Department of Energy

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the nation’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, would undergo one of the larger Environmental Management spending cuts in fiscal 2026, according to recent administration data. Carlsbad, in charge of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), would receive […]

BWX Technologies has appointed Gonzalo Cajade as its chief human resources officer effective June 1. Cajade has been in human resource management for more than two decades. He was most recently executive vice president and chief people officer at TERREPOWER. Lynchburg, Va.,-based BWXT made the announcement in a May 29 press release. Cajade will report […]

Despite recent executive orders to speed up nuclear deployment, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would see a sizable reduction under the White House’s fiscal 2026 budget request. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  on May 30 released its 1,220 paged technical supplement to its budget request for fiscal 2026, […]

In addition to trimming its budget, the Department of Energy’s cleanup program for Cold War and Manhattan Project sites could have roughly a quarter fewer federal employees in fiscal 2026 than it did two years earlier. That is one of the takeaways from the White House Office of Management and Budget’s 1,220-page technical supplement to […]

In a split decision, a federal appeals court panel Friday kept in place a lower court’s order temporarily blocking the White House from carrying out more mass layoffs at the Departments of Defense, Energy, Interior and many other agencies. In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit kept in place […]

The Department of Energy earlier this month lifted several long-standing restrictions on recycling certain contaminated metals at DOE nuclear sites, including “volumetrically contaminated metals.” The rescissions were announced in a May 15 Federal Register notice. The changes could have big implications for the Paducah Site in Kentucky, said an industry source. Paducah has more than […]

As expected, President Donald Trump last week signed a set of executive orders designed to speed licensing of nuclear power reactors, both commercially and on federal installations, limit review by an independent nuclear regulator and beef up  the industry’s U.S. industrial base. Here is a thumbnail overview of each of the May 23 orders.  Overhauling […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has received a priority rating by the Department of Commerce to speed up the construction of the lab’s first two microreactor test beds. The National Reactor Innovation Center, led by INL, will operate the two microreactor test beds of the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) and Laboratory for […]

Oklo announced this week it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power to collaborate for future advanced nuclear projects.  Under the MOU, the two companies plan to explore opportunities to jointly progress the standard design development and verification of Oklo’s planned Aurora Powerhouse, according to Oklo’s Tuesday press release. […]

For the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to fully remediate 15 Cold War and Manhattan Project sites, it must dispose of over 11 million cubic meters of nuclear waste — and it needs a plan, according to a congressional watchdog. In a report made public Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Environmental […]

The Department of Energy could announce the first site for a data center to support artificial intelligence, which would be located on one of its federal installations, within 90 days, according to one of the nuclear executive orders Friday from President Donald Trump. Nuclear and non-nuclear support structures for such data centers on DOE installations […]

One of President Donald Trump’s May 23 executive orders instructs the secretary of energy to replace the surplus plutonium dilute and dispose program with one to process excess plutonium for fuel for advanced nuclear technologies. Trump’s executive order entitled “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” one of four nuclear-themed executive orders released last week, said the […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel National said Tuesday they have taken another incremental step in cold commissioning of a multi-billion-dollar plant to convert liquid radioactive tank waste into a solid glass form at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Ammonia and nitrous oxide-producing chemicals are being introduced into the melters for the Waste Treatment […]

The BWX Technologies-led joint venture doing liquid waste cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Wednesday its president is retiring and will be succeeded by the vice president. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) President and Program Manager Dave Olson, who has held the top job since SRMC won the […]

North Augusta, S.C., a city near the Savannah River Site, recently opened its $2 million waste transfer station, a facility paid for with money from a $600 million settlement in South Carolina’s case against the Department of Energy.  The settlement stemmed from DOE cancelling of the SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication (MOX) Facility, one that […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has only 400-odd containers of legacy transuranic (TRU) waste left for shipment to DOE’s underground disposal site in New Mexico. The Savannah River Site has loaded and shipped more than 35,000 containers of the legacy waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has received a priority rating by the Department of Commerce to speed up the construction of the lab’s first two microreactor test beds. The National Reactor Innovation Center, led by INL, will operate the two microreactor test beds of the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) and Laboratory for […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has only 400-odd containers of legacy transuranic (TRU) waste left for shipment to DOE’s underground disposal site in New Mexico. The Savannah River Site has loaded and shipped more than 35,000 containers of the legacy waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, […]

North Augusta, S.C., a city near the Savannah River Site, recently opened its $2 million waste transfer station, a facility paid for with money from a $600 million settlement in South Carolina’s case against the Department of Energy.  The settlement stemmed from DOE cancelling of the SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication (MOX) Facility, one that […]

The BWX Technologies-led joint venture doing liquid waste cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said Wednesday its president is retiring and will be succeeded by the vice president. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) President and Program Manager Dave Olson, who has held the top job since SRMC won the […]

One of President Donald Trump’s Friday executive orders instructs the secretary of energy to replace the surplus plutonium dilute and dispose program with one to process excess plutonium for fuel for advanced nuclear technologies. Trump’s executive order entitled “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” one of four nuclear-themed executive orders released last week, said the program […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel National said Tuesday they have taken another incremental step in cold commissioning of a multi-billion-dollar plant to convert liquid radioactive tank waste into a solid glass form at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Ammonia and nitrous oxide-producing chemicals are being introduced into the melters for the Waste Treatment […]

The Department of Energy could announce the first site for a data center to support artificial intelligence, which would be located on one of its federal installations, within 90 days, according to one of the nuclear executive orders Friday from President Donald Trump. Nuclear and non-nuclear support structures for such data centers on DOE installations […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:   May 27: Online meeting on National Nuclear Security Administration environmental review for plutonium pit production. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. 28:  Online meeting on National Nuclear Security Administration environmental review for plutonium pit production. The meeting starts at […]

Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and Elementl Power have partnered up to work on a data-driven siting approach for advanced nuclear projects. Through its partnership, the Washington D.C. based nuclear company has leveraged the Oak Ride Siting Analysis for Generation Expansion (OR-SAGE) tool to help the company evaluate potential sites for advanced nuclear and […]

Breaking: Trump orders seek to speed reactor construction on commercial, defense sites As expected, President Donald Trump Friday signed a set of executive orders designed to speed licensing of nuclear power reactors, both commercially and on federal installations, limit review by an independent nuclear regulator and beef up  the industry’s U.S. industrial base. Here is […]

Dae Chung, head of corporate services for the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, plans to retire at the end of the month. “Please join me in congratulating Dae Chung on 32+ years of distinguished federal service as he prepares to retire at the end of this month,” Roger Jarrell, principal deputy assistant […]

There is good news and bad news to report on staffing, the head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico told a federal advisory panel last week. “I am happy to report that no federal employees within the EMLA [Environmental Management Los Alamos] field […]

President Donald Trump is reportedly expected to sign executive orders on Friday meant to speed nuclear power reactor licensing through expedited regulatory reviews and other changes. According to a Thursday report by Reuters, Trump could sign the executive orders “as soon as” Friday. Reuters also reported Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Trump will sign […]

A federal district judge in California has ruled President Donald Trump lacks authority to carry out mass layoffs and sweeping reorganization of U.S. government agencies without approval from Congress. As a result, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction suspending more large-scale workforce reductions at the Departments of Defense, Energy, Interior […]