The Energy Department appears to have lost track of 96 kilograms of uranium 233, a fissile material made from thorium that can be fashioned into a bomb, and wants to put nearly a ton of left-over fissile materials in a government landfill, in apparent violation of international standards.

As Energy Department contractors send robots to explore WIPP's caverns, the future of the world’s only operating high-hazard radioactive waste repository is uncertain.

The radioactive legacy of the US nuclear weapons program has spawned the most costly, complex, and risky environmental cleanup effort ever undertaken, with a long-term liability estimate ranging up to $1 trillion.

As the lame-duck Congress wraps up business, a serious debate is unfolding over the future of the US nuclear weapons complex. For the first time since the end of World War II, the long-held policy that places control of the design and production of nuclear weapons in civilian hands may be up for grabs. At issue: What is to be done with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), now located inside the US Department of Energy?

President Barack Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future will have its first meeting this week. The commission, formed after Obama cancelled the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel repository in January, is tasked with rebooting the country's five-decade-plus effort to manage its high-level radioactive waste.

The Energy Department figures prominently in the recently enacted $789 billion economic stimulus package meant to help the ailing U.S. economy. Specifically, Congress has provided Energy with $38.3 billion for the next two years adding about 75 percent to Energy's annual budgets. It has also increased the agency's authority to grant or guarantee $132 billion in energy loans from the federal government. Energy's "modest" goals, as laid out in its recent strategic plan for the stimulus package: "Create millions of new green jobs and lay the foundation for the future" of the country.

As a Nobel laureate in physics and a respected advocate for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Steven Chu, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary, appears to be well suited to carrying out Obama's pledge to generate new green energy jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

On May 13, President George W. Bush submitted to Congress an agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation. The "123 agreement"--named after a provision of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act--would establish a 30-year framework for nuclear commerce between the former Cold War enemies, allowing the transfer of nuclear commodities such as reactor components and U.S. government-owned technologies and materials to Russia.

On May 13, President George W. Bush submitted to Congress an agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation. The "123 agreement"--named after a provision of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act--would establish a 30-year framework for nuclear commerce between the former Cold War enemies, allowing the transfer of nuclear commodities such as reactor components and U.S. government-owned technologies and materials to Russia.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2019. We are republishing it as a public service on this 75th anniversary of the Trinity test. For the past several years, the controversy over radioactive fallout from the world’s first atomic bomb explosion in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945—code-named Trinity—has intensified. Evidence collected by … Continued

Anibal / Adobe By Matt Field August 10, 2023 Poke through the history of biological weapons long enough and you will likely come across a particularly macabre claim. In 1346, the story goes, an army of the Golden Horde-an offshoot of Genghis Khan’s Mongol empire-was laying siege to Caffa, a Genoese trading center on the … Continued

The Bulletin’s coverage of the modern nuclear dilemma was truly comprehensive last year. What follows is not a “best of” list, per se, but eight prime examples from the remarkably consistent and excellent offerings our expert authors provided throughout the year.

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2019 was full of surprising—and terrifying—nuclear news. The best stories of 2019, however, were those that either looked back to generate some historical perspective or looked forward to a brighter, less dangerous future.

The transition period for the incoming Donald Trump administration has generated a great deal of concern about apparent changes coming to the United States in just about every sphere of public policy. The absence of climate science experts, alternative energy executives, and seasoned nuclear negotiators in the new administration raises serious questions about how public … Continued

The US response to potential climate impacts on the country’s various nuclear activities has, in the eyes of many experts, fallen far short of what it needs to be.