WASHINGTON— The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced another step forward in the Trump administration’s efforts to strengthen domestic supply chains for nuclear fuel. DOE selected Oklo Inc., Terrestrial Energy Inc., TRISO-X LLC, and Valar Atomics Inc. for its new pilot program to build advanced nuclear fuel lines. Today’s action will help strengthen America’s national security, reduce reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and support the Department’s Reactor Pilot Program that aims to have at least three reactors achieve criticality by July 4, 2026. “President Trump has made clear that a strong nuclear sector is a central component of America’s energy security and prosperity,” said Deputy Secretary of Energy James P. Danly. “Restoring a secure domestic fuel supply will ensure that advanced reactors can move quickly from design to deployment and into operation. The ability to produce these fuels is essential to ensuring American leadership in nuclear energy and to meeting the nation’s growing demand for reliable power.” This is the second round of conditional selections under DOE’s Fuel Line Pilot Program. DOE previously selected Standard Nuclear to build and operate TRISO fuel fabrication facilities. The following projects will leverage the Department’s authorization process to ensure a robust supply of fuel is available for research, development, and demonstration purposes— including the 11 reactors initially selected to participate in DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program: Oklo Inc. (Santa Clara, California) – To build and operate three fuel fabrication facilities to support their Aurora and Pluto reactors, and possibly other fast reactors.  Terrestrial Energy Inc (Charlotte, NC) – To develop the Terrestrial Energy Fuel Line Assembly to demonstrate a fuel salt fabrication process in a phased approach.  TRISO-X Inc. (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) – To build and operate an additional fuel fabrication laboratory facility to enable pilot-scale integration, training, and system validation to

Treasuries gained Monday, supported by a slump in oil prices and a rally in UK government bonds, and by anticipation of buying into Tuesday’s month-end index rebalancing. Yields declined as much as five basis points across tenors with the 10-year note’s falling to 4.14%. The 30-year bond’s dipped below 4.70% for the first time since Sept. 18. US benchmark crude oil futures dropped more than 4% on signs OPEC+ will hike production again in November. The prospect of a US government shutdown beginning Wednesday also has implications for the Treasuries market, as shutdowns are associated with gains for bonds based on their potential to restrain the economy. “There’s a global move lower today in yields,” said Angelo Manolatos, an interest-rate strategist at Wells Fargo Securities. “It’s likely a combination of quarter-end flow dynamics and the possibility of a government shutdown. Yields typically drop modestly during government shutdowns that last at least five days.” The market racked up gains even as Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack — who becomes a voting member of the central bank’s rate-setting committee next year — reiterated her view that inflation remains too high to warrant cutting interest rates. Futures markets continue to anticipate about 100 basis points of additional Fed easing over the next 12 months. Expectations for Fed rate cuts rest mainly on signs of stress in the US labor market, where job creation has slowed precipitously in recent months. September data is set to be released on Friday. Tuesday’s month-end bond index rebalancing — to add eligible bonds created during the month and remove those that no longer fit the index criteria — typically drives buying by passive and other index-tracking investment funds that can support the market if their needs exceed expectations.  The rebalancing will increase the duration of the Bloomberg Treasury index by an estimated 0.06

The Russian government expects the oil and gas industries’ contributions to the national budget this year to drop to the lowest since the pandemic of 2020 after prices for its fuels dipped and the ruble strengthened. Moscow will gather about 8.65 trillion rubles ($100 billion) in taxes from the oil and gas industry, according to amendments to Russia’s 2025 budget. That’s about 22 percent less than last year’s revenues, according to the amendments, published Monday on the website of the State Duma, the lower chamber of the parliament.  Levies from oil and gas producers are critical for the Kremlin, as they are projected to account for almost a quarter of revenues into state coffers this year. Moscow plans to keep boosting military spending to finance the ongoing war in Ukraine, and will raise taxes like VAT and increase borrowing to bridge the budget gap. In a drive to further bear down on Russia’s energy revenues, western nations and allies have adopted wide-ranging sanctions. Most recently, US President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including Turkey, to stop buying Russia’s barrels altogether.  Urals, Russia’s main export blend, is projected to average $58 a barrel this year, compared with $66.60 last year. Despite sanctions, the decline is mainly driven by lower crude prices amid concerns over global economic growth.  Russia’s government sees the average Urals discount to global benchmark Brent at $12 a barrel. The gap has shrunk compared with the earlier years of the war, but is still markedly wider than the historic discount of $2-4 a barrel because of sanctions.  The strengthening of the national currency is another reason behind declining revenues. For this year, the government projects the exchange rate at 86.1 rubles to a US dollar, compared with 92.4 rubles a dollar

Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to cut about 2,000 jobs globally as the Texas oil company consolidates smaller offices into regional hubs as part of its long-term restructuring plan.  The reductions represent about 3% to 4% of Exxon’s global workforce and are part of the company’s ongoing efficiency drive, Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in an memo to employees Tuesday. About half will be in the Europe and most of rest in Canada at Calgary-based Imperial Oil Ltd., which is nearly 70% owned by Exxon. Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and BP Plc are among major oil companies to have also announced thousands of job cuts in recent months as crude prices tumbled this year in response to increased supplies from OPEC and its allies. Exxon, however, has been on a major internal restructuring push since 2019 as Woods sought to simplify the company’s sprawling global footprint that came as a result of the merger with Mobil two decades ago.  Exxon is making “tough decisions” that build upon a years-long effort to improve competitiveness, Woods wrote in the memo. “The changes we’ve announced today will further strengthen our advantages and grow the gap with our competition, helping to keep us in the lead for decades to come,” he said.   The oil giant will cut 1,200 positions in the European Union and Norway by the end of 2027, with layoffs making up half of the reductions, it said in a statement. Imperial will cut about 900 positions, or 20% of its workforce, in the same time period, helping reduce operational expenses by C$150 million ($108 million) annually.  The regional hubs will focus on Exxon’s major growth initiatives such as oil in Guyana, liquefied natural gas along the Gulf Coast and trading globally. For example, the company recently announced plans to move employees from Brussels and Leatherhead, UK, to central London, where it’s recently

Democratic Reps. Sean Casten of Illinois and Mike Levin from California are preparing to introduce sweeping energy legislation that would reverse Trump administration policies, including by restoring clean energy tax credits and limiting the U.S. Department of Energy’s ability to declare “energy emergencies” to keep fossil-fueled power plants from retiring. The Trump administration is driving up the cost of electricity by creating barriers to clean energy investment to support higher-cost fossil fuel sectors, according to Casten. “You’ve now got this surging demand [from data centers and other loads] — and particularly if we’re not going to have an administration that’s going to encourage competitive markets — then that means that the only people who are going to be able to build stuff are regulated utilities with mandatory capital amortization and so it’s very hard to see anything but upward pressure on electric prices,” Casten said Monday in an interview. The draft Cheap Energy Act aims to put downward pressure on electricity bills by bolstering energy efficiency efforts, supporting grid-enhancing technologies and helping provide lower-cost renewable energy projects access to the grid, according to Casten. One section of the legislation would increase oversight of regional transmission organizations. “Everybody in the electric regulatory world, including lots of [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] commissioners … and frankly a lot of utility executives, knows that there’s a massive governance problem in the RTO space,” Casten said. Governors in the PJM Interconnection footprint, for example, are pressing for a role in the RTO’s decisionmaking. Provisions in the bill would require FERC to reform the governance and stakeholder participation practices of RTOs and independent system operators, according to a summary of the draft bill. They would also require independent transmission monitors to facilitate the cost-effective construction of transmission. Partly, those provisions would make it easier for outsiders

Dive Brief: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed giving coal power generators additional time to comply with new wastewater disposal guidelines and said it also would consider regulatory changes to the Clean Air Act’s Regional Haze Rule. EPA’s proposals are part of a package of coal-supporting actions the Trump administration unveiled this week, including $625 million to retrofit and recommission coal plants from the Department of Energy. Extending compliance for EPA’s effluent limitations guidelines would reduce electricity costs by approximately $30 million to $200 million annually, the agency estimated. Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams countered that every day the requirements are delayed means more people “will be exposed to higher levels of toxic pollution.” Dive Insight: Residual waste from burning coal contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic, according to the EPA. The federal government strengthened regulation on coal combustion residuals following a disastrous coal ash spill from the Tennessee Valley Authoriy’s Kingston plant in 2008, which contaminated some 300 acres of land, making it one of the largest industrial spills in U.S. history.  EPA revised its ELG requirements last year to include stronger protections around coal ash wastewater pollution. The changes included requiring plants to halt some types of discharges by 2029 or to commit by the end of this year to cease burning coal by 2034. EPA’s proposal would extend both the compliance and the notice deadlines. The agency said the move would “reduce costs for facilities and help with electricity reliability and affordability.” Comments are due 30 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. EPA’s current ELGs for wastewater discharges from steam electric power plants “are potentially costly to an electric power sector that is struggling with increasing demand as AI is booming, data centers are being constructed and operated around