Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Breaking: Trump orders seek to speed reactor construction on commercial, defense sites As expected, President Donald Trump Friday signed a set of executive orders designed to speed licensing of nuclear power reactors, both commercially and on federal installations, limit review by an independent nuclear regulator and beef up  the industry’s U.S. industrial base. Here is […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite cuts to the Office of Nuclear Energy, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Wednesday the Department of Energy will lean heavily on the Loan Programs Office to stimulate new nuclear reactor investments.  Wright spoke before the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development subcommittee about the DOE’s budget request highlighted in the […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, while testifying and receiving questions in the Senate, said he is working with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to get more than just a “skinny budget” to Congress. “We’re working with OMB to release more of that, but that’s still a work in progress,” Wright […]

Uncertainty over Department of Energy funding and guidance at the Hanford Site in Washington state threatens to bog down work at the nation’s largest nuclear cleanup site, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash) told Secretary of Energy Chris Wright Wednesday. “The Hanford Site is on the brink of having to lay off subcontractors and restart an entire […]

Westinghouse Electric has signed a memorandum of understanding with two Canadian indigenous communities to advance its technology for new build projects at the Port of Belledune in Canada. The initial focus of the MOU will explore deployment opportunities for Westinghouse’s AP300 small modular reactor with local developers and industrial and data center customers, according to […]

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has died at age 75, only weeks after publicly announcing his cancer had returned. Connolly died early Wednesday morning, according to a family statement posted on his Congressional website. “It is with immense sadness that we share that our devoted […]

A team from the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., according to an AFGSC press release. The missile was equipped with a “single Mark-21 High Fidelity Re-entry Vehicle,” the release said. The re-entry vehicle traveled […]

The current head of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management told a Senate Armed Services Committee panel this week progress is being made toward solidifying liquid radioactive waste left over from the Cold War and Manhattan Project. Roger Jarrell II, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for Environmental Management (EM) also told the […]

James McConnell, acting principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the design for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility in South Carolina should be 90% complete in calendar year 2026. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), chair of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Strategic Forces, asked McConnell how the National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently discontinued its rulemaking work on spent fuel pools and is denying a petition for rulemaking. The discontinuation of the “Long-Term and Unattended Water Makeup Spent Fuel Pools” rulemaking activity was published in the Federal Register on May 7. The NRC said if it pursues similar rulemaking activities in the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has transferred 32 more acres of remediated land to local authorities from DOE’s Oak Ridge Site. The 32-acre land transfer to the Industrial Development Board of Oak Ridge from the Oak Ridge’s former Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex was announced Tuesday by the Environmental Management office. It brings […]

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded a $4-million contract to an Alaskan native corporation subsidiary for maintenance and support services in Nevada. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) facility maintenance and support services contract for Chenega Reliable Services at the Nevada National Security Site field office in Las Vegas was […]

Amid fears the United States is losing ground to rivals in world nuclear power markets, a group of Republicans and Democrats this week introduced the International Nuclear Energy Act. “If the U.S. doesn’t lead on nuclear energy development, Russia and China will,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said in a Tuesday press release. “This bill will […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority has submitted a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactor at its Clinch River nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Preliminary SMR site preparation could potentially start as early as 2026, TVA said in its Tuesday press release. “This is a […]

A non-Sentinel flight test for the W87-1 warhead is planned for next calendar year, a spokesperson for Sandia National Laboratories told the Exchange Monitor in an email Monday. “Even with the disruption with the Sentinel program, we’ve been able to continue to keep that program on track,” Laura McGill, director of Sandia, said in response […]

The U.S. Air Force B-52 Radar Modernization Program (RMP) has exceeded the 15% significant unit cost increase threshold “due to design, production, and installation cost increases,” the Air Force said on Monday. The Air Force program executive office for bombers at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Ohio […]

The first production unit of the B61-13 gravity bomb is complete, nearly a year ahead of schedule, Pantex Plant prime PanTeXas Deterrence announced Monday. The first production unit was completed four months after the announcement of the last production unit for the B61-12. Pantex program manager Taylor Massey said in a press release Monday that […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has formally made longtime DOE hand Brian Harkins the acting manager of its costliest nuclear cleanup site. DOE’s Environmental Management headquarters in Washington, D.C, Monday appointed Harkins its acting manager for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The move is no surprise, given Harkins has been the […]

Urenco USA has begun production of enriched uranium in its newest gas centrifuge cascade to start the next phase of expansion at its enrichment facility in New Mexico. In a  Monday press release Urenco USA said this cascade is the first of several, scheduled to come online by early 2027. When completed, the company expects […]

Admiral James Kilby, acting chief of Naval Operations, told a Congressional hearing last week that he was in talks with the director of Strategic Systems Programs on nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) alternatives. “I’ve had a couple of sessions with Vice Admiral Johnny Wolf, who is the strategic programs office lead, who will produce this,” […]

The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces will hear testimony Tuesday on Department of Energy defense activities and Department of Defense nuclear weapons programs while reviewing the fiscal 2026 defense authorization request. The hearing is scheduled to start on Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time in Russel Senate Office Building, room 222. The witnesses […]

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine offers a real-world example of military targeting of nuclear plants, and the issue requires more attention, a National Academies board heard last week in Washington, D.C. A war-gaming study to explore this threat was done recently by Henry Sokolski, who heads the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. He discussed the issue […]

Deep Isolation announced on May 14 that it has completed its project to demonstrate potential commercial readiness of its Universal Canister System for TRISO spent nuclear fuel. The nuclear waste technology company headquartered in Berkeley, Calif. worked collaboratively with Alameda, Calif. based advanced nuclear technology company Kairos Power for Project Performance Validation of the Universal […]

Westinghouse has signed memorandums of understanding with seven Bulgarian suppliers that will support the two-unit AP1000 project at the Kozloduy nuclear site in Bulgaria with various products and services. The MOUs include cranes, electrical and industrial equipment, instrumentation and control equipment, logistics and transportation and piping. The seven Bulgarian suppliers are Balkansko Echo EOOD, Bon […]

There is good news and bad news to report on staffing, the head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico told a federal advisory panel last week. “I am happy to report that no federal employees within the EMLA [Environmental Management Los Alamos] field […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking: May:  21: Subcommittee hearing: The proposed fiscal 2026 budget for the Department of Energy is the subject of a hearing starting at 2:30 p.m. E.T. by the Senate Appropriations  Energy & Water Subcommittee.  22:  Spent Fuel Solutions webinar with Energy Communities Alliance […]