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ORNL, Atomic Canyon Partner to Accelerate Nuclear Power Plant Licensing
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Nuclear power plant. ORNL and Atomic Canyon have partnered to streamline the nuclear power plant licensing process.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Atomic Canyon, an artificial intelligence company, have partnered to enhance the nuclear power plant licensing process.

Advancing Licensing Process With Artificial Intelligence

The ORNL said the two organizations, which signed a memorandum of understanding during the Nuclear Opportunities Workshop held at the Knoxville Convention Center, will incorporate artificial intelligence into the licensing process, particularly for license application reviews.

The MOU focuses on utilizing high-performance computing to simulate reactor designs for safety evaluations and AI to automate the application reviews, which are intended to enhance and accelerate the licensing process.

The collaboration will leverage Atomic Canyon’s Neutron AI platform, powered by the FERMI AI model developed using ORNL’s Frontier supercomputer. FERMI models are taught technical nuclear industry language from documents in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s ADAMS database, which contains details of all nuclear reactors in the United States. Neutron AI streamlines how nuclear power professionals search for information and offers a clearer context for complex materials.

In addition, Atomic Canyon will accelerate the development of its Neutron Enterprise, a version of their Neutron AI that utilizes advanced cybersecurity technology and other capabilities to safeguard nuclear information.

“Our mission at Atomic Canyon is to build the most advanced generative AI platform for the nuclear industry. ORNL’s expertise in nuclear science and high-performance computing was critical for us to be able to build AI in a reliable format,” said Atomic Canyon CEO Trey Lauderdale.

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DOD Issues Directive to Boost IT, Cloud Security Against Foreign Threats
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Pete Hegseth. The defense secretary has ordered the Pentagon's CIO to secure all IT and cloud services.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a 2025 Wash100 Award recipient, has ordered immediate action to secure the Department of Defense’s information technology capabilities from adversarial influence.

Protecting DOD Supply Chain From Adversarial Threats

In a memorandum issued on July 18, Hegseth directed the DOD’s chief information officer to ensure that all IT and cloud services developed and procured for the department are protected from foreign supply chain threats, particularly those posed by adversaries such as China and Russia. The CIO will coordinate with the under secretaries of defense for acquisition and sustainment, intelligence and security, and research and engineering.

The under secretary for intelligence and security is directed to review and validate personnel security practices and insider threat programs of the defense industrial base and cloud service providers.

“The DoD will not procure any hardware or software susceptible to adversarial foreign influence that presents risk to mission accomplishment and must prevent such adversaries from introducing malicious capabilities into the products and services that are utilized by the Department,” the secretary stated in the memo.

The directive specifically calls for leveraging existing programs such as the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, the Software Fast Track Program, the authority to operate process, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program and the Secure Software Development Framework to identify and eliminate risks in DOD systems.

Hegseth ordered the CIO to issue additional implementation guidance within 15 days to ensure a secure environment for warfighters.

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NIST Releases Draft Updates to SP 800-53 to Boost Software Security
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Cybersecurity imagery. NIST released draft updates to Special Publication 800-53.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released draft revisions to Special Publication 800-53.

The federal agency said Tuesday the proposed changes aim to enhance the secure and reliable deployment of software patches and updates, following mandates from Executive Order 14306, titled Sustaining Select Efforts to Strengthen the Nation’s Cybersecurity and Amending Executive Order 13694 and Executive Order 14144.

Proposed SP 800-53 Updates

The draft includes the following proposed changes:

  • Update to an existing control enhancement
  • Two new control enhancements
  • Six updates to existing control and control enhancement discussions
  • Updates to related controls for the new control enhancements

These revisions aim to enhance practices in software resiliency, developer testing, secure logging, least privilege for functions and tools, update deployment management, software integrity and validation, delineation of roles between organizations and developers, and root cause analysis and improvement.

The draft updates can be reviewed and commented on through the NIST SP 800-53 Public Comment Site during an expedited two-week public comment period, concluding on August 5. Users can also submit suggestions for new controls and possible updates to existing controls. NIST will review the comments and issue SP 800-53 Release 5.2.0 by Sept. 2.

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Principal Deputy DOD CIO Leslie Beavers to Step Down
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Principal Deputy DOD CIO Leslie Beavers will step down from her role

Leslie Beavers, a previous Wash100 awardee, will step down from her position as the Department of Defense’s principal deputy chief information officer by the end of September after over three decades of service.

The Office of the DOD CIO announced the move in a LinkedIn post published Monday.

According to the office, Beavers played a key role in establishing the Cyber Academic Management Office and helped accelerate the adoption of identity, credential and access management enterprise platforms. She was also involved in the Mission Partner Environment project.

Who Is Leslie Beavers?

Beavers previously served as acting DOD CIO. In March, she returned to the DOD principal deputy CIO role after Katie Arrington, a fellow Wash100 awardee, was tapped to perform CIO duties at the Pentagon.

As DOD’s principal deputy CIO, she assists the CIO in advising the secretary of defense on IT, information management, information assurance, critical satellite communications, non-intelligence space systems, spectrum and telecommunications.

Beavers also served as director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance enterprise capabilities within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, where she led the Defense Intelligence Digital Transformation Campaign Plan, also known as Project Herald.

The former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer’s industry career included working at several companies, including NBC/Universal Pictures, GE’s Healthcare Diagnostic Imaging division and Husky Oil.

The U.S. Air Force Academy political science graduate holds a master’s degree in finance from South University.

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State Department’s Michael Rigas Named Acting GSA Administrator
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Headshot of Michael Rigas, acting GSA administrator. Rigas comes to GSA from the State Department

Michael Rigas has assumed the responsibilities of acting administrator at the General Services Administration. In an email sent to agency employees Monday, Rigas said Stephen Ehikian, who previously served as acting administrator, will stay on as deputy GSA administrator.

Who Is GSA’s New Administrator?

Rigas comes to GSA from the Department of State, where he most recently served as deputy secretary for management and resources. In the role, he led department-wide reorganization and laid off 1,350 employees.

It is unclear if Rigas will continue in his position at the State Department while at GSA. A spokesperson for the State Department told Federal News Network that “we do not comment on internal personnel matters.”

Rigas previously served as senior GSA adviser during the first administration of President Donald Trump. Earlier in his government career, he held the roles of acting director of the Office of Personnel Management and acting deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget.

According to his bio on the State Department’s website, Rigas also served as senior adviser to the Trump-Vance 2025 transition team.

Before entering government service, Rigas spent over a decade working at Mellon Financial Corporation and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

He holds a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Boston University.

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OMB Issues Guidance for Agencies to Consolidate Federal Procurement Activities
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OMB Director Russell Vought. Vought released guidance on consolidating federal procurement activities.

Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has issued a memorandum providing guidance for federal agencies to consolidate procurement activities for common goods and services.

In the July 18 memo, Vought wrote that the OMB guidance supports the implementation of a March executive order that seeks to consolidate federal procurement within GSA as part of efforts to remove waste and duplication and enable agencies to focus on their mission of delivering services to citizens.

The OMB director noted that consolidation efforts will advance through two workstreams. The first workstream will consolidate procurement through centralized contracting using category management principles. The other workstream will focus on opportunities to consolidate through the centralization of procurement functions at GSA.

According to the document, centralized procurement functions will require performance monitoring and service level agreements, or SLAs.

“Agencies should work proactively with GSA and 0MB to implement these workstreams and fully leverage GSA’s expertise and statutory role as the Federal Government’s core buyer for addressing prevalent and repetitive needs,” Vought noted.

Increased Agency Use of Centralized Contracts Managed by GSA

This workstream includes the use of governmentwide contracts first and the identification of new opportunities for centralized contracts.

Within 60 days, each governmentwide category manager will coordinate with the Category Management Program Management Office to assess existing common spend and offer recommendations to the Category Management Leadership Council and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy on spend areas that would be appropriate for consolidation through the award of new centralized contracts or modification of existing governmentwide contracts.

Centralization of Procurement Functions

According to the memo, the centralization of procurement functions can promote economy and efficiency for requirements.

OMB will work with GSA to evaluate the suitability of the transition of procurement functions by taking into consideration information outlined in an agency’s transition plan. 

GSA and OMB will also consider six factors: capacity assessment; cost efficiency; risk management; performance monitoring; SLAs; and budget impacts.

OMB will also review and update its category management principles to align with the EO and consolidation principles outlined in the guidance document.

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NASA Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup to Leave Agency
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Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup. Makenzie Lystrup, Goddard Space Flight Center director, is set to leave NASA.

Makenzie Lystrup, director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will officially leave the agency on Aug.1. She will be succeeded by deputy center director Cynthia Simmons in an acting capacity, NASA said Monday.

Discover the space agency’s top priorities at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Air and Space Summit on July 31!

Lystrup’s NASA Career

Lystrup assumed the center director position in April 2023. During her over two years in the role, she oversaw the direction and management of the Goddard Flight Center and other NASA field installations.

“Having served in a variety of science and aerospace civilian and government roles in her career, Makenzie has led development of, and/or contributed to a variety of NASA’s priority science missions including successful operations of our James Webb Space Telescope and Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, as well as development of the agency’s Roman Space Telescope, and more,” said Vanessa Wyche, acting NASA associate administrator.

“We’re grateful to Makenzie for her leadership at NASA Goddard for more than two years, including her work to inspire a Golden Age of explorers, scientists and engineers,” Wyche continued.

Other Career Highlights

Before joining NASA, Lystrup worked at Ball Aerospace for nearly 10 years. She served as vice president and general manager of civil space and senior director of civil space advanced systems and business development, overseeing new business initiatives for NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, other federal civilian agencies, academia and science institutions. She was also director of space sciences and business development manager of space sciences and technologies.

Lystrup served as a congressional fellow sponsored by the American Institute of Physics and Acoustical Society of America, managing a diverse portfolio covering technology, national defense, foreign affairs, nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation.

NASA Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup to Leave Agency
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Pennsylvania State University Secures $99M Navy Contract to Manage Electro Optics Center
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Penn State. PSU will perform a decade's worth of R&D facility management under a $99 million Navy contract.

Pennsylvania State University has secured a $99 million contract from the U.S. Navy to run its Manufacturing Technology, or ManTech, Electro Optics Center of Excellence, a specialized research and development center. The center’s main function is to develop and improve advanced manufacturing technologies that can be used in naval equipment with electro optics and help transition those technologies for use in defense and industry, the Department of Defense said Monday.

Pennsylvania State University Secures $99M Navy Contract to Manage Electro Optics Center

Join the Potomac Officers Club 2025 Navy Summit on August 26 to hear insights from experts on the service branch’s latest advancements in technology, policy and strategy.

Terms of Navy Contract 

Under the terms of the sole-source, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award, Penn State will manage, operate and maintain the center. The work will start this month and last through July 2035, with an option to extend, and will be conducted in University Park, Pennsylvania. The contracting activity is the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Virginia. The Navy will allocate $859,940 from its fiscal 2025 budget for research and development under the contract. The budget includes two task orders, one worth $399,940 and another worth $460,000, both under a cost-plus-fixed-fee arrangement.

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Bipartisan Bill Aims to Advance SBA IT Modernization
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Capitol Hill. Congressmen Gil Cisneros and Brian Jack introduced the SBA IT Modernization Reporting Act of 2025.

Reps. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., and Brian Jack, R-Ga., introduced the Small Business Administration IT Modernization Reporting Act of 2025.

Cisneros’ office said Friday the bipartisan bill aims to strengthen SBA’s capacity to develop, implement and manage IT modernization initiatives while reducing possible risks. The proposed legislation mandates the implementation of recommendations from a 2024 Government Accountability Office report. The SBA administrator will also be required to provide Congress with a detailed action plan and briefing.

The GAO study highlighted deficiencies in SBA’s previous IT modernization effort, including the agency’s inability to implement best practices for risk management, cybersecurity, and schedule and cost estimation.

Remarks From Bill Sponsors Cisneros & Jack

“The SBA has a duty to serve the small businesses of America, quickly and efficiently. Current SBA IT practices have fallen behind, hampering the agency’s ability to do so,” said Cisneros, member of the House Committee on Small Business.

“I worked across the aisle with Rep. Jack to introduce this common-sense, bipartisan legislation that upgrades the Small Business Administration’s IT practices, ensuring the agency can keep pace with the needs of today’s small businesses,” Cisneros added.

“I’m proud to support this bipartisan legislation that will allow the Small Business Administration to continue doing what it does best — supporting the entrepreneurs and job creators who are the backbone of our communities. By strengthening and streamlining SBA operations, this bill ensures more small businesses can access the tools, resources and support they need to grow, hire and continue to thrive,” stated Jack.

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DIU Unveils C-UAS Low-Cost Sensing Challenge Finalists
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Defense Innovation Unit logo. The DIU selects 10 companies to demonstrate C-UAS sensing technology.

The Defense Innovation Unit, in coordination with U.S. Northern Command, the U.S. Army and other military branches, has announced 10 finalists for the Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System Low-Cost Sensing challenge.

Selected from 118 applicants, the finalists will now prepare for live demonstrations and testing during the Falcon Peak 25.2 exercise in September, DIU said Monday. The challenge aims to identify scalable, cost-effective sensing technologies capable of detecting and tracking hostile drones and is working to pair exquisite sensor systems with affordable, distributed sensing technologies.

“The evolving threat from unmanned aerial systems demands that we leverage every tool at our disposal – from cutting-edge commercial solutions to robust partnerships across government and industry,” said DIU Director Doug Beck, noting that the challenge taps into non-traditional defense companies.

C-sUAS Low-Cost Sensing Finalists

The 10 C-sUAS Low-Cost Sensing finalists are:

  • BLUEiQ
  • CHAOS 1
  • Fortem Technologies
  • Guardian RF
  • Hidden Level
  • MatrixSpace
  • REVOBEAM
  • Squarehead Technology
  • Teledyne FLIR Defense
  • Thalrix

“These ten finalists represent the forefront of sensor innovation, demonstrating how diverse technological approaches can enhance our layered defense,” said David Payne, director of Replicator 2 at DIU.

At USNORTHCOM’s Falcon Peak, the companies’ sensing solutions will undergo a real-world test, with the prize distributed based on performance at the event. Top performers may be considered for further opportunities, including other transaction agreements, cooperative research deals and potential transition to operational deployment.

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