Nuclear power in space is back in the news for the second time this week as microreactor start-up Nano Nuclear has released a request for information to identify organizations that may support the company in the development of its Loki micro modular reactor. The company’s goal is eventual deployment of Loki on the lunar surface.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have developed a multiphysics simulation modeling tool to predict how feedwater heater (FWH) tubes in a nuclear power plant break down over time. The model, which has the potential to improve maintenance schedules and save operating costs at nuclear facilities, is described in a paper titled “Numerical Analysis with Experimental Validation of Tube Fatigue Failure in Feedwater Heaters,” published in a recent issue of Engineering Failure Analysis.

A uranium enrichment monitor developed by a team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will soon be undergoing testing for nonproliferation applications at the International Atomic Energy Agency Centre of Excellence for Safeguards and Non-Proliferation in the United Kingdom. A recent PNNL news article describes how the research team, led by nuclear physicist James Ely, who works within the lab’s National Security Directorate, developed the UF₆ gas enrichment sensor (UGES) prototype for treaty verification and other purposes.

Today, a bipartisan group of experts including energy consultant Lake Barrett and former NRC chair Allison Macfarlane have published a report titled The Path Forward for Nuclear Waste in the U.S.

The report recommends a new solution for managing domestic nuclear waste—one that centers around the foundation of an independent corporation led by reactor owners. Responsibility for waste management transport, storage, and disposal would be managed by this corporation rather than the Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the establishment of the Center for Used Fuel Research (CUFR), to be hosted at the Idaho National Laboratory and focused on spent nuclear fuel performance, canister aging, and the fostering of innovation and collaboration.

According to the DOE, the CUFR is designed to be a national and international hub for applied research that supports and maintains compliance and advances public confidence in the safe storage and transportation of both commercial and DOE-managed spent fuel.

In June of last year, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on the New York Power Authority—the state's public power utility—to add at least 1 GW of new capacity to the electrical grid through the construction of an advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York to support the state’s decarbonization goals.

It was good news for the nuclear community, to be sure, but in Hochul's State of the State address in Albany earlier this week, she made that objective sound almost unambitious.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported that, to date, 14 countries have made 14 transfers of disused radium to be recycled for use in advanced cancer treatments under the agency’s Global Radium-226 Management Initiative. Through this initiative, which was launched in 2021, legacy radium-226 from decades-old medical and industrial sources is used to produce actinium-225 radiopharmaceuticals, which have shown effectiveness in the treatment of patients with breast and prostate cancers and certain other cancers.

NASA and the Department of Energy have announced a “renewed commitment” to their mutual goal of supporting research and development for a nuclear fission reactor on the lunar surface to provide power for future missions. The agencies have signed a memorandum of understanding that “solidifies this collaboration and advances President Trump’s vision of American space superiority.”

On New Year’s Eve, Holtec International submitted Part 1 of a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking a limited work authorization (LWA) to begin construction of a two-unit SMR-300 plant at the company’s site in Covert, Mich.

Named Pioneer-1 and -2, the twin 340-MWe pressurized water reactors would join the 777-MWe Palisades PWR that began operating in 1971, shut down in 2022, and is expected to reconnect to the grid—slightly delayed—early this year. According to Holtec’s application documents, Part 2 of its construction permit will be filed no later than mid-2027.

Tech giant Meta is making big bets on TerraPower and Oklo. With the former, the hyperscaler could support the deployment of up to eight new reactors. With the latter, it could be as many as sixteen.

For both start-ups, Meta hopes its demand bolsters supply chains, the workforce, and the nuclear industry generally. For itself, the company is aiming to secure more generation to cleanly power its AI ambitions.

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition by antinuclear group Beyond Nuclear challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of Holtec International’s proposed consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico.

The denial of Beyond Nuclear’s writ of certiorari petition was part of a long list of orders released by the Supreme Court on Monday. The list also included a denial of Duke Energy’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling in an antimonopoly dispute.

With last Friday's announcement regarding its vision for nuclear energy, Meta has entered into 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) for more than 2,600 MW of electricity from a combination of three Vistra-owned nuclear plants to support the tech behemoth's planned operations in the PJM region.

Eight communities and 23 companies, including reactor developers, construction firms, and utilities, have expressed interest in participating in New York state’s plan to develop at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear power in the upstate area. The communities and companies are responding to solicitations from the New York Power Authority for developers and partners who want to support the agency’s advanced nuclear power projects and are able to provide viable project concepts, as well as for communities to host nuclear facilities and backers that could support such projects.

On January 9, tech giant Meta made waves by announcing three new agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo. These deals aim to see Meta supporting both uprates at existing nuclear power plants and the development of new advanced reactor projects, and in total could see the company financing up to 6.6 GW of new and existing energy by 2035. These projects will support the hyperscaler’s ever-growing data center– and AI-driven energy needs.

As Nuclear News has done since 2022, we have compiled a review of the nuclear news that filled headlines and sparked conversations in the year just completed. Departing from the chronological format of years past, we open with the most impactful news of 2025: a survey of actions and orders of the Trump administration that are reshaping nuclear research, development, deployment, and commercialization. We then highlight some of the top news in nuclear restarts, new reactor testing programs, the fuel supply chain and broader fuel cycle, and more.

New power reactors of any size can be now be sited in the state of Illinois, thanks to legislation signed by Gov. J. B. Pritzker on January 8. The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA)—which Pritzker says is designed to lower energy costs for consumers, drive the development of new energy resources in the state, and strengthen the grid—lifts the moratorium on new, large nuclear reactors that Illinois enacted in the late 1980s.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy convened its first hearing of the year, “American Energy Dominance: Dawn of the New Nuclear Era,” on January 7, where lawmakers and industry leaders discussed how nuclear energy can help meet surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced manufacturing, and national security needs.

This week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order to form the Iowa Nuclear Energy Task Force, the purpose of which will be to “advise her, the General Assembly, and relevant state agencies on the development and advancement of nuclear energy technologies and infrastructure in the state.”

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a fusion firm headquartered in Devens, Mass., is collaborating with California-based computing infrastructure company NVIDIA and Germany-based technology conglomerate Siemens to develop a digital twin of its SPARC fusion machine. The cooperative work among the companies will focus on applying artificial intelligence and data- and project-management tools as the SPARC digital twin is developed.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has amended the operating licenses of the two boiling water reactors at Constellation Energy's Limerick nuclear power plant, giving the company the green light to replace the units' analog safety-related instrumentation and controls systems with a state-of-the-art digital system.