environmental review for plutonium pit production. The meeting starts at […]

President Donald Trump’s executive orders announced Friday May 23 are designed to spark a resurgence of nuclear plant construction in the United States, and the reaction to the news fell along predictable lines. A former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) between 2009 and 2012, Gregory Jaczko, said the regulatory process is not why […]

Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and Elementl Power have partnered up to work on a data-driven siting approach for advanced nuclear projects. Through its partnership, the Washington D.C. based nuclear company has leveraged the Oak Ride Siting Analysis for Generation Expansion (OR-SAGE) tool to help the company evaluate potential sites for advanced nuclear and […]

A Kremlin spokesperson said last week that President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome plan could force both Washington and Moscow to resume nuclear arms control talks, media reported. “In the foreseeable future, the very course of events requires the resumption of contacts on issues of strategic stability,” Dmitry Peskov told Reuters.  Trump and Secretary of Defense […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is “on track” with its W88 warhead, the agency’s acting principal deputy administrator said in a Senate panel last week. “We’re on track with the W88, which is to achieve first production unit relatively soon,” James McConnell, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s acting principal deputy administrator, told the Senate Armed […]