Industry Update—May 2025

April 29, 2025, 7:10AMNuclear News

Here is a recap of industry happenings from the recent past:

ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE

TerraPower’s Natrium reactor advances on several fronts

TerraPower has continued making aggressive progress in several areas for its under-construction Natrium Reactor Demonstration Project since the beginning of the year. Natrium is an advanced 345-MWe reactor that has liquid sodium as a coolant, improved fuel utilization, enhanced safety features, and an integrated energy storage system, allowing for a brief power output boost to 500-MWe if needed for grid resiliency. The company broke ground for its first Natrium plant in 2024 near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyo.

The Wyoming Industrial Siting Council has approved a state permit for the construction and operational activities of all nonnuclear portions of the advanced reactor—elements that are outside the jurisdiction of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Meanwhile, the NRC has informed TerraPower that the agency has completed its draft safety evaluation (SE) on the company’s construction permit application for Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1. The NRC expects to complete its final SE by June 2026 and its environmental review by May 2026.

A number of contract and collaboration announcements have been among the recent developments in the Natrium project. TerraPower announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Seattle-based data center developer, owner, and operator Sabey Data Centers (SDC) for a strategic collaboration to incorporate Natrium plants into SDC’s current and future operations. The potential for deploying Natrium plants in Texas and the Rocky Mountain region to support the power needs of SDC-owned data centers will be evaluated as part of this collaboration.

TerraPower also announced a strategic collaboration with nVision Energy, an affiliate of Michigan-­based energy project developer NOVI Energy. This collaboration is focused on establishing a framework for a repeatable deployment model for developing Natrium facilities across the United States. The two companies hope to combine nVision ­Energy’s expertise in complex energy project development with TerraPower’s advanced nuclear technology. nVision’s many decades of energy development experience include direct, hands-on work with both U.S. civil and Navy nuclear projects.

TerraPower and Houston-based KBR have formed a strategic alliance to establish a long-term collaboration for the commercialization and deployment of Natrium reactors in North America, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and elsewhere. The alliance seeks to establish a replicable contracting framework to rapidly deploy Natrium reactors while reducing financial risk and ensuring cost transparency. The alliance will also support planning and strategy for early project development and site characterization activities and develop government communication to promote Natrium globally.

In yet another development, the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) has signed a project labor agreement with TerraPower for the Natrium reactor. NABTU is an alliance of 14 national and international unions working in the building and construction industry that collectively represents more than 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada.

Data4, a developer and operator of data centers in Europe, has agreed to evaluate the deployment of Westinghouse Electric Company’s AP300 small modular reactor for one of its planned centers. Data4 and Westinghouse signed an MOU referring to the AP300 as the European company’s technology of choice. Data4 finances, designs, builds, and operates its own data centers, with 35 such centers currently operating in France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Germany, and Greece. Its centers are grouped together on campuses, which the company believes offers an efficient and scalable solution for its customers. According to a statement from Data4, “By integrating a solution such as the Westinghouse AP300 SMR, these campuses will gain greater energy autonomy, reducing their reliance on traditional grids and helping to alleviate pressure on public power networks.” Westinghouse hopes to have its first AP300 reactors in operation by the early 2030s.

Kairos Power, the developer of a fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature advanced reactor, has unveiled an Operator Training Simulator Laboratory at the University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering, in Knoxville. The facility will train operators for Kairos Power’s Hermes low-power demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge while also serving as a training hub for university students. This simulator-based training will be supplemented with introductory courses on nuclear fundamentals that will be available to both Kairos Power employees and university students.

Alberta-based Capital Power has selected the global professional services company Turner & Townsend as the prime vendor to help develop grid-scale SMRs in Alberta. Turner & Townsend’s work will support Capital Power and Ontario Power Generation in developing the risk management systems, standards, and best practices needed for SMR deployment. The company will also cooperate with subcontractor Nuclear Promise X.

The United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation has confirmed that Washington, D.C.–based Last Energy has formally entered the nuclear site licensing process for plans to develop and deploy four 20-MWe microreactors in South Wales. Last Energy’s South Wales microreactor project is the first new site for a U.K. commercial nuclear reactor to enter licensing since the Torness Nuclear Power Station in Scotland in 1978.

Rolls-Royce SMR has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Siemens Energy making Siemens its global turbine systems partner. The agreement covers a complete turbine systems package, which includes the designing, manufacturing, installing, and commissioning for a global fleet of “factory-built” SMR power plants. Rolls-Royce SMR is currently planning to deploy SMR units in the Czech Republic, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Japan’s Fukushima Institute for Research, Education and Innovation have signed a memorandum of cooperation on joint research in robotics and autonomous systems, including applications for nuclear decommissioning. UKAEA carries out fusion energy research for the U.K. government and is a member of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration, along with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield, and the University of Manchester.

UKAEA and Italy’s Eni have signed a collaboration agreement to develop advanced technological solutions in fusion energy and related technologies, including skills transfer initiatives. The agency and company are jointly constructing the UKAEA-Eni H3AT Tritium Loop Facility, which will be the world’s largest and most advanced tritium fuel cycle facility when it is completed at Culham Campus, in Oxfordshire, England, in 2028.

France-based advanced reactor developer Newcleo has signed a contract with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation to cooperatively evaluate the potential deployment of Newcleo’s lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Newcleo is planning the first non-nuclear precursor prototype of its LFR to be deployed in Italy by 2026 and its first operational reactor to be up and running in France by the end of 2031.

Newcleo has also signed an MOU with the Danieli Group, an Italy-­based designer, manufacturer, and installer of machinery and plants for the iron and steel industry. The MOU calls for integrating Newcleo’s LFR with Danieli’s steelmaking technology.

A strategic partnership has been formed between South Africa’s Stratek Global and France’s Groupe Albatros to carry out feasibility studies on potential SMR projects in Africa and the Middle East, with the first phase of the partnership focusing on sites in South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia, and Oman. Stratek Global is developing a 35-MWe high-temperature gas-cooled reactor called HTMR-100. Its design was derived from the now-defunct South African Pebble Bed Modular Reactor program, which was researching a small-scale reactor using graphite-coated spherical uranium oxycarbide tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel. Groupe Albatros consists of Aloris and Sigedi.

A multiparty MOU has been signed to establish a laser-based fusion power plant at the site of the former Biblis nuclear power plant in the German state of Hesse by 2035. The parties to the agreement are the Hessian state government, the fusion company Focused Energy, the Technical University of Darmstadt, the GSI Helmholtz Centre, and several industrial companies.

Sweden-based SMR developer Blykalla and Norway-based nuclear project developer Norsk Kjernekraft have signed an MOU calling for collaboration on the deployment of Blykalla’s Swedish Advanced Lead Reactor (SEALER) SMR in Scandinavia.

Rosatom and Myanmar’s Ministry of Science and Technology have signed an intergovernmental agreement on the development of a 110-MWe SMR project in the Southeast Asian nation. The agreement, which established terms and main areas of interaction for cooperation, includes the possibility of an expansion of capacity to 330 MWe. The two parties also signed a memorandum of cooperation in nuclear energy and radiation safety.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

TNA continues to expand its founding members

The Texas Nuclear Alliance, which is dedicated to the advancement of the state’s nuclear technology, has welcomed Kairos Power, Core Power, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Pelican Energy Partners as new founding members.

California-headquartered Kairos Power is the developer of a fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature advanced reactor and the Hermes low-power demonstration reactor. Core Power is a technology and market development company that funds and constructs scalable nuclear technology projects for heavy industry and ocean transport purposes, including floating nuclear power plants for local grids, heating, cooling, and electric vehicle charging. The firm maintains offices in London, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. Pills­bury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a leading law firm in nuclear energy. Pelican Energy Partners is a Houston-based private equity firm that makes investments in energy equipment and service companies that are in the nuclear sector and the oil and gas sector.

CONTRACTS

Westinghouse extends its commitments in Spain and Finland

Westinghouse has signed a new technology contract with Spanish nuclear fuel manufacturer Enusa to extend the companies’ existing licensing agreement for 10 additional years. Both companies also signed a contract under which Enusa agreed to fabricate VVER-440 fuel assemblies for Fortum’s Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland.

The Sizewell C project, 76 percent of which is owned by the U.K. government, has selected Virginia-based Amentum as the sole program and project management delivery partner for the planned nuclear power plant on the East Suffolk coast of England. This plant is slated to have two 1.6-GW EPR reactors capable of supplying electricity to 6 million homes, with operations to begin in the early 2030s. Amentum was also contracted to support Sizewell delivery teams with digitally aligned project controls, engineering and technical services, and infrastructure solutions for site management.

The French utility Engie has closed an agreement with the government of Belgium to extend the operation of Belgium’s Tihange-3 and Doel-4 nuclear reactors by 10 years and to transfer all obligations for handling the associated radioactive waste from Engie to the government. These reactors had been scheduled to shut down this year, though the government finalized plans to extend their lifetimes in December 2023. Under the newly closed agreement, the reactors will be equally owned by the government and Engie.

France’s Orano and the European Investment Bank have signed a loan agreement for €400 million ($449 million) to partly fund the extension of the Georges Besse II uranium enrichment plant in Tricastin, France. The project will increase the centrifuge enrichment plant’s capacity by more than 30 percent. The facility, which opened in 2010, had reached its full production capacity of 7.5 million separative work units in 2016.

An agreement has been signed between Orano and Navoiyuran, the state-owned uranium producer of Uzbekistan, to develop the country’s South Djengeldi uranium project and to integrate it into Navoiyuran’s existing industrial base. The Japanese company ITOCHU Corporation has agreed to join the French and Uzbek companies in the joint venture. South Djengeldi is currently projected to have sufficient uranium to sustain production for more than a decade, reaching a peak production of 700 tU.

Orano has signed an agreement with Energoatom to supply the Ukrainian energy company with uranium enrichment services until 2040.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has signed two agreements to collaborate with institutions in Kazakhstan on the utilization of uranium resources dissolved in seawater and groundwater. KHNP signed MOUs with Al-Farabi National University and the Institute of High Technologies (IHT), which is the research arm of Kazatomprom. Under the terms of the agreements, all three organizations will jointly investigate uranium concentrations and distribution in Kazakhstan’s seawater and groundwater, as well as conduct performance evaluations of uranium adsorbents.

KHNP has reached an agreement with the South Korean construction firm Samsung C&T to establish a strategic partnership for the co-development of overseas nuclear power plants. The companies agreed to collaborate in several areas, including developing joint proposals for new nuclear power projects with business-to-business cooperation, strengthening competitiveness for large nuclear power bids, and using small modular reactors for the development of some overseas nuclear projects.

Russia’s Internexco and Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil have signed a contract for the temporary export of 275,000 kilograms of uranium concentrate (U3O8) produced at the Uranium Concentration Unit in Caetité, Bahia. The U3O8 will be sent to Russia for the purposes of conversion and enrichment, with the final processed product to be returned to Brazil by December 2027 in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) enriched to 4.25 percent. The UF6 will then be used in the manufacturing of nuclear fuel that will supply the Angra dos Reis nuclear power plant in Brazil.

The Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI) has announced the signing of nine major contracts related to the construction of Units 1 and 2 of the Bailong nuclear power plant, in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The agreements include the general contracting contract for the units, the main project construction supervision service contract, the marine engineering special general contracting framework agreement, the nuclear island civil engineering and installation contract, and the conventional island and balance of plant construction and installation contract. The contracts were awarded to SNERDI by Guangxi Nuclear Power Company. The institute and the company are both subsidiaries of State Power Investment Corporation.

NEW PRODUCTS

New AI technology automates complex workflows

Nuclearn, a Phoenix-based developer of AI technology for the nuclear industry, has launched the first-of-its-kind Nuclearn Agents, designed to automate complex workflows across power plant design, licensing, construction, and operations. Built on the company’s Nuclearn AI Platform, Nuclearn Agents enable the automation of multistep tasks, such as performing research by pulling new data from external sources, analyzing multi-thousand-page documents, and directly carrying out actions in other software systems. The Nuclearn AI Marketplace allows power plants to quickly deploy and share AI-driven solutions for such processes as 10 CFR 50.59 applicability screening, regulatory correspondence assistance, and aging management issue identification for license extensions.

The Germany-based nuclear services provider GNS Group has introduced a canister-based ductile cast iron (DCI) cask system designed to better enable safe defueling for nuclear power plants that have limited crane capacities. According to the company, the CASTOR geo69 combines the proven advantages of its CASTOR metal cask family with a patented reclosable canister system for up to 69 boiling water reactor fuel assemblies or 37 pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies. The CASTOR geo69 has received 10 CFR 71 approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with subsequent 10 CFR 72 approval expected.

The Minnesota-based remote-handling specialist Central Research Laboratories (CRL) has launched an addition to its Single-Use Beta Bag product line called Single-Use Gamma Bags. These bags, which are made of high-density polyethylene for compatibility with gamma-sterilization procedures, have applications primarily in the life sciences and biopharmaceutical sectors. CRL also produces many remote-handling products for the nuclear power industry.


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