DOE on CrossGov.com

$872.5 Million From DOE to Triad National Security Tops Federal Contract Actions for October 25 to 31, 2026

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The ten largest federal contract actions recorded for the week of October 25 to 31, 2026 added up to $4.3 billion. The biggest was $872.5 million from the Department of Energy to Triad National Security, LLC, under modification P00262 of an existing contract.

Three agencies made the top ten: Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs. Defense Department contracts reach USAspending only after a 90-day delay, so they are not in these lists.

$372.5 Million From DOE to Fluor Marine Propulsion Tops Federal Contract Actions for October 18 to 24, 2026

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The ten largest federal contract actions recorded for the week of October 18 to 24, 2026 added up to $861.3 million. The biggest was $372.5 million from the Department of Energy to Fluor Marine Propulsion, LLC, under modification P00151 of an existing contract.

Four agencies made the top ten: Department of Energy, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Defense Department contracts reach USAspending only after a 90-day delay, so they are not in these lists.

GAO Report on Nuclear Waste, Addressing Legal and Regulatory Barriers Could Accelerate Cleanup and Reduce Costs

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

GAO found that the Department of Energy oversees nuclear waste cleanup at U.S. sites, which could take until 2100 and cost up to $840 billion. However, inconsistent approaches due to a complex legal and regulatory framework have led to longer cleanup efforts and higher costs. GAO recommends clarifying roles and better decision-making with input from independent experts to potentially address risks decades sooner and avoid billions in additional costs.

State Actions Exceed DOE Authority

Some states have taken actions that exceed their authority to regulate hazardous waste, as defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). These state actions, which focus on radiological aspects of nuclear waste at Department of Energy cleanup sites, are generally regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. This has led to disagreements between DOE and states over requirements for radioactive waste management, longer cleanup schedules, and higher costs for the federal government. Courts have recognized that DOE’s authority under the Atomic Energy Act preempts certain state actions regarding nuclear waste during cleanup efforts, but statutes and case law are unclear on what types of state actions are appropriate under the law due to mixed waste at DOE sites.

Energy Department Offers Constellation Up to $5 Billion for Nuclear Uprates at Eight Plants

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Energy offered Constellation Energy a conditional loan of up to $5 billion on October 27, 2026, to raise the output of eight existing nuclear plants in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania. DOE says the work will add about 1.1 gigawatts, enough for more than 930,000 homes.

The plants are Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities in Illinois, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and Limerick in Pennsylvania. Their power feeds two grid regions, PJM and MISO. The loan also carries an option to finance later uprates at other Constellation plants. Energy Secretary Chris Wright marked the deal with a visit to Byron the same day.

NRC Final Rule Lets Reactor Developers Use Energy and War Department Test Data in License Applications

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission finalized a rule on October 22, 2026, that lets companies applying for a commercial reactor license rely on test data and analyses from reactors already authorized by the Department of Energy or the Department of War. The NRC calls it the first major change to its reactor rules finalized under Executive Order 14300.

The rule amends 10 CFR Parts 50 and 53, the two rulebooks a developer can license a power reactor under. It takes effect 30 days after it’s published in the Federal Register, which the NRC expected the week of October 26. The proposal came out on April 2, and the agency received 136 unique comment submissions.

DOE Uses the Defense Production Act to Fund the Constitution Pipeline and Two Grid Projects, Up to $242 Million in Two Weeks

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Energy has committed up to $242 million of Defense Production Act money to three energy projects since October 5: a gas pipeline into New York, a second power line in Alaska and grid upgrades in Virginia. A law passed in 1950 for the Korean War is now paying for permits and power lines.

The biggest award came first. On October 5 DOE offered the Alaska Energy Authority up to $150 million for the Beluga-Healy line, about 223 miles of new transmission between Southcentral and Interior Alaska. Today a single intertie, built in the 1980s, carries power between Anchorage and Fairbanks, and most of the state’s military bases draw on it. The project is priced at $418 million, a preliminary estimate, with the other $268 million to come from non-federal sources. DOE’s release cites the state’s big military installations without naming one.

GAO Finds NNSA Cut Its Federal Staff 11.9% as the Nuclear Weapons Workload Hits a Cold War High

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The National Nuclear Security Administration, the DOE agency that runs the US nuclear weapons stockpile, has lost 236 federal employees since early fiscal 2025, GAO reported on October 16. That’s 11.9% of its staff, gone in the same months its workload reached what GAO calls the highest level since the Cold War.

The agency is small and its budget isn’t. NNSA’s federal staff oversee a $25 billion annual budget and about 70,000 contractor employees who maintain the stockpile. They also run a modernization of the weapons and their infrastructure that GAO puts at $200 billion over two decades.

Energy Department Orders PJM to Run Backup Generators at Data Centers as 61,000 MW of Power Plants Sit Out for Maintenance

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Energy Department has issued another emergency order under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, the provision that lets it override environmental limits and market rules during grid emergencies. Order 202-26-50 runs from October 13 to 16. It allows PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for 13 states from New Jersey to Illinois and Washington DC, to call on backup generators at large electricity users, mostly data centers, if supply runs short.

DOE Authorizes a 4 Million Barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve Exchange for ExxonMobil and BP After a Gulf Hurricane

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Energy Department has authorized an emergency exchange of up to 4 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, up to 2 million each to ExxonMobil and BP America. DOE said the oil would address supply disruptions from “inclement weather in the Gulf of America.” It didn’t name the storm; Hurricane Isaias came ashore in the Florida Panhandle on October 9.

The barrels are a loan. The companies return them in 2027 with extra “premium” barrels, “at no additional cost to taxpayers,” DOE said. ExxonMobil’s portion speeds up delivery of reserve crude it had already been awarded. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the department “is acting swiftly to help maintain refinery operations.”

US Government Takes Equity Stakes in Critical Minerals Companies: How Washington's Approach Compares With China and the EU

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In July 2025 the Pentagon became a major shareholder in the company that runs America’s only operating rare earth mine. The Defense Department bought $400 million of MP Materials preferred stock at $30.03 a share, with warrants, added a $150 million loan, and promised two things a market investor never would: a ten-year price floor of $110 per kilogram for the company’s neodymium-praseodymium oxide, and a ten-year commitment to buy all the output of a new magnet plant.

US Nuclear Push Gets a $120 Billion Korea Framework for AP1000s While the Palisades Restart Stalls on a Tipped Fuel Assembly

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On September 30 the US and South Korea announced a framework for up to $120 billion in Korean investment to finance eight large reactors on federal sites: six Westinghouse AP1000s in three two-unit plants, and two Korean-designed APR1400s. Korea would take a 5% to 10% stake in Westinghouse. The terms aren’t binding.

The same day, Holtec filed for permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to retrieve a fuel assembly that tipped over during fuel loading at the Palisades plant in Michigan on August 30. The NRC noted “significant bowing” of the assembly. Fuel loading is paused, and there’s no new restart date for what was meant to be the first US reactor to come back after shutting down.

DOE Genesis Mission Picks 278 AI Science Projects as Data Center Deals Advance on Federal Land

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Energy runs seventeen national laboratories and some of the fastest computers in the world. Since November 2025 it has also been running the federal government’s main bet on AI for science.

Executive Order 14363, signed on November 24, 2025, launched the Genesis Mission. It told the Energy Secretary to list at least twenty national science and technology challenges within 60 days, to find computing resources and data within 90 to 120 days, and to show an initial working version of a shared AI platform on at least one challenge within 270 days, which fell in late August 2026.

DOE's Genesis Mission Adds $159 Million in Phase II AI Science Awards as Its Platform Milestone Goes Unconfirmed

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On October 8 the Energy Department announced twelve Phase II awards worth $159 million under the Genesis Mission, its program to use AI to speed up scientific research at the national laboratories. Recipients include Commonwealth Fusion Systems, MIT, Harvard, Fermilab, Argonne and Oak Ridge. Projects range from a grid model, GridFM 2.0, at $11.5 million, to nuclear design work. With six new Phase I awards, the first-year cohort is now 297 projects.

DOE's LNG Export Approvals Pass 18.6 Bcf a Day as US Supplies a Quarter of the World Market and the EU's $750 Billion Pledge Lags

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Energy has approved more than 18.6 billion cubic feet a day of new liquefied natural gas exports to countries without a US free trade agreement since January 2025, according to its own tally in March 2026. That’s more new export capacity than any administration has authorized in a comparable period.

The approvals followed the end of a pause. In January 2024 the Biden administration had stopped new non-FTA export approvals while DOE studied their economic and climate effects. The new administration lifted the pause on January 20, 2025.

DOE's Office of Energy Dominance Financing Shifts Federal Energy Loans to Nuclear, Gas and the Grid

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On October 5, 2026, the Department of Energy offered Vistra a conditional loan of up to $4.2 billion to boost output at three nuclear plants, Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania and Davis-Besse and Perry in Ohio. The deal adds 433 megawatts and keeps about 4 gigawatts running for another twenty years. A month earlier DOE closed a $1.9 billion loan to NextEra to restart the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa.

FERC Drops a National Data Center Grid Rule for Six Regional Fights, With Grid Operator Filings Due November 16

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In October 2025 Energy Secretary Chris Wright used a rarely invoked power under the DOE Organization Act to direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to consider a national rule for connecting large electricity users, mainly data centers, to the transmission grid. He asked for a final rule by April 30, 2026.

FERC didn’t write one. On June 18 it instead ordered the six grid operators it regulates, PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO New England and NYISO, to show why their rules for large loads are just and reasonable, or change them. It left the national rulemaking docket open. In August it gave the operators 90 more days, and ISO New England plans its tariff filing on November 16.

DOE Emergency Orders Keep Coal Plants Open as a Court Rules Against the Campbell Order and FERC Delays Data Center Rules

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

J.H. Campbell is a 1,560-megawatt coal plant on Lake Michigan. Its owner, Consumers Energy, planned to close it in May 2025. On May 23, 2025, days before the date, the Department of Energy ordered it to keep running. It has been running on rolling 90-day orders ever since.

On September 11, 2026, the D.C. Circuit ruled 3 to 0 that DOE exceeded its authority in issuing that order. It’s the first appeals court ruling on DOE’s new use of emergency power over the grid, and it lands while DOE has a stack of similar orders in force.

DOE Concedes Its $7.56 Billion Clean Energy Grant Cuts Turned on State Politics, and Courts Start Restoring Awards

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Energy has told a federal court that its October 2025 cancellation of clean energy grants was decided on the political identity of each recipient’s state. The admission, in a stipulation filed on July 15, 2026, puts about $7.56 billion of terminated awards on weak legal ground.

On October 1, 2025, the first day of the shutdown, OMB Director Russell Vought announced the cancellation of nearly $8 billion in funding across 16 states. DOE said the next day it had ended 321 awards for 223 projects worth about $7.56 billion. Every affected state had voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. The list included two of the seven regional hydrogen hubs, ARCHES in California, worth $1.2 billion, and the Pacific Northwest hub, worth about $1 billion.