Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Connecticut has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to become what is known as an agreement state, picking up certain responsibilities for radioactive materials.  An agreement state enters into a deal  with the NRC to assume regulatory authority over particular radioactive materials and do inspections within the respective state borders. The state receives some license fee […]

A Maryland-based federal district judge on Wednesday called for additional legal briefs from the U.S. Department of Justice and 20 state attorneys general challenging mass layoffs of probationary workers  at the Department of Energy and other federal agencies.  U.S. District Judge James Bredar issued a temporary restraining order against the mass layoffs earlier this month. […]

President Donald Trump has nominated a trio of officials to lead key Department of Energy branches serving the weapons complex, although as of mid-week Senate committees had not scheduled confirmation hearings on any of them. All three would report to the already confirmed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. Exchange Monitor will update the nominees’ progress […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a solicitation that makes $900 million available through federal funds to support the deployment of small modular reactors (SMR). Originally issued in October 2024, the DOE announced the reissue of the solicitation on Monday as the agency works to better align with the Donald Trump administration’s agenda to […]

Oklo, Inc., an advanced nuclear energy company, said this week it plans to have its first commercial Aurora Powerhouse deployed in late 2027 to early 2028. California-based Oklo released its fiscal year 2024 financial results and business update presentation on Monday. Last week the company finalized an agreement with the Department of Energy’s Idaho National […]

Former Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), the first black Republican Congresswoman, died at age 49 on Sunday following a battle with brain cancer.  Love, who represented the 4th Congressional district of Utah from 2015-2019, passed away on Sunday in Saratoga Springs, Utah, according to her X account where her family announced it.  Love served as a […]

Illinois lawmakers plan to remove the state’s suspension on new nuclear projects in the proposed Senate Bill 1527. The proposed law, introduced by state Sen. Sue Rezin (R), would amend the state’s Public Utilities Act in removing the ban on constructing new nuclear power reactors with a rated capacity of more than 300 megawatts of […]

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent letters to directors of Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Argonne National Laboratories on reports of researchers leveraging supercomputers from the Chinese military. Lee, a proponent for examining vulnerabilities at national labs particularly concerning foreign nationals, published the letters Wednesday on the […]

Texas A&M University professor Satish Bukkapatnam believes nuclear fusion as a reliable energy source is “a decade or more” away from being feasible, according to a press release.  Nuclear fusion is a source of clean energy that involves fusing light nuclei to create energy and helium. This fusion could create massive amounts of energy.  In […]

EnergySolutions appointed Laszlo von Lazar as vice president of operations on Thursday. Lazar has served in previous roles that involved managing operations in the power sector including gas, offshore wind, nuclear and solar. He previously served as president of the Energy and Process Industries and was a member of the board at Black and Veatch.  […]

The Department of Energy is rehiring many probationary employees laid off in recent government downsizing by the Donald Trump administration, sources said this week. DOE did not immediately reply to an email Friday morning seeking confirmation and no hard numbers were available. The workers are being reinstated after a Maryland-based federal judge’s order that grew […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services suffered a drop in revenue in 2024, the Atlanta-based company reported March 12. In its latest earnings report, Perma-Fix said it was disappointed with its 2024 financial results, but expected better things in 2025. In the news release last week, Perma-Fix CEO Mark Duff said: “While our financial performance in the fourth […]

PHOENIX —The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is an example of where  remediation successfully cleared the way for new nuclear and other business ventures, an Amentum executive told the Waste Management Symposia here last week. The former Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion “plant has been transformed into a clean, modernized, multi-use industrial park, […]

Local development officials in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state remain cautiously optimistic a major new solar power project envisioned for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site will happen despite a change in administrations. Officials at DOE and the Chicago-based developer, Hecate Energy, both declined comment last week. Also last week, Roger Jarrell, a DOE […]

CHANTILLY, VA – Amentum has announced Corhyn Parr as its vice president of international development on Tuesday. Parr previously served as the CEO of Nuclear Waste Services, a subdivision of the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and was the director of Integrated Waste at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. After graduating as a mechanical engineer, Parr […]

PHOENIX — More than 100 people showed up and gave a standing ovation March 11 at the conclusion of the first of two presentations here at the Waste Management Symposia on the status of nuclear power plants in Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion. “We are talking about a sovereign nation that is a member […]

The Department of Energy said Monday it is awarding Holtec the second phase of a federal loan, this chunk worth nearly $57 million, to go toward reviving the closed Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan. Providing it wins the necessary Nuclear Regulatory Commission approvals, the 800-megawatt facility would effectively become the nation’s first restart of […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) has recommended Congress and the Department of Energy (DOE) formally start planning for a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste. The Technical Review Board said it is seeking a “workable pathway” to site, license, build and operate the facility for spent fuel and high-level waste, but is not […]

PHOENIX — More than 100 people showed up and gave a standing ovation March 11 at the conclusion of the first of two presentations here at the Waste Management Symposia on the status of nuclear power plants in Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion. “We are talking about a sovereign nation that is a member […]

A bill agreeing to a continuing resolution to avert a shutdown and fund the U.S. government through the end of the fiscal year, passed the Senate 54-to-46 on Friday afternoon March 14  and was signed by President Donald Trump. A measure to allow the measure to proceed to a floor vote and the final vote […]

A member of the House Appropriation Committee from Tennessee and nuclear advocates took part in a think tank-sponsored webinar Thursday on the potential for developing advanced reactors in coal-heavy Appalachia.  The Atlantic Council’s Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative, which last month released a report dubbed “Atoms for Appalachia” after holding a series of workshops that explores […]

PHOENIX —— Canada is one of the first but won’t be the last nation to successfully use “consent-based siting” to select a deep underground repository location for used nuclear fuel, the CEO of Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization, said here Monday. A “decade of engagement” was key to Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) being […]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday he intends to vote to advance a Republican-drafted stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government operating through the rest of fiscal 2025. Unless a continuing resolution was approved Friday, the government would partially shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. A vote was expected Friday after the […]

Federal review of TerraPower’s advanced nuclear plant under construction in Wyoming is about two months ahead of schedule and remains on pace for completion in 2030, company officials announced at a nuclear conference on Wednesday.  TerraPower’s proposal to develop a nuclear plant in Wyoming coal country is meeting requirements outlined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

A bipartisan group of four Senators last week urged Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair David Wright to prioritize streamlining the agency’s environmental reviews as called for under 2023 legislation. “We encourage the Commission to vote in a manner that fully reflects congressional intent to streamline the NRC’s licensing process, as directed in the Accelerating Deployment of […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy during President Donald Trump’s second term hasn’t focused on a Joe Biden administration effort to tap underused land at federal nuclear sites for carbon-free power, an Environmental Management official said Monday. With the administration being “new,” less than two months old, no decisions on the Cleanup to Clean Energy […]

A report the Energy Communities Alliance is rolling out this week at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix says existing Department of Energy nuclear installations and other electric power sites are increasingly being targeted for new reactors. The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) report is titled “From the Atomic Age to New Nuclear: Energy Communities Ready […]