Department of Energy

An hour-long webcast  is now available online from Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio for the new energy and artificial intelligence data center. The Donald Trump administration officially announced Friday March 20 that the DOE gaseous diffusion plant site in Piketon, Ohio has been selected for a new multi-billion-dollar […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:    March:  24: Hearing: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will meet to examine arms control functions at the State Department, featuring testimony from Thomas DiNanno, undersecretary for arms control and international security at the State Department. The hearing will start at 10:30 a.m. […]

X-Energy and Talen Energy have signed a letter of intent to explore development of X-Energy Xe-100 reactors in Pennsylvania to serve the PJM, a regional transmission organization. PJM serves parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. Talen, a Houston-based power company, operates the Susquehanna Nuclear Station in Salem Township, Pa., within the PJM […]

Austin, Texas-based Aalo Atomics unveiled its completed reactor building of its critical test reactor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. Aalo held a March 19 ceremony for the finished reactor building on March 19, according to a company press release. The company said it completed the reactor structure in six months and expects […]

The org chart is in flux at the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Los Alamos National Laboratory field office where Jessica Kunkle will be rotating out to fill another supervisory role within DOE, the Northern New Mexico Site-Specific Advisory Board heard Thursday evening. Stanley Pyram, previously chief engineer at the Savannah River Site in South […]

The Donald Trump administration made it official Friday morning, announcing the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio has been selected for a multi-billion-dollar data center and power project thanks to a public-private-partnership agreement. In addition to the federal government, the partnership includes SoftBank and AEP Ohio, an American Electric Power company, DOE said in […]

PHOENIX – The chair of an industry working group on waste management hopes sponsors of new nuclear projects will soon start sharing details on how they plan to deal with the resulting waste. “We have got SMRs [small modular reactors] … popping up, micro reactors, uranium enrichment, spent fuel recycle, “ said Firewater President and […]

Nevada, where memories of the Yucca Mountain saga still linger, will not seek to host one of the Department of Energy’s state lifecycle hubs, a state official told Exchange Monitor this week. In an emailed statement Monday to the Monitor, Fred Dilger, executive director of the Nevada Agency of Nuclear Projects, said the state will […]

Oklo reached several key regulatory milestones this week for demonstration reactors being developed in Idaho and Texas and a separate project also in Idaho. One approval came via DOE’s reactor pilot program at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory. Oklo’s subsidiary company received the other two approvals as it also received one under the pilot program and […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States needs to reestablish a robust domestic uranium enrichment program in order to meet future nuclear goals, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said here Thursday. “When I first came onboard, I recognized this really is the biggest risk to the nuclear industry,” Garrish said of […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has unveiled a new effort to add 2,500 megawatts of nuclear power to the grid by 2027 through uprates to existing plants and restarting some closed reactors. The Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort (UPRISE) program aims to bring 2,500 megawatts of additional power by 2027 and […]

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) recently laced into the Department of Energy over a recent categorical exclusion to bypass certain safety requirements for certain advanced reactors. On Feb. 2, DOE established a categorical exclusion from certain National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures. The new exclusion could effectively allow certain advanced reactors to be approved without first […]

The Department of Energy is inviting teams from national laboratories, domestic industry, and universities to submit proposals as part of a $293-million requisition for application (RFA) being issued as part of the Genesis Mission. DOE said in a Tuesday press release it is inviting submissions for “The Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration was to conduct low-altitude helicopter flights March 16 through March 19 over the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio, the agency said in an email last week. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last July extended the operating license for the Vistra Corp. nuclear plant by 20 years.  The NNSA’s aerial […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States needs to reestablish a robust domestic uranium enrichment program in order to meet future nuclear goals, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said here Thursday. “When I first came onboard, I recognized this really is the biggest risk to the nuclear industry,” Garrish said of […]

PHOENIX – The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) will be recouping some of its lost staff positions, developing power plans for its nuclear sites, all while seeking to speed nuclear remediation, Tim Walsh said here last week. At the Waste Management Symposia last week in Phoenix, Walsh, the DOE assistant secretary for […]

Citizen groups that are frequent critics of the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex greeted news of a possible name change for the DOE Office of Environmental Management with a shrug. DOE Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management Tim Walsh told the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix last week that EM could soon be rebranded  as […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has completed an annual maintenance outage that started in January, while managers plan an even longer one next year.  The outage that ran from Jan. 5 through March 13 is finished and the underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is once again […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program could see “three to four” demonstration reactors reach criticality by July 4, DOE Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish told a Senate committee Thursday morning. Garrish, along with John Wagner, DOE Idaho National Laboratory director, and Mike Laufer, Kairos Power CEO, testified before the […]

The Donald Trump administration made it official Friday morning, announcing the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio has been selected for a multi-billion-dollar data center and power project thanks to a public-private-partnership agreement. In addition to the federal government, the partnership includes SoftBank and AEP Ohio, an American Electric Power company, DOE said in […]

The Department of Energy is inviting teams from national laboratories, domestic industry, and universities to submit proposals as part of a $293-million requisition for application (RFA) being issued as part of the Genesis Mission. DOE said in a Tuesday press release it is inviting submissions for “The Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI […]

The Donald Trump administration’s secretaries of Energy, Commerce and Interior are scheduled to announce a big redevelopment project Friday at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio as part of a U.S.–Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement. That is according to a media advisory put out this week by DOE. According to rumors circulating […]

Citizen groups that are frequent critics of the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex greeted news of a possible name change for the DOE Office of Environmental Management with a shrug. DOE Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management Tim Walsh told the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix last week that EM could soon be rebranded  as […]

Nevada, where memories of the Yucca Mountain saga still linger, will not seek to host one of the Department of Energy’s state lifecycle hubs, a state official told Exchange Monitor Monday. In an emailed statement to the Monitor, Fred Dilger, executive director of the Nevada Agency of Nuclear Projects, said the state will not respond […]

Oklo reached two key regulatory milestones Tuesday for a demonstration reactor being developed at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and a separate project also in Idaho. One approval came via DOE’s reactor pilot program while Oklo’s subsidiary company won a materials license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. DOE approved Oklo’s nuclear safety design […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has completed an annual maintenance outage that started in January. The outage, which ran from Jan. 5 through March 13, is finished and the underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is once again accepting shipments from around the DOE weapons complex, according […]

The Department of Energy is inviting teams from national laboratories, domestic industry, and universities to submit proposals as part of a $293-million requisition for application (RFA) being issued as part of the Genesis Mission. DOE said in a Tuesday press release it is inviting submissions for “The Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI […]

The Department of Energy’s Defense Waste Processing Facility, which turns radioactive tank waste into glass form at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, is now 30 years old. The facility for vitrifying tank waste into glass was commissioned in March 1996 by Hazel O’Leary, secretary of energy during the Bill Clinton administration, DOE noted […]

PHOENIX – Crews at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico are ending one maintenance outage while planning a longer one for 2027 officials said during the Waste Management Symposia last week. In January 2027, Bechtel-led prime Salado Isolation Mining Contractors will be launching an outage of perhaps six months […]

Michael Budney, who formerly led Department of Energy operations at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has accepted a director post at Mission Technologies, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) in Canberra, Australia. Budney announced the appointment Friday March 13 on his LinkedIn page. In the new role Budney will work with the […]