Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

With less than a month of legislative work days remaining in the 118th Congress, lawmakers from California and Texas on Tuesday introduced a bill that would create a Nuclear Waste Administration. Sponsored by a bipartisan pair whose districts contain or border large nuclear constituencies, it was the latest show of support for an old idea […]

New cleanup rules for the Los Alamos National Laboratory will go into effect by next week, but the Department of Energy and New Mexico do not have to agree on new cleanup deadlines by then. DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) must sign a revised consent order governing Los Alamos cleanup within 30 […]

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said Wednesday the federation changed its nuclear doctrine, specifically by adding new adversary actions to the list of things that warrant a nuclear response from the Kremlin, according to a video posted by state media. “Aggression by a non-nuclear-weapon state, but with participation or support of a nuclear state, would […]

WASHINGTON — After passing the House and being rushed to the Senate, a three-month continuing resolution was agreed to by both chambers days before the end of fiscal year 2024. The bill, voted on Wednesday as Congress prepared to leave town until November, passed 341-82 in the House, with unanimous Democratic approval, 132 Republicans for […]

A Department of Energy report to Congress about cleaning up excess nuclear weapons facilities will be a few months late next year, the Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday. DOE’s report will arrive by June 30 instead of March 31 as required by law, according to an attachment to a letter signed by Candice Robertson, senior […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday recommended that the Senate vote on William “Ike” White’s nomination to join the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The approval by the committee, which received White’s nomination in May, clears the way for the full Senate Senate to send the former head of the Department of Energy’s Office […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told a room of Navajo Nation members Tuesday that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act would pass by supermajority, but that the House speaker hadn’t “committed” to giving it a vote. “’l just thank Speaker Johnson for being very involved,” Hawley said at a press conference on Capitol Hill […]

President Joe Biden (D) would pass a funding bill that would freeze federal budgets at 2024 levels through Dec. 20, a White House statement said Tuesday. “The Administration calls for swift passage of this bill in both chambers of the Congress to avoid a costly,  unnecessary Government shutdown and to ensure there is adequate time […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday said it established an Atomic Safety Licensing Board to hear a local man’s arguments against granting regulatory relief for the restart of the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan. In a Federal Register filing, NRC said it last week established the board to preside over a hearing sought by […]

WASHINGTON — Construction on the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex is about 70% complete and ahead of the current schedule, the site manager told the Exchange Monitor recently. The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages.  “So the current baseline schedule, and […]

The Department of Energy on Oct. 2 will host a webinar for people interested in shaping a request for information about conducting a series of violent tests on a container being developed to transport spent nuclear fuel.  DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the webinar on Monday in a press release. On Friday, the office […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said it planned to vote in November on whether Matthew Marzano should join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The vote was set for the top of a committee business meeting scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 13 in room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in […]

The mega-merger of Amentum Services, Chantilly, and the government and cyber businesses of Jacobs Solutions, Dallas, was scheduled to close Friday and begin Monday. Jacobs announced Sept. 13 that the close of business today, Monday, Sept. 23, would be “the record date for the spin-off distribution of its Critical Mission Solutions and Cyber & Intelligence […]

WASHINGTON — The Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex would benefit from a continuing resolution, the site’s prime said, while plutonium pits could suffer under a short term budget extension, a spokesperson at the Department of Defense told the Exchange Monitor last week. A House committee on Monday planned to consider a […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week and next. September 24 – Centrus Energy Corp. Hill briefing: Restoring U.S. Uranium Enrichment. Amir Vexler, president and CEO of Centrus to attend. 2075 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington. 11:00 a.m. Eastern time to 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. […]

The House Rules Committee said it will consider on Monday a new funding bill that would largely freeze federal budgets at 2024 levels through Dec. 20. The committee was scheduled to consider the bill at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, setting up a floor vote as soon as Tuesday. Friday, Sept. 27, was the […]

The six-month continuing resolution voted down Wednesday in the House would have delayed completition of nuclear-powered submarines, among other things, the Secretary of the Navy wrote this week in a letter to congressional appropriators. In the letter, dated Sept. 12 and publicly released Monday, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro reiterated some points made […]

WASHINGTON — After lurching back to the House floor Wednesday, the House speaker’s six-month continuing resolution again failed to rally enough support to pass the chamber. The bill went down 202-220, with 14 Republican holdouts, two Republicans voting present and three Democratic supporters. It was mostly clean for the Department of Energy, aside from an […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Groups helping the Department of Energy define both consent and who may give it, when it comes to storage of spent nuclear fuel, will give the agency a progress report in December, an official said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. That should give DOE time to incorporate feedback from the 13 […]

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — The head of the U.S. Strategic Command on Wednesday told a roomful of military personnel to produce the nuclear weapons needed to counter pressure from Russia and China. “We now have two nuclear peers,” Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of United States Strategic Command, said in a panel on “the […]

ARLINGTON, VA — After earlier trouble scrubbing liquid radioactive waste down to levels acceptable for solidification, the Hanford Site has produced more than 550,000 gallons of compliant waste, a federal official said here at an industry gathering. That is the beginning of a batch of roughly 800,000 gallons of compliant waste that the site wants […]

Garret Harencak plans to step down as president of the prime contractor of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site, people familiar with his plans said Tuesday. In August, the board of directors of Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the site’s Honeywell-led prime, informed site employees that Harencak, a retired Air Force […]

The U.S. made “huge strides” reinvigorating its civil nuclear industry, the deputy energy secretary said Monday at the International Atomic Energy Agency general conference. “The U.S. civil nuclear industry is providing products and services to partner with countries to achieve their civil nuclear goals, while incorporating effective and efficient nuclear security, safety, and safeguards early […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Congress should pass a three-month continuing resolution to keep the government open when fiscal year 2025 begins, the Republican chair of the House appropriations subcommittee that writes the Department of Energy’s budget bill said here Tuesday. “We need to keep the federal government open,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) said here at the […]