From the Pages of Nuclear News: Industry update July 2025

Utah has also entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with energy equipment developer Holtec International and energy services provider Hi Tech Solutions to support the deployment of Holtec’s SMR-300 in the state, as well as throughout the wider Mountain West region. Holtec is planning as much as 4 GW of SMR-300 capacity to be deployed during the 2030s, mainly in Utah and Wyoming, supported by ongoing testing at Idaho National Laboratory. According to the new agreement, Hi Tech will play a leading role in project development and workforce training. Holtec and Hi Tech will work together to build a permanent training facility in Utah by 2028 to concentrate on operations, maintenance, and future technologies.

A tristate MOU has been signed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, and Wyo. Gov. Mark Gordon to establish a cooperative framework to align the energy-related initiatives of the three states. Also, Utah state legislators have passed several bills this year, including legislation to support project financing, workforce development, policy recommendations, and regulatory frameworks to advance the deployment of new nuclear energy technology in the state.

Alpha Ring, a developer of micro-fusion technology headquartered in California, has signed MOUs with several universities and research institutes around the world. According to the agreements, Alpha Ring is to provide each university and research institute with an Alpha-E device, a tabletop fusion system designed for research and education. This device, which was demonstrated at the Monaco Clean Fusion Forum in late April, provides a hands-on platform with remote access to fusion research information via connection to Alpha Ring’s Fusion AI Data Center. The participating institutions are Macau University of Science and Technology in China, National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, Nuclear Energy Research Institute in Brazil, Purdue University in Indiana, Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico in Italy, University of California–Berkeley, University of Montenegro, and University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Westinghouse Electric Company and the University of Saskatchewan in Canada have signed a memorandum of agreement to collaborate on the development and deployment of technology for Westinghouse’s eVinci microreactor in Saskatchewan. The eVinci is a heat pipe–cooled microreactor that can produce as much as 5 MWe with a 15-MWt core design.

Westinghouse also has signed an MOU and a master services agreement with McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, focused on moving the eVinci microreactor toward commercialization. Westinghouse and McMaster will collaborate on research and development of the microreactor, including material irradiation and examination studies.

Two Canadian companies—Prodigy Clean Energy and naval engineering specialist Serco—have announced progress on the testing resistance to accident and threat scenarios in Prodigy’s transportable nuclear power plants. This first-of-its-kind effort is helping Prodigy prepare its TNPPs to enter commercialization with a target date of 2030 and is being partly funded by Natural Resources Canada’s Enabling Small Modular Reactors Program.

Trondheimsleia Kjernekraft, a new Norwegian project development company, has been created through a partnership between the energy companies Norsk Kjernekraft and NEAS and the municipalities Aure and Heim, with the aim of developing a power plant featuring multiple SMRs. Preliminary plans call for the power plant to be located in the Taftøy industrial park, along the border between Aure and Heim, and to have several SMRs with a total generating capacity of as much as 1500 MWe.

Norway’s Institute of Energy Technology (IFE) and Swedish lead-cooled SMR developer Blykalla have entered into a strategic collaboration to accelerate the technical development of Blykalla’s SEALER (Swedish advanced lead reactor) SMR. Blykalla—a spin-off from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and formerly known as LeadCold—stated that the collaboration with IFE is focusing on several areas that are essential for scaling SEALER from prototype to full commercial readiness. Blykalla plans to ultimately deploy as many as 1000 of its SMRs by 2050, delivering 500 TWh of energy annually to industrial users.

Enel, Ansaldo Energia, and Leonardo have signed an agreement for the establishment of ­Nuclitalia, a company set up to study advanced nuclear technologies, market opportunities, economic variables, and specific nuclear-related requirements for the Italian market. Nuclitalia is to assess nuclear reactor designs, initially focusing on water-cooled SMRs.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

NAC gains NRC certification for Type B packaging

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted its certification to NAC International for the Georgia-based company’s new high-capacity Volunteer transport packaging system. NAC developed this packaging system for the transport of tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, vitrified high-level waste, and irradiated hardware. The company’s application for certification of compliance was approved under 10 CFR Part 71 in less than one year, establishing a record for completing the NRC’s approval process for a Type B packaging of this complexity.

The government of Idaho and the Department of Energy have signed a targeted waiver to a 1995 agreement that had settled a lawsuit filed by the state to limit the shipment of used nuclear fuel to Idaho National Laboratory (then known as Idaho National Engineering Laboratory) for storage. That agreement had limited the amount of used nuclear fuel entering the site, required the DOE to report annually on the amount received, excluded shipments of used fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, and allowed the state to suspend shipments if the DOE failed to meet any deadlines or obligations. The new waiver allows INL to take in and manage high-burnup nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and some used fuel from university research reactors.

The Texas Nuclear Alliance, which is dedicated to the advancement of nuclear technology in Texas, has added Provident Data Centers as a founding member. Headquartered in Dallas, the company is a community-driven data center developer that is a division of Provident, a privately held real estate and investment firm.

The Small Business Administration honored Savannah River Nuclear Solutions with its 2025 Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Excellence in Services. This award recognizes contractors other than small businesses that have excelled in using small businesses as suppliers and subcontractors in various industries.

Zeno Power, a developer of nuclear batteries (or compact radioisotope power systems) for frontier environments, has announced that it raised $50 million in its Series B funding round. The leading Series B investor was Hanaco Ventures. Other investors included Seraphim, Balerion Space Ventures, JAWS, Vanderbilt University, RiverPark Ventures, Stage 1 Ventures, 7i Capital, and Beyond Earth Ventures. This funding round brought the total capital raised by Zeno to more than $70 million.

Zeno has also secured more than $60 million in contracts from the Department of Defense and NASA to develop nuclear batteries for such maritime and space applications as seabed infrastructure, maneuverable satellites, and lunar landers. The company has finalized plans to demonstrate its first-of-a-kind nuclear battery for maritime applications through a Department of Defense contract.

Urenco, which is jointly owned by the U.K. government, Dutch government, and two German utilities (EOn and RWE), has selected the London-based infrastructure firm Costain to produce the front-end engineering design for the U.K.’s first HALEU advanced fuels facility. Costain expects to complete this work in 2027.

CONTRACTS

DOE awards Oak Ridge services contract

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has awarded the Oak Ridge EM Technical, Management, and Administrative Services contract to Independent Strategic Management Solutions. ISMSolutions, a women-owned small business headquartered in Richland, Wash., is contracted to perform site technical analyses, documentation preparation and review, assistance in oversight activities, corrective action management, information management, technical editing, training, logistical coordination, performance analyses, records maintenance, and general and cross-cutting support.

The U.S. Navy has selected six companies for the RADMAC III multiple-award contract to provide radiological services for the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC). The contract awardees are Aptim Federal Services, ECC Expeditionary Constructors, Energy Solutions Federal Support, Insight Tidewater, ITP America, and Perma-Fix ERRG Services. The contracted work is to be performed at several sites in the United States and at a number of sites worldwide. The project’s anticipated completion date is November 2033.

NAC International and Paragon D&E have signed a strategic teaming agreement to develop, license, market, produce, and deliver nuclear packagings for government and commercial entities. The partnership combines Paragon’s expertise in design and integrated fabrication of Type A and Type AF drum packagings with NAC’s expertise in design, licensing, delivery, and operation of larger Type B packagings, allowing for a more comprehensive range of service offerings for the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Among the shipping needs that these companies handle are medical radioisotopes, HALEU fuel, spent nuclear fuel, high-level and low-level wastes, and other irradiated materials.

North Carolina–based Celeros Flow Technology has entered into a strategic partnership with Ontario-based Candu Energy of the AtkinsRéalis family of companies. Under the preferred vendors agreement (PVA), pump specialists with the two companies will work collaboratively to help accelerate future deployment of CANDU nuclear technology in Canada and elsewhere. In addition to Celeros, other vendors have signed PVAs with Candu Energy to identify opportunities, share expertise, highlight capabilities and capacity, and contribute to the development of technologies and technical specifications for CANDU reactor projects.

Candu Energy has signed a PVA with South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility to collaborate on nuclear power projects around the world, including CANDU reactor upgrades and new-build projects. The selection allows Doosan Enerbility to participate in design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning, and operation activities for Candu Energy’s multiple global nuclear power plant projects.

Candu Energy has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina to produce heavy water via the restart of the Industrial Heavy Water Plant in Neuquén, Argentina. The agreement provides for the long-term acquisition by Candu Energy of the heavy water produced there. After refurbishment work supported by AtkinsRéalis, the Neuquén facility is expected to resume operation as early as 2027.

The Westinghouse-Bechtel Consortium and Polskie Elektrownie Ja˛drowe have signed a previously agreed-upon engineering development agreement, ensuring continuity in the implementation of Poland’s first nuclear power plant project. This project involves the development of a power plant with three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at a site in Pomerania, with the first reactor to enter commercial operation in 2033.

Westinghouse has expanded its supply chain in Bulgaria with the signing of MOUs with seven Bulgarian suppliers to support the construction of two AP1000 pressurized water reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. The memoranda—which cover the potential supplying of cranes, logistics and transportation, electrical and industrial equipment, instrumentation and control equipment, piping, and other products and services—were signed by Balkansko Echo, Bon Marine, Contragent 35, El Kontrol, ELPROM Heavy Industries, Kozloduy, and Zekalabs. Kozloduy has two operating VVER-1000 reactors that provide about one-third of Bulgaria’s electricity. Refurbishment and life extension programs have extended their expected lifetimes to 60 years. The two new AP1000 units—involving engineering contracts between Westinghouse, Kozloduy NPP-New Builds, and Hyundai Engineering & Construction—are expected to become operational in 2035 and 2037.

Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom has signed a seven-year agreement to supply natural uranium concentrate to the Czech Republic’s ČEZ. With this agreement, ­Kazatomprom will supply about one-third of the uranium for the Westinghouse fuel assemblies at the Temelin nuclear power plant. Temelin’s fuel has previously been supplied by Russia’s TVEL.

The Swedish-Finnish engineering company AFRY has entered into a framework agreement with the Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning Agency to serve as a technical consultant for the decommissioning and radioactive waste management of Norway’s nuclear facilities. AFRY is to provide its expertise to support the development of safety assessments and safety cases aligned with international standards and regulatory compliance. The framework agreement covers three years, with the potential for a seven-year extension. AFRY is the third company to secure an agreement with NND.

NND has also awarded a contract to Virginia-based Amentum and Multiconsult Norge (Amentum’s joint venture partner) to provide safety case management and training for Norway’s nuclear clean-up and decommissioning activities. The contracted work is to be performed at the KLDRA national waste repository in Himdalen, the nuclear fuel and materials testing reactor at Halden, and the JEEP-II neutron scattering facility at Kjeller. Amentum and Multiconsult have been collaborating with NND since 2022 under an engineering and technical framework to develop a decommissioning strategy that includes the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India has awarded the contract to build Units 5 and 6 of Kaiga nuclear power plant, in the state of Karnataka, to Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd. (MEIL). The $1.5 billion engineering, procurement, and construction contract for the two reactors—which are the first of 10 planned new Indian-designed 700-MWe pressurized heavy water reactors—is the largest order ever placed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India. In addition, the contract marks MEIL’s first major move into the nuclear energy sector.