Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Southern California Edison this week updated its latest decommissioning efforts for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in southern California. In its first quarter update, SCE said it has begun to deconstruct reactor pressure vessels that previously stored nuclear fuel and coolant for the plant. There are three parts of the reactor pressure vessels: a […]

The W80-4 warhead will stay on schedule, despite the cost breach of its delivery vehicle the B-52 bomber, Sandia National Laboratories director Laura McGill said during an online press conference Wednesday. “It is really critical that we deliver that system on time,” McGill said while answering a question by the Exchange Monitor on how last […]

Top Senate defense appropriator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday the Donald Trump administration’s defense budget outline, which factors in planned reconciliation spending to achieve a $1 trillion topline, “fails” to meet the required level of investment. McConnell criticized the decision to include anticipated reconciliation funds as a “budgetary sleight of hand.” “American politicians have criticized […]

The Senate Tuesday voted 52-to-44 to confirm James Danly, a former member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to be deputy secretary of energy. The vote was along party lines with four senators, two Democrats and two Republicans, not voting. Danly, an attorney and U.S. Army veteran from Tennessee, was nominated to the position by […]

BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., said this week that Rob LeMasters, who joined the company a decade ago as a board of directors’ member, has stepped down from his job as chief financial officer and executive vice president. The current chief accounting officer, Mike Fitzgerald, becomes interim CFO, BWXT said in a Monday press release. Fitzgerald […]

Earnings rose at NuScale Power, Corvallis, Ore., in the first quarter, which the small modular reactor developer attributed in part to a technical license agreement for the RoPower Dolcești power plant. Revenue for the first quarter ended at  $13.4 million up from $1.4 million in the first quarter in 2024. NuScale had a net loss […]

Work crews at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio have started removing asbestos-laden outer panels from the mammoth X-333 Process Building at the old uranium enrichment complex. Workers are removing 16,000 transite panels from the X-333 Process Building over the next year and a half, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in […]

EnergySolutions, Salt Lake City, said Tuesday it is planning to seek an Early Site Permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the shuttered Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin. The company is collaborating with WEC Energy Group (WEC) to explore new nuclear generation in Wisconsin, EnergySolutions said in a press release. WEC is a Milwaukee-based […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff Tuesday outlined efforts underway to expedite its licensing for fuel facilities and spent fuel storage facilities at its commission meeting in Rockville, Maryland. Since April 2024, the NRC has completed 30 fuel licensing actions. The agency’s staff said it currently has 20 fuel licensing actions and expects 63 fuel licensing […]

Three Iranian nationals and one Iranian entity with ties to the successor organization to Iran’s nuclear weapons program prior to 2004, were sanctioned by the U.S. State Department Monday.  The entities’ ties to the organization, called Iran’s Organization of Defense Innovation and Research (SPND), “materially contribute to, pose a risk of materially contributing to, the […]

Matthew Napoli, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation office in the National Nuclear Security Administration, said he is committed to working with allies to prevent state and nonstate actors, including Iran, from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “We know there are discussions about the Iranian nuclear program, and we’re also very aware […]

The Donald Trump administration has asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in Northern California that suspends mass layoffs at federal agencies. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued a decision May 9 blocking the Departments of Defense, Energy, Interior and others temporarily blocking […]

Global Laser Enrichment has begun its uranium demonstration testing at its Test Loop facility in Wilmington, N.C., the company announced in a May 7 press release. The company said its testing program for the SILEX enrichment process is expected to be a pivotal validation of large-scale performance. An independent engineering contractor will assess all of […]

A center for processing and storing transuranic waste could start up at the Hanford Site in 2033, Department of Energy and Washington state officials said during a public meeting last week. DOE and Washington state Department of Ecology managers on May 7 summarized plans to build and run a proposed Contact-Handled Waste Processing Treatment and […]

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, spurred Chinese military researchers to consider the risks toward nuclear facilities, according to a study by China’s People’s Liberation Army. Beijing brought the total number of commercial reactors, both operational and under construction, to 102 last month, according to Beijing publication […]

The Donald Trump administration is seeking a more direct role in speeding up new reactor development and, in the process, could curb the authority of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission through executive orders, the New York Times and  NPR reported over the weekend.  Reportedly, there are four draft executive orders under consideration by the White House […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hear testimony Tuesday morning from President Donald Trump’s nominee for deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Matthew Napoli, the administration’s nominee to be deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation of the National Nuclear Security Administration, is scheduled to testify […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization has announced a multi-contractor team, including WSP Canada, to design the deep underground spent fuel repository planned for Ontario. In a Monday press release, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said it has chosen a team of WSP Canada, Peter Kiewit Sons, Hatch Ltd., Thyssen Mining Construction of Canada Ltd. […]

AtkinsRéalis Group, Montreal, Canada, which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has scheduled its first quarter earnings conference call on Friday starting at 8 a.m. Eastern Time. The earnings conference call will be webcast. Later that day, the company will also hold its annual shareholder meeting. The U.S. branch of AtkinsRéalis Group is a major […]

Ontario Power Generation has awarded Aecon Kiewit Nuclear Partners a construction contract for the Darlington New Nuclear project in Clarington, Ontario. Aecon, a Canadian construction company, announced a press release.May 8 that its partnership with Kiewit Nuclear Canada, was awarded the alliance construction contract. Aecon said its share of the contract is worth $1.3 billion. […]

The U.S. Air Force said on Thursday that the program executive officer for bombers at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center submitted a program deviation report on the B-52 Radar Modernization Program to the service’s acquisition executive on Apr. 11. “The Air Force is assessing the cost and schedule growth on the program and […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking: May:  14: Meeting: The Northern New Mexico Site Specific Advisory board holds a virtual meeting starting at 1 p.m. Mountain Time.  14: Meeting: Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory board meets in a hybrid session starting at 6 p.m. E.T. at DOE’s Office […]

The Senate has agreed to a cloture motion that could clear the way for the chamber to vote on President Donald Trump’s nomination of James Danly to be deputy secretary of energy. The Senate in a voice vote on Thursday May 8 agreed to “proceed to executive session’” for  consideration of the Danly nomination, according […]

Elementl Power has signed a strategic agreement with Google on Wednesday to develop three advanced reactors for the technology company. In the agreement, Elementl Power, a nuclear developer based in Washington, D.C, plans to provide at least 600 megawatts for each project, with the option for commercial off-take when completed, as said in the Wednesday […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said despite proposed budget cuts, there should be no slowdown in remediation at Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites. “Through doing things smarter, there won’t be any slowdown” in nuclear cleanup at Cold War and Manhattan Project sites, Wright told Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) during a Congressional hearing Wednesday. The […]

The Government Accountability Office, in a report sent last month to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, highlighted six areas affecting the mission of DOE and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Nuclear weapons complex areas discussed were: improving contract, project and program management; as well as management of nuclear modernization challenges; addressing strategic human capital; […]