Secretary of Energy Chris Wright Thursday announced reorganization of the Department of Energy with a prominent role in the organizational chart for the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
A link to the new org chart shows an office of undersecretary for nuclear security and NNSA being one of the three biggest silos reporting up to Wright and his deputy secretary. The other two largest boxes are the undersecretary for science and the office of undersecretary for energy.
The Office of Nuclear Energy has been realigned under the Office of the Under Secretary of Energy. Some of DOE’s Grid Deployment Office (GDO) and Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) functions will be realigned with the Office of Nuclear Energy, according to a DOE spokesperson.
In a series of agreements, President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman finalized and signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, according to a White House fact sheet released Tuesday.
The Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation, as it is called, cements a “civil” nuclear energy partnership between the two parties, and “confirms” U.S. companies will be Saudi Arabia’s choice for nuclear technology sharing “consistent with strong nonproliferation standards,” the fact sheet said.
“We’ve come together on a deal for civil nuclear cooperation,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a press release. “Together, with bilateral safeguard agreements, we want to grow our partnership, bring American nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and keep a firm commitment to nonproliferation.”
Aalo Atomics and Microsoft have agreed to collaborate on generative artificial intelligence (AI) nuclear permitting.
The initiative will use Microsoft generative AI for Energy Permitting Solutions Accelerator and AI agents to expedite complex regulatory and operational workflows in Aalo’s nuclear programs, according to Aalo’s Monday press release.
“Permitting remains one of the greatest bottlenecks in nuclear deployments,” Jon Guidroz, Aalo Atomics senior vice president of commercialization, said. “By integrating Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and agentic AI technology, we’re turning regulatory complexity into actionable intelligence, bringing us closer to building the clean-energy future, faster than ever before.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended its comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for TRISO-X’s special nuclear material license application for its proposed fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Public comments on the draft environmental review were initially due by Nov. 17, but will now be due on Dec. 8, according to a Monday notice posted in the Federal Register. NRC attributed the extension to time lost due to the government shutdown.
NRC posted a Federal Register notice on Oct. 23 for the TRISO-X’s draft environmental impact statement but said NRC staff will extend the period, to be in compliance with regulatory requirements.