Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has formed a strategic partnership with Ampera to develop the company’s nuclear fuel concept through a project named THUNDER, for Thorium Unimodal Droplet Ejection for Reactors.

The focus of THUNDER is fabricating TRISO made with kernels of thorium rather than the usual uranium. LLNL and Ampera will evaluate and optimize liquid metal–jetting technology to produce highly uniform, spherical kernels of thorium-232 for later processing into TRISO fuel.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory have announced they will collaborate to help industry develop a process for wire arc 3D printing of industrial pressure vessels used for nuclear energy and chemical processing.

“By working with industry to demonstrate, validate, and qualify advanced manufacturing technologies, we can reduce risk, accelerate deployment, and strengthen the domestic supply chains essential to America’s energy future,” said Robert Wagner, ORNL associate laboratory director for energy science and technology.

In an amendment to a 1998 record of decision, the Department of Energy is expanding the available space at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant deep geological repository for defense-related radioactive waste, and is also now planning to accept waste at the facility for 50 more years than previously planned. The amended decision, which was signed on August 18 by Tim Walsh, assistant secretary for Environmental Management, commits the DOE to a WIPP operating horizon extending to about 2083.

The second day of the Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX 2026) kicked off with success stories on the start-up and state levels.

In Wednesday’s opening plenary session, representatives of three of the four companies that reached criticality on or before Executive Order 14301’s July 4 target date—Aalo Atomics, Antares Nuclear, and Deployable Energy—talked about the run-up to meeting the deadline. Following the opener, officials from Kentucky, New York, and Utah discussed ambitious plans to expand nuclear power in their respective states.

Yesterday, Westinghouse announced it had completed zero-power criticality testing for its eVinci test reactor in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center, validating the models and core design assumptions of the technology.

The company said it plans to continue prototyping the system, aiming to provide further validation of the performance, operability, and manufacturability of the microreactor.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has given Bruce Power approval to operate the company’s hot cell facility in Tiverton, Ontario, for medical radioisotope processing. This approval allows the facility to conduct Target Carrier Removal (TCR), a key step in the production of lutetium-177, an isotope used to treat prostate and gastric cancers.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has successfully tested a new laser-based maintenance technology developed by engineers at the University of South Florida. The technology involves the use of a precision laser during regular inspections of ice condenser systems that are part of the emergency core cooling systems at certain nuclear power plants.

The National Reactor Innovation Center at Idaho National Laboratory has announced 13 project selections across 12 companies for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a Department of Energy–led program that integrates reactor and fuel facility authorization, testing, and deployment support for private nuclear developers.

The Launch Pad emerged from the Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program.

According to INL, projects selected include reactor development and nuclear fuel cycle advancements, including fabrication, enrichment, and conversion technologies.

The Government Accountability Office has released a report to Congress titled “Nuclear Fuel: Actions Needed to Enhance Cost Reporting and Economic Analysis for Federal Uranium Supply Efforts.” The report describes National Nuclear Security Administration estimates of enriched uranium supplies and demands, examines the NNSA’s plans to meet enriched uranium needs, and describes potential challenges to meeting supply goals. It also examines Department of Energy efforts to support the front-end fuel cycle for the commercial nuclear industry.

Cut-away schematic and example radiograph of the fusion fuel capsule, showing the outer spherical carbon shell and the D-T fuel “ice” layer with a gas core. For Inertia, this capsule has a diameter of about 4–5 mm. Formation of a sufficiently smooth D-T ice layer is crucial for ignition. (Image: Inertia)

Inertia Enterprises and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed a manufacturing process for the thin layer of cryogenically frozen deuterium-tritium (D-T) used in its target design, reducing production time from days to hours, according to the company.

The advance makes target fueling cheaper and reduces the amount of tritium that Inertia would need to hold at a pilot plant, which lowers material handling costs, regulatory burden, and dependence on scarce fuel inventories.

In January, the Department of Energy announced its new Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus (NLIC) program, inviting states via a request for information to express their interest in hosting a facility supporting work from the front to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle.

By April, 26 states had expressed interest in hosting such a facility. At the end of July, the DOE signed memorandums of understanding with five states—Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah—to more closely explore the possibilities of state-federal partnerships. These MOUs are not firm commitments from either the federal or state governments. Time will tell which—if any—of the five states develop projects through the program. In the meantime, today, we are taking a close look at what Utah, Idaho, Tennessee can offer in terms of a preexisting nuclear sector that could support new fuel cycle developments.

Last week in Chicago, the American Nuclear Society’s Fuel Cycle & Waste Management Division hosted Global 2026, where it was abundantly clear that there are many exciting fuel-related developments in the nuclear power industry. Developments announced last week run the gamut of the fuel cycle, including enrichment, fabrication, and recycling and reprocessing.

The Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) has signed its second memorandum of cooperation with a U.S. seaport to advance the development of small modular reactors to power commercial vessels, ports, and other maritime assets—this time, shifting its attention to the Gulf coast.

The MOC pairs the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas with MARAD to explore SMRs, microgrids, and advanced vessel propulsion systems for maritime applications. Last week, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, MARAD Administrator Stephen Carmel, Port of Corpus Christi CEO Kent Britton, and Port of Corpus Christi Commission Chair Gabe Guerra signed the MOC at a ceremony.

What fuels the future of nuclear? Whether it is low-enriched uranium, LEU+, or high-assay low-enriched uranium, one of the answers is in the question itself: fuel.

Earlier this week, the American Nuclear Society’s Fuel Cycle & Waste Management Division hosted Global 2026, with the theme of “Deploying Sustainable Nuclear Fuel Cycles.”

During one plenary session, “Fueling the Future of Nuclear,” panelists from Urenco USA, Centrus Energy, General Matter, and Global Laser Enrichment shared with attendees how the companies were contributing to the front end of the fuel cycle—more specifically, by launching or expanding their respective enrichment services.

This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced a new coordinated research project (CRP) to improve understanding of the safety of edible insects and other novel foods and to use nuclear and related technologies to assess risks.

A new analytical laboratory at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been officially opened by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and its contractor Isotek Systems. The state-of-the-art lab, located in Building 2026, is being used to speed up the high-priority cleanup of ORNL’s uranium-233 inventory and accelerate the delivery of actinium-225 to facilities that use the radioisotope in research and for potential treatment of patients with cancer.

As established by a commercial payload agreement, a radioisotope heating unit (RHU) developed by Zeno Power will be onboard one of Firefly Aerospace’s existing Blue Ghost missions to the near side of the moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, the companies announced yesterday.

Zeno, which has already been working on an americium-241–fueled radioisotope power system for Harmonia RPS, will provide a lightweight, compact 5-Wt Am-241 RHU that includes communications, electrical power, command and data handling, and thermal management subsystems.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering Orano Enrichment USA’s application for a license to build a centrifuge enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. A notice published in the Federal Register on August 12 includes a commission order and an announcement of the opportunity to request a contested hearing.

The publication of the FR notice marked the start of a 60-day period in which a member of the public can file a request for a hearing. If contentions are adjudicated, the NRC intends to not hold a second, uncontested hearing before issuing a license on the $5 billion Project Ike Enrichment Facility, where Orano plans to reenrich depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) tails and enrich natural-grade UF₆ to a maximum of 8-weight percent uranium-235.

As Kairos Power’s high-temperature, fluoride salt–cooled reactor facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn., take shape, the company is partnering with multiple regional groups to prepare the local workforce for new nuclear career opportunities.

Kairos has signed a memorandum of understanding with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), Barnard Construction, Roane State Community College, Chattanooga State Community College, and Oak Ridge Schools to form the Nuclear Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Precast, or NuCAMP.