Oak Ridge

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) a construction permit Tuesday for its Clinch River Small Modular Reactor (SMR) project in Oak Ridge, Tenn. TVA’s Clinch River SMR becomes the second domestic SMR project to receive a construction permit, after TerraPower received the first one in March for its Natrium reactor in […]

The Department of Energy is preparing a Manhattan Project-era facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex for demolition while recovering equipment that can be reused across dozens of National Nuclear Security Administration facilities. The department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and NNSA are working with their respective contractors, United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) a construction permit Tuesday for its Clinch River Small Modular Reactor (SMR) project in Oak Ridge, Tenn. TVA’s Clinch River SMR becomes the second domestic SMR project to receive a construction permit, after TerraPower received the first one in March for its Natrium reactor in […]

X-energy’s nuclear fuel subsidiary, TRISO-X, completed the vertical construction of its first fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the company said Sept. 24. With the primary building of the 214,000-square-foot structure up, X-energy said in a press release that its subsidiary is going to move forward with the next stage of work that includes […]

A joint venture between Navarro Research & Engineering and Los Alamos Technical Associates (LATA) has been awarded a subcontract for waste management at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The contract, awarded by Y-12’s Bechtel-led prime Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) could be worth up to $160 million […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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) […]

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) […]

X-Energy received $11 million from the Tennessee Nuclear Energy Fund Wednesday to support TRISO-X’s, X-Energy’s subsidiary, tri-structural isotropic – or TRISO fuel fabrication facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The $11 million award comes from the Tennessee Nuclear Energy Fund, also referred to as the Nuclear Energy Supply Chain Investment Fund, which is designed to to […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch agrees with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that DOE should not rush into costly infrastructure projects before doing more research up front. By the end of 2026, the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) will look to implement two GAO recommendations in a recently-released report, the head of […]

Aleut Government Services has been awarded a $6.2-million contract by the Department of Energy Office of Science for administrative and business support services at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The award notice was posted online July 6. Aleut Government Services business address is listed as Colorado Springs, Colo., according to the notice. Aleut Government […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should not rush to embrace costly nuclear cleanup options without first checking with independent experts on less-expensive alternatives, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Thursday July 2. In the just-released report, GAO said the DOE cleanup branch needs to do more research before advocating megadollar solutions.  DOE […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration finished a key project to shrink the area inside the fence at the Y-12 National Security Complex at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. NNSA said Friday that the West End Protected Area Reduction (WEPAR) Project is expected to save $300 to $500 million through a reduction […]

Florida-based nuclear startup AMPERA’s established an Australia-based subsidiary to streamline the use of thorium from Australia to fuel its “factory-built, scalable, supercritical nuclear energy system’, the company said Tuesday. According to AMPERA’s press release, these efforts build off the framework the U.S. government announced with Australia to secure supply for mining and processing critical, rare […]

President Donald Trump’s special envoys for Iran, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, reportedly consulted nuclear experts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. to prepare for a nuclear deal with Iran, according to Axios. The article also said the White House is trying to reach a memorandum of understanding with Iran to end […]

Oklo has bought Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based manufacturing and engineering company ARMEC to expand its own internal reactor and fuel manufacturing capabilities, the company said on Monday. California-based Oklo said in a press release that the acquisition, closed on June 4, highlights the company’s broader strategy of “integrating critical execution capabilities closer to its reactor, fuel […]

President Donald Trump’s special envoys for Iran, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, reportedly consulted nuclear experts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. to prepare for a nuclear deal with Iran, according to Axios. The article also said the White House is trying to reach a memorandum of understanding with Iran to end […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is starting work on a new facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) that the agency says will strengthen U.S. capabilities to monitor foreign uranium enrichment activities and support nuclear nonproliferation missions. The Advanced Testbed and Operations Learning Laboratory, or ATOLL, will be a 21,000-square-foot facility designed to develop […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is starting work on a new facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) that the agency says will strengthen U.S. capabilities to monitor foreign uranium enrichment activities and support nuclear nonproliferation missions. The Advanced Testbed and Operations Learning Laboratory, or ATOLL, will be a 21,000-square-foot facility designed to develop […]

About 81 million pounds of rubble have been cleared away from the two-acre footprint of the former Alpha-2 building site at the Y-12 National Security Complex at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. That amounts to about 3,500 truckloads of debris being hauled away from the former uranium enrichment […]

Ted Wyka, the manager at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos Field Office, is retiring at the end of June, sources told the Exchange Monitor at a hearing in Santa Fe, N.M. Prior to his manager role, Wyka was NNSA’s principal deputy associate administrator for safety, infrastructure and operations, and NNSA’s cognizant secretarial officer […]

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management is inviting interested residents of several East Tennessee counties to apply for openings on the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board. The DOE-sanctioned advisory board provides the Office of Environmental Management (EM) with advice and recommendations on cleanup of the DOE’s Oak Ridge Site, the […]

Jay Mullis, a longtime executive around the Department of Energy’s nuclear sites, has been appointed senior vice president for nuclear and waste management operations for United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR). Mullis announced his new title over the weekend on LinkedIn. UCOR, a joint venture of partners Amentum and Honeywell, is the environmental prime for the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy kicked off a new initiative Thursday centered around bolstering the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain by 2033. The new initiative “Nuclear Dominance – 3 by 33” has the federal government working with industry to build up the many aspects of the nuclear supply chain, including uranium enrichment, […]

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) announced Thursday April 2 his state has filed an application to make the area around the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site a DOE Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus. “Tennessee’s innovation has positioned the Volunteer State as the global epicenter of nuclear energy,” Lee said in a press release.  “As our […]

The Department of Energy will relocate its Washington, D.C. headquarters from the James V. Forrestal Building to the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) building, which currently houses the Department of Education. That is according to a Thursday announcement from DOE and the General Services Administration. The Education Department, which has undergone significant cuts under the Donald […]

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has released over 700 acres in a land transfer to support economic and energy development.  Oak Ridge said in its Monday press release that this is the office’s largest land transfer to date. The latest transfer includes two parcels from DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation: Self-Sufficiency […]