The Department of Transportation has announced an initiative to develop small modular reactors for commercial shipping. The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) has launched a request for information (RFI) seeking industry input on the development of “a U.S.-built scalable, repeatable, commercially viable, system-centric, small modular reactor and their deployment within the marine transportation system.”

Originally scheduled for shutdown in 2025, Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant was given at least a few more years of life when in 2022, California lawmakers approved an extension of operations into 2030. The Avila Beach, Calif., plant already has the OK from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate into 2044 and 2045 after the two reactors’ operating licenses were renewed and extended for another 20 years, but state lawmakers still must approve any further extension beyond 2030 if the plant is to remain in operation.

A team within the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) in the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has worked with staff from the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research and the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove all remaining high-enriched uranium from Venezuela’s RV-1 research reactor, the NNSA has reported.

The American Nuclear Society recently opened two draft standards for public review. Previously, announcements of public review opportunities for ANS standards have been published exclusively in the American National Standards Institute’s weekly ANSI Standards Action publication.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced last week that it has transferred 1.7 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium from Japan to the United States.

Clean Core Thorium Energy has announced the completion of its nearly two-year ANEEL fuel irradiation testing and qualification campaign at Idaho National Laboratory.

The idea behind ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life) fuel is to provide existing pressurized heavy water reactors with a fuel option that has increased high-burnup performance without requiring any modification to the reactors.

The Bruce C nuclear power plant expansion project in Ontario, Canada, moved one step closer to fruition last week with the May 7 announcement that Bruce Power and the provincial government of Ontario had entered into a cost-sharing and recovery agreement that could be worth C$300 million ($219.4 million).

Ontario has directed the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to enter into the agreement with Bruce Power so the Canadian utility can proceed with First Nations and community engagement, workforce planning, preconstruction and site preparation planning, and other critical activities that fall under predevelopment work. This work would be completed by 2030.

Framatome announced this week that its nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Richland, Wash., has received Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a license amendment supporting fabrication of nuclear fuel with enrichment levels above 5 percent uranium-235, with manufacturing scheduled to begin in 2027.

Eden Radioisotopes has filed a construction permit application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a facility to produce medical radioisotopes, primarily molybdenum-99 and lutetium-177.

The United States has lacked a reliable domestic source of Mo-99 for diagnostic imaging for decades, and has invested in infrastructure in South Africa, the Netherlands, and Belgium to assist facilities in producing the isotope using HALEU targets. These reactors are old, and there have been disruptions to the supply chain due to unplanned outages for repairs. With a 66-hour half-life, Mo-99 cannot be stockpiled.

New Jersey’s two nuclear power plants, Hope Creek and Salem, may be joined by other nuclear facilities after lawmakers lifted the state’s de facto moratorium on new nuclear construction.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill said state officials are eyeing sites for potential nuclear facilities. Executives at PSEG Nuclear—the operators of Hope Creek and Salem—welcome the news of the growing momentum for nuclear power in the state but cautioned it will take more than lifting a moratorium to make this feasible.

This year’s print edition of the Nuclear News Buyers Guide officially has been dropped in the mail and is on its way to ANS members now. The Buyers Guide is an annual directory that has been connecting every tier of nuclear suppliers with partners, customers, and the workforce since the 1960s—just as the commercial nuclear industry was truly gathering speed.

Print and digital resources: The Buyers Guide is accessible only to ANS members and subscribers of Nuclear News. It is additionally available for download to all ANS members on the ANS website.

A recent Government Accountability Office report found that the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management faces significant aging infrastructure, data accuracy issues, and funding challenges in managing nuclear waste cleanup facilities.

As of June 2025, DOE-EM faced more than $1.5 billion in reported repair needs across about 4,300 operating facilities at the 15 cleanup sites the office oversees, according to the report. In addition, DOE-EM’s budget request included over $950 million in maintenance spending in fiscal year 2026, an 80 percent increase since FY 2020.

A new prototype ion engine known as a lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster has passed a crucial test at NASA. The space agency is hoping to eventually combine this technology with nuclear fission to produce power and thrust for lengthy space flights, such as a crewed mission to Mars.

Ames National Laboratory has announced a new tool that combines artificial intelligence and physics-based modeling to identify materials that can be used in fusion systems, where materials must withstand intense heat, radiation, and mechanical stress.

Three companies have come together to form the U.K. Infinity Fusion Consortium with the objective of developing the first private sector–led fusion power plant in the United Kingdom using existing “commercially credible” technologies.

The consortium is expected to benefit from the combination of the three partners’ expertise. Tennessee-based fusion start-up Type One Energy brings its 400-MWe Infinity Two stellarator fusion power plant design. British fusion technology company Tokamak Energy has its HTS magnet technology and manufacturing background. Texas-based consulting firm AECOM has international engineering and infrastructure capabilities.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted Radiant Industries’ 10 CFR Part 70 license application for its R-50 microreactor production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and will launch an expedited review that it is aiming to complete within eight months.

According to NRC documents, the agency expects to complete its review of the license application by December 18, 2026. The timeline is described as “accelerated” in the NRC announcement—about 55 percent faster than the typical 18 months for Part 70 application reviews.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has announced that its Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) recently received department approval for the conceptual design for a spent nuclear fuel staging facility project at Idaho National Laboratory.

Today, commercial microreactors are common in the marketplace of nuclear ideas. Dozens of companies are vying for their designs to reach scaled deployment to meet surging energy demand.

However, the term “microreactor” didn’t appear in Nuclear News until 2019, when the Department of Defense popularized it (in a nuclear context) in the early days of what would become Project Pele. Even before then, however, all the way back in 2005, Toshiba was developing the 4S (Super-Safe, Small, and Simple), a 30-MWt, pool-type reactor designed for remote locations with small grids. Once sealed and delivered, the reactor would run for 30 years with no refueling. If the word “microreactor” had been in use then, the 4S would certainly have been categorized as such.

The Belgian government is looking to take control of all seven nuclear reactors in the country in an effort to revitalize a domestic nuclear energy sector that once looked ready to disappear.

GE Vernova has formed a strategic collaboration with nuclear project financing and manufacturing firm Blue Energy to “advance the world’s first gas-plus-nuclear power plant.” The companies say that they intend to design and develop a power plant using GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 small modular reactors and GE Vernova gas turbines to meet electricity demands related to AI and advanced manufacturing. Subject to a final investment decision in 2027, the first plant is to be located at a Blue Energy site in Texas and will power a nearby data center campus.