Ohio lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright asking that he award “a majority share” of any funds appropriated to the Department of Energy toward Centrus Energy’s American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.
The letter was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine (R), Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel (R), and Sens. Bernie Moreno (R) and Jon Husted (R).
“In 2023, Congress appointed $3.4 billion to the Department of Energy to develop domestic uranium enrichment,” the letter, posted on website X by DeWine, said. “It is critical that the Department of Energy prioritize American-owned and operated projects, such as Centrus Energy’s Piketon plant, when spending those dollars.”
President Donald Trump Thursday extended the hiring freeze he placed Jan. 20 on federal civilian employees in the executive branch until July 15, according to a White House memorandum.
The hiring freeze was originally set to run until April 20. The hiring freeze extends to filling vacancies as well as new positions.
The memo noted that the freeze does not affect deadlines set by the Department of Government Agency to reduce government agency workforces, but “continues to apply to all executive departments and agencies regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding.”
EnergySolutions appoints Scott Duffy as president of its Nuclear Services, as announced in an April 14 press release.
In the role, Duffy will be in charge of the EnergySolutions’s nuclear projects, construction and maintenance and modifications business. He has over 40 years of experience in commercial development and operations in the energy industry, as stated in the press release.
Duffy previously served as senior vice president and board member at Zachary Group and held project engineering and operations leadership roles at William Industrial Services Group, which was acquired by EnergySolutions in 2023.
Delaware lawmakers have proposed new legislation to establish a task force that will study nuclear energy and possible small modular reactor deployment in the state.
In the bill, Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 18 authored by state Sen. Bryant Richardson (R), the task force will be tasked with multiple roles such as to assess the logistics of deploying SMRs in Delaware, to assess the financial feasibility of the deployments, and to identify needed changes in regulations and laws to facilitate the SMRs development and deployment.
The bill was passed in the Senate in a 19-2 vote on March 26 and has been sent to the state House’s Natural Resources and Energy committee. On April 3, an amendment for the task force to explore nuclear fusion energy generation technology was introduced by state House Rep. Jeff Hilovsky (R), who is an additional sponsor to Resolution 18.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chair of the House Appropriations committee, said at a GE Aerospace conference April 9 that the White House would send a “skinny budget,” our outline, to Congress for fiscal 2026 before the end of April.
Cole said the Office of Management and Budget “committed” to sending the “skinny budget” by the end of the month.
A “skinny budget” would usually outline only top-level funding for each Department and major agency, which would include the Department of Energy. A full budget request is expected sometime in May, but there has not been confirmation by the Office of Management and Budget on that.
