Department of Energy

The Donald Trump White House has drafted a memo to Congress, pushing for legislation to remove Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the sole site for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The 1987 amendments of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act established Yucca Mountain as the sole repository for high-level waste. However, plans for Yucca were […]

Rian Bahran, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactors, left DOE last Friday and joined microreactor developer Antares Nuclear. Bahran, who was with DOE since January 2025, will now serve as the chief nuclear officer at Antares, beginning this week. In his new role, he will lead the […]

In pursuing a pathway to waste disposal through the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, the Department of Energy will still likely need one to two deep geological repositories for spent nuclear fuel, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) said.  The NWTRB, established through the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1987, penned a July 24 letter […]

South Carolina would consider deep borehole disposal of radioactive spent nuclear fuel as part of a federal nuclear lifecycle hub program; the state Department of Commerce told the Department of Energy earlier this year. That is according to a news release last week from the Savannah River Site Watch nuclear watchdog group, following a response […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Isotope Research and Development and Production (IRP) needs to implement better practices for managing critical isotopes in the U.S. market, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said last week. In a July 23 report, GAO said IRP, a subagency in DOE’s Office of Science, is the sole domestic supplier of […]

Chantilly, Va.- based Amentum said July 23 it has won a contract, worth $85 million spread over three years, to design and overhaul key infrastructure for the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program. The work will take place at the Naval Reactors Facility located at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, according to an Amentum […]

A week after becoming a public company, Standard Nuclear said July 22 that construction is nearly finished on two of its new nuclear fuel facilities in Idaho and Tennessee. SN-TN in Tennessee and SN-ID in Idaho are two identical fuel facilities, which once operational, should produce up to one metric ton of uranium of tri-structural […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this week denied a challenge brought by Beyond Nuclear and the Sierra Club to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) process for reviewing reactor license renewals. “Petitioners argue that the commission did not adequately consider how aging components and climate change affect the risk of […]

After two days of debate, the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the House floor mainly on party lines at 216-212. The defense policy bill, which also sets spending caps for certain defense-related appropriations, would authorize $32.76 billion in funding for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Marine Minerals Administration have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Wednesday to create a framework for potential nuclear reactors to be built on the ocean.  The possible reactors would be particularly deployed on the Outer Continental Shelf, which the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) defines as “all submerged lands […]

About $190 million worth of work remains at the Department of Energy’s Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project at Moab, Utah, bringing the final tab to about $1.16 billion, a congressional watchdog said earlier this month. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a July 15 report the Moab cleanup has already cost $970 million […]

The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn. is still looking for a replacement site for a municipal airport after the original location was tapped for nuclear industry expansion, City Manager Randy Hemann told Exchange Monitor Thursday. In an emailed statement with the Monitor, Hemann said the city is still engaged in considering alternate sites that “meet […]

Amentum has been selected by the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to negotiate a lease for a data center at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the organizations said Monday. NNSA picked Amentum to enter into “phased” lease negotiations for a data center and accompanying on-site generation, NNSA and Chantilly, […]

The Department of Energy plans to formally announce its selections for the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus program later this month and the states of Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah could be winners, a senior industry source told Exchange Monitor this week. When reached Monday a DOE Office of Nuclear Energy spokesperson would not comment on what […]

ROCKVILLE, Md. – With the completion of the Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program on July 4, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission turns its attention to creating a formulaic pathway for reactor designs authorized by other agencies. In April, NRC published a proposed rulemaking that would create an additional licensing pathway for reactors authorized by DOE […]

WASHINGTON – As the Genesis Mission Summit kicked off here Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced its selection of 278 projects under the Genesis Mission request for applications (RFAs). The Genesis Mission, established through President Donald Trump’s November 2025 executive order, aims to bring use of artificial intelligence (AI) into DOE’s operations and real-life applications. […]

The Department of Energy has conditionally selected Radiant Nuclear and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Thursday to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). This round of HALEU allocations, under DOE’s HALEU Availability Program, will support NASA’s Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom mission, which aims to take a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars, and Radiant’s microreactor, Kaleidos, […]

For now at least, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has suspended publication of many of the congressional watchdog’s routine reports on safety and operations at Department of Energy nuclear sites.   “The DNFSB is not currently posting technical documents, such as resident inspector weekly, site monthly and other technical reports, while the board works […]

The BWX Technologies-led prime cleanup contractor for the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y., is holding an industry day July 30 for vendors that have expressed an interest in the Secant Pile Wall construction project. West Valley Cleanup Alliance (WVCA) recently issued a request for information (RFI) for subcontractors interested in doing the work […]

An updated plan for the Savannah River Site liquid waste mission pushes completion out to 2041 although 2037 is still possible, but would require increases in federal funding, according to environmental contractor Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC).  Steve Howell, a senior vice president for the contractor, said Tuesday during an SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Materials that used to be considered purely radioactive waste are increasingly being recycled into usable products for everything from medical treatments to advanced nuclear reactors, federal officials said last week. That was the word July 15 from the Department of Energy’s Under-Secretary for Science Dario Gil along with DOE Environmental Management (EM) […]

July 30 is the deadline for interested parties to file comments for the Department of Energy’s draft request for proposals (RFP) for the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. The 70,000-square-foot facility, which recently turned 75, analyzes highly-radioactive samples from Hanford tank waste. It is currently run by Navarro-ATL under a $636-million […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is requesting feedback from industry on potential reuse of roughly 530,000 gallons of heavy water stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) posted a request for information (RFI) July 21 in the Federal Register. “The purpose of this RFI is […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is requesting feedback from industry on potential reuse of roughly 530,000 gallons of heavy water stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) posted a request for information (RFI) July 21 in the Federal Register. “The purpose of this RFI is […]

WASHINGTON – As the Genesis Mission Summit kicked off here Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced its selection of 278 projects under the Genesis Mission request for applications (RFAs). The Genesis Mission, established through President Donald Trump’s November 2025 executive order, aims to bring use of artificial intelligence (AI) into DOE’s operations and real-life applications. […]

July 30 is the deadline for interested parties to file comments for the Department of Energy’s draft request for proposals (RFP) for the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. The 70,000-square-foot facility, which recently turned 75, analyzes highly-radioactive samples from Hanford tank waste. It is currently run by Navarro-ATL under a $636-million […]

The Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration awarded a five-year, $31 million grant to an Idaho, Wyoming-based nuclear initiative this week. The Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Corridor Tech Hub initiative led by the Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium received the grant Monday. The consortium is made up of more than 45 organizations, including the Department of Energy’s […]

So far in 2026, emergency crews from the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky have responded to 20 requests for assistance from a volunteer fire department in neighboring McCracken County, DOE said Tuesday. In 2025 the Paducah Site helped out on 115 requests from the West McCracken Fire Department under a mutual aid agreement […]

ROCKVILLE, Md. – With the completion of the Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program on July 4, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission turns its attention to creating a formulaic pathway for reactor designs authorized by other agencies. In April, NRC published a proposed rulemaking that would create an additional licensing pathway for reactors authorized by DOE […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Materials that used to be considered purely radioactive waste are increasingly being recycled into usable products for everything from medical treatments to advanced nuclear reactors, federal officials said last week. That was the word July 15 from the Department of Energy’s Under-Secretary for Science Dario Gil along with DOE Environmental Management (EM) […]