Leveraging more than $140 million in private capital fundraising, over 322,000 square feet of operational manufacturing space, and multifaceted partnerships with the Departments of Energy and Defense, reactor start-up Antares has become the first company involved in the Reactor Pilot Program to achi...
Two companies specializing in ultrasonic nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring are to advance to the final phase of a selection process to demonstrate acoustic emission technologies for the automated monitoring of spent nuclear fuel dry storage canisters....
Japan plans to rebuild between two and five ageing nuclear reactors by the 2040s and as many as 11 to 14 by the 2050s as it aims to secure stable power supply, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing a draft policy presented on 5 June. The proposal, outlined by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Ind...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Constellation’s waiver request to transfer PJM capacity interconnection rights from one of its gas- and oil-powered plants to its Crane nuclear power plant (formerly Three Mile Island-1). While Constellation executives previously said that an uns...
US nuclear reactor company Antares announced on 4 June that its Mark-0 microreactor achieved initial criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), making Antares the first private company to bring an advanced reactor to criticality under the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) push to deploy advanced ...
(As prepared for delivery) Mr Chairperson, Excellencies, I have just returned from the Arab Gulf, following my mission to assess and support nuclear safety in the region....
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The American Nuclear Society journal Fusion Science and Technology (FS&T) has named a new technical editor: Kathryn McCarthy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The announcement came during the opening plenary at this week’s ANS Annual Conference in Denver, Colo. McCarthy’s term begins on July 1....
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The New York Power Authority is seeking nuclear reactor developers that can commence construction on large-scale reactors and/or small modular reactors before 2033 that can ultimately add at least 1 GW of new capacity to New York’s electrical grid....
Here is a recap of recent industry happenings: ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE Fluor gets X-energy contract for Dow’s Seadrift project Fluor Corporation has signed a contract to support X-energy’s planned small modular reactor project at Dow ’s UCC Seadrift Operations facility in southern Texas. Fluor’...
Nuclear power currently appears to have the wind at its back, with growing demand for clean, reliable energy from industry (think data centers) and strong political support for new projects. But getting there still will require a lot of pieces to yet fall into place. It is, as American Nuclear Socie...
On Tuesday, during Mark Peters’s last days as the American Nuclear Society’s vice president/president-elect before assuming the presidency on June 4, he sat down with ANS CEO Craig Piercy for a Fireside Chat at the Annual Conference. The MITRE CEO weighed in on his career path, what excites and worr...
The American Nuclear Society Student Section at the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (ANS-UPRM) recently testified in the Puerto Rican House of Representatives on the opportunities nuclear power could provide for the island. Specifically, section president Francisco Paravisini Domenech advocated f...
At the American Nuclear Society’s Annual Conference on June 1, an executive session covered the increasingly prominent subject of nuclear applications in the civilian maritime industry. Panelists who presented during “Advancing Nuclear Powered Maritime Shipping” highlighted the fact that the commerc...
The International Atomic Energy Agency intends to launch a new initiative at the IAEA ministerial in Washington, D.C. on August 26–27. The objective of the initiative, called Atomic Technologies Licensed for Applications at Sea (ATLAS), is to provide support for “the maritime industry’s exploration ...
The long-running decommissioning effort at Japan’s Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station has reached an important milestone with the start of removal of nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pool of Unit 2. The operation is one of the most technically challenging phases of the site’s decades-long clean...
New York state governor Kathy Hochul took two “significant” steps on 2 June towards her goal of deploying new commercial nuclear reactors, announcing solicitations for work force training and for a developer to start construction of at least one new reactor by 2032. The state-owned New York Power Au...
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors will convene its regular June meeting at the Agency's headquarters at 10:00 CEST on Monday, 8 June, in Board Room C, Building C, 4th floor, in the Vienna International Centre (VIC). Board discussions are expected to include, among othe...
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New developments in Sweden’s nuclear energy industry continue to make headlines. Last week, Swedish engineering services firm Studsvik submitted an application to build between 600 MWe and 1,400 MWe of new nuclear power capacity “at and around” its Nyköping Municipality headquarters. Separately, the...
Ten of the 27 member countries of the European Union recently sent a letter to the European Commission calling for nuclear power to be labeled as sustainable in a new rulemaking that pertains to powering data centers and artificial intelligence. While the EC’s decision could have significant impact ...
Yesterday, the American Nuclear Society’s Annual Conference got off to an exciting start with an opening plenary that in its first half featured extensive commentary from ANS CEO Craig Piercy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Ho Nieh, the Department of Energy’s Michael Goff, and several others ke...
GETTING STARTED At the outset, the project looked solid. The schedule was well defined. Cost projections were within expectations. Engineering milestones were aligned with procurement and construction plans. On paper, everything pointed toward success. But as construction progressed, challenges bega...
Cranberry Township, Pa., June 2, 2026 – Westinghouse Electric Company announced the appointment of Johan Lundberg as Executive Vice President of its Global Quality, Environment, Health & Safety function, effective August 3....
Urenco USA announced today that it will expand the capacity of the United States’ only commercial uranium enrichment facility by nearly 50%, marking a major commitment to strengthening the US nuclear fuel supply chain as the country expands the use of nuclear power. The company said the multi-billio...
Urenco USA announced today that it will expand its uranium enrichment capacity by nearly 50 percent with the construction of a new enrichment plant at the company’s National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, N.M....
Cameco and Orano Canada have reached agreement with Tepco Resources, a subsidiary of Japan-based Tokyo Electric Power Company, to acquire Tepco’s 5% participating interest in the Cigar Lake joint venture in Canada. Upon closing, Cameco's ownership stake in the Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Sas...
The nuclear community descended on Denver, Colo., this week for the American Nuclear Society’s Annual Conference, which opened with a packed room and inspiring words from multiple speakers....
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Grouting Hanford’s low-level radioactive liquid tank waste could cost between $480 million and $1.1 billion, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, which has repeatedly found that grouting (immobilizing waste in a concrete-like mixture) can accelerate cleanup at the Hanford S...
Grouting Hanford’s low-level radioactive liquid tank waste could cost between $480 million and $1.1 billion, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, which has repeatedly found that grouting (immobilizing waste in a concrete-like mixture) can accelerate cleanup at the Hanford S...
The dormant Blue Castle nuclear power plant project in Utah has resurfaced, only this time as a proposed small modular reactor facility. Blue Castle Holdings and Fulcrum Point Holdings—founded by the owner of Hi Tech Solutions, a company behind a separate Utah nuclear project—announced last week a j...
The ITER Organization has announced that its magnet cold test facility is now in operational mode, allowing the preinstallation testing of superconducting magnets at the fusion reactor’s low operating temperature of 4 Kelvin (−269°C; −452°F) and full current of 68 kiloampere (kA)....
Two Chinese nuclear power projects have reached construction milestones with completion of the reactor building’s outer containment structure at Lianjiang-1 and installation of a section of the inner steel containment at Taipingling-3, local reports said. At Unit 1 of the Lianjiang nuclear power sta...
Today, there are 34 countries with operational nuclear power plants—but there are dozens more working on building a nuclear plant of their own. While progress on these projects inevitably ebbs and flows, broadly, momentum seems to be building on the international stage. That growing momentum manifes...
GETTING STARTED At the outset, the project looked solid. The schedule was well defined. Cost projections were within expectations. Engineering milestones were aligned with procurement and construction plans. On paper, everything pointed toward success. But as construction progressed, challenges bega...
The second reactor pressure vessel (RPV) has been lifted into place by the world’s largest crane at the Hinkley Point C nuclear site in southwest England. Hinkley Point C said the “Big Carl” crane had lifted the 500-tonne RPV into place before its precision installation inside the reactor building. ...
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it has been informed by the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that a drone struck a turbine building at the site on 30 May, causing a hole in its wall. The agency’s director-general Rafael Grossi expressed “serious concern” about the inci...
The IAEA Board of Governors will convene a meeting at the Agency's headquarters starting at 10:00 CEST on Friday, 5 June, in Board Room C in the Vienna International Centre (VIC). The meeting is convened by the Chair of the Board following a request from the Governors of the Arab Republic of Egypt, ...
The renewed global interest in nuclear power is often framed as a policy story driven by decarbonization goals, energy security concerns, and surging electricity demand from digital infrastructure and electrification. While these forces are real and durable, they materially understate the challenge ...
A team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has observed, imaged, and characterized the early stages of hydrogen-uranium corrosion for the first time, the lab announced recently....
Washington, D.C.-based Curio announced yesterday that it has submitted a letter of intent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to establish a docket for preapplication engagement activities and ultimately the submittal and review of a license application to operate a spent nuclear fuel recycling pro...
Nuclear officials in Kenya want to engage with residents in Siaya County and keep them informed as the country moves toward building its first nuclear power plant. The state-run Nuclear Power and Energy Agency said on May 23 it will conduct a “robust, transparent, and multilayered educational campai...
US-based Eden Radioisotopes has filed a construction permit application with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an isotope production complex near Eunice, New Mexico. This purpose-built facility is designed to produce a domestic source of life-saving medical isotopes – something currently unav...
Kindergarten classrooms, the control rooms of newly completed reactors, and the meeting rooms of ANS local sections all have one thing in common: they are only made useful once they are filled with hardworking and passionate people. In March, I had the privilege of engaging with some of the people i...
Canadian uranium miner Cameco announced that the Key Lake mill and McArthur River mine have returned to full production activities following a disruption caused by flooding in northern Saskatchewan. On 10 May 2026, Cameco announced that Key Lake had temporarily halted production activities and McArt...
Studies, regulatory control, and legislation are among the items Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, and North Carolina tackled in the month of May regarding nuclear energy....
Nuclear start-ups Oklo and Flibe Energy both announced this week that they have been selected by the Department of Energy for advanced negotiations under the department’s Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, which aims to make surplus U.S. plutonium available to the nuclear industry for advanced r...
Data centers power our digital lives—along with many aspects of our economy and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. Electricity demand is rising rapidly, with the domestic data center load projected to increase from 4 percent to 9 percent of U.S. electricity consumption by 2030. This sur...
Construction of Wolsong Unit 1, Korea’s first CANDU reactor, began 50 years ago in 1976, with commercial operation commencing in 1983. In July 2011, Wolsong 1 was connected to the grid after an 839‑day outage for retubing, becoming the first CANDU 6 reactor to be successfully retubed. Following Wols...
Ahead of this year's Annual Conference, which is taking May 31–June 3 in Denver, Colo., the American Nuclear Society is excited to recognize exceptional individuals in the nuclear community. This season’s national award recipients and new Fellows of ANS will receive official recognition during the o...
Argentina’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN) has granted a new 10-year operating licence for the Atucha-2 nuclear power unit enabling its operation until 2036. State-owned owner and operator Nucleoeléctrica Argentina said on social network site X that the new licensing period consolidates Atucha-2...
Later this year, the U.S. Navy will test the power-generating capabilities of one of its crown jewels, the nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Ford —aiming to demonstrate its ability to provide electricity to installations on shore....
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Before the Fukushima Daiichi accident in March 2011, nuclear power from 54 reactors provided about 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. In the wake of the disaster, Japan shut down every one of its reactors. Recently, the country has been restarting its nuclear power plants. Among its current fleet of...
May is a month when we pause—briefly—to recognize something that too often goes unsaid: the extraordinary performance of the existing U.S. nuclear fleet. Capacity factors remain above 90 percent (with a median of 91.29 for the three-year period 2023–2025—see Nuclear News , May 2026, p. 24), an impre...
Researchers from the University of Michigan and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found that predictions of helium generation rates through neutron transmutation in fission and fusion reactors vary widely and include dependencies on the choice of nuclear data library and calculation method....
There are no fundamental barriers to deployment of floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) in Greece, but clearer assessment and regulatory pathways are needed, including coordination across maritime, nuclear and energy authorities, according to a report. The report, published by the Deon Policy Insti...
Nuclear power developer Newcleo said on 27 May that it plans to go public through a merger with a blank-cheque company* in a deal valuing it at about $2.4bn (€2.06bn). The Paris-based company, which operates in seven countries, said the merger would support its entry into the US power market and fun...
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it intends to complete its review of Orano Enrichment’s license application to build and operate a new uranium enrichment facility near Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 12 months. Orano submitted its application for the multibillion-dollar facility, named Project Ike, in M...
To meet current and future power capacity needs, nearly all utilities with nuclear generation assets are looking at the feasibility of extended power uprates (EPU) for their facilities. Much of the engineering efforts of the plants and their engineering partners is focused to how the affected system...
Applications are now open for the summer 2026 testing period for the American Nuclear Society’s Certified Nuclear Professional (CNP) exam. Applications are being accepted through July 2, and only three testing sessions are offered per year, so it is important to apply soon. The test administration p...
SMR-300 deployments, power plant names, trade missions, agreements between neighboring countries, and renewed interest in nuclear energy are among the notable developments that occurred internationally in the month of May....
US-based advanced nuclear technology company Oklo has been selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for advanced negotiations under a programme that aims to make surplus plutonium material available for conversion into fuel for advanced nuclear reactors. Oklo said the selection, made under the ...
The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. Former RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the April 24 meeting with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C and the o...
Swedish nuclear technology company Studsvik has applied for the second time this year to build a small modular reactor (SMR) park, which would be at its Nyköping nuclear site in the south of the country. Studsvik said that the site would have a capacity of 600-1,400 MW and that subject to permits it...
New York-based BLSK Energy has emerged from stealth mode following the signing of an agreement with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to develop a pilot facility that produces fuel for advanced fast nuclear reactors by recycling the used fuel from existing nuclear power plants. The company aims to b...
Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the...
On Tuesday, the National Reactor Innovation Center hosted an industry day for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, providing a forum for companies to learn more about how the program works, timelines, collaboration with the various entities involved, and available resources. The launch pad is a long-term ...
This Saturday, May 23, will mark one year since President Trump issued four executive orders (EOs) that sought to implement sweeping changes across the U.S. nuclear industry. From regulatory reform at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to new authorization projects at the Departments of Energy and De...
A report by the Government Accountability Office has shown that the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management continues to face significant staffing shortages since the GAO first reported on the problem in 2024. This includes a shortage in workers considered critical to carrying out ...
Student-led expeditions use distributed instruments to observe auroral structures and probe space plasma in real-world conditions....
A collaboration between the Department of Energy’s Office of Isotope R&D and Production and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology has recovered large quantities of radium-226—valued for its use in medical radioisotope production—from radiological waste stored at...
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Earlier this week, Idaho National Laboratory announced that its Structural Properties Laboratory (SPL) has been fully operational since January. Located at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex, the SPL houses the lab’s first new hot cell in 50 years....
Of the many and varied uses of nuclear science and technology, few may be aware of its applications in the detection of food adulteration. Also known as food fraud, food adulteration is the intentional altering of food products through dilution, substitution, mislabeling, or other fraudulent actions...
Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) hosted the Pathways to Trade Summit on Thursday, May 14, at the organization’s Pollard Center in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The focus of the gathering was the building of a skilled nuclear workforce capable of meeting the current and future challenges of unprecedented ...
Proposed nuclear energy legislation with bipartisan support earned the attention of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday morning. Subject-matter experts and the chief sponsors of the legislation shared details on three items at a hearing Wednesday before the EPW Subcommit...
TerraPower, the US nuclear company co-founded by Bill Gates, announced it has signed agreements with South Korea’s HD Hyundai and Hyundai Engineering & Construction (HDEC) to support the rapid commercialisation and deployment of a fleet of Natrium reactor and integrated energy storage plants in the ...
An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts has found that El Salvador has made notable progress in establishing the framework needed to support an informed decision on the introduction of nuclear power. The Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) mission was carried out fro...
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