Photos are subject to similar copyright rules as texts. If you are the author of the photos, there are no problems. If another photographer or institution owns the copyright, you need their permission.

Usually, educational use is allowed without permission. If it's for commercial use, you want to get permission and use your company attorney to get clearance for your writing (fair warning...they can be really picky). There is also some grey area. If you are doing something that helps promote those projects in a positive light, they really won't care, and it's generally not an issue. If it is critical of the projects, you might want to find a way around getting permission because you likely won't get it. As you can see from this rambling answer, it can get mucky. Since I am not a lawyer and do not know your exact use, it would be good for you to read through the copyright.gov website in the area you are concerned with. I would look at educational and editorial copyright law to start. This will help you better understand what you are doing and what copyright law says. I hope that was helpful.

Thanks for your good response. I'm preparing a paper on radioactive waste disposal for Geostrata, a publication for The Geoinstitute. To avoid the hassle, I refering only to public domain materials, mostly from US NRC, US EPA, and US DOE.

FYI, I am Adjunct Faculty at New Mexico Tech, not full-time faculty.

yes, you can. I think there will be no problem.