Last Friday, Oklo filed an emergency request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission claiming that one of its potential generation projects has been “unjustifiably withdrawn” from the PJM Interconnection queue. Through that request, Oklo has asked FERC to direct PJM to reinstate its application with its original queue position.

In an interesting twist, the project at issue in this interconnection dispute was, until now, unknown to the public.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have collaborated with A.J. Tuck Company to develop a new manufacturing approach for use with the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) technique. The hybrid approach combines 3D printing and electroforming to produce so-called HIP cans used to form metal parts from powder materials, aiming to simplify the production of critical reactor components.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has issued Type One Energy the first license to operate a commercial fusion machine in the state. The state license is also the first to be issued after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a proposed rule on an augmented byproduct material framework earlier this year. The NRC proposed in February that the framework be expanded “to accommodate the wide variety of anticipated fusion machine designs across the National Materials Program.”

The American Nuclear Society recently hosted a Supplier Showcase webinar, “Advancing DVR for MUR: Lessons from First-of-a-Kind Projects,” featuring Greg Kanuckel, director of thermal performance at GSE Solutions, who shared his insights on data validation and reconciliation (DVR) and its impact on conducting measurement uncertainty recapture (MUR) uprates in nuclear power plants.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have conducted experimental tests on how particles from paved surfaces become suspended from activities such as walking, driving, and vacuuming, aiming to improve modeling of radiological and other contamination scenarios where emergency operations may kick up hazardous dust.

The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) recently held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. Former RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the meeting with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C and the value of risk-informed, performance-based (RIPB) techniques in contrast to the shortcomings of conventional, deterministic approaches for the development of nuclear technology.

Holtec has announced it is advancing with component fabrication for a testing facility at Idaho National Laboratory that it will use to quantify performance margins of its SMR-300 pressurized water reactor. The facility, dubbed HI-TEST, will use test loops to replicate accident scenarios and steam generator behavior, aiming also to support future power uprating for SMR-300 units.

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the amount of uranium concentrate produced in the United States in 2025 was more than three times greater than that produced the year before, and amounted to about 2.1 million pounds of U₃O₈, compared with the 657,000 pounds generated in 2024. It’s the largest amount produced in the United States since 2017.

The Palisades nuclear power plant has drawn closer to restart, as plant staff began the process of loading fuel into the reactor vessel on Sunday morning.

The commencement of fuel loading places the Covert, Mich., facility in Mode 6—or the refueling stage—under the plant’s technical specifications, plant owner and operator Holtec International said in a news release. The Palisades reactor core consists of 204 fuel assemblies that include new fuel and partially used fuel from the plant’s most recent operating cycles. According to Holtec, the fuel loading is being conducted in accordance with plant procedures and technical specifications.

Just days after the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the Port of Corpus Christi announced a partnership to explore the development of small modular reactors in the U.S. seaport, multiple other maritime nuclear announcements were unveiled to the public, including another MARAD partnership.

Last week the Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva began drilling holes for final disposal at the Onkalo deep geological repository, near the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in western Finland. The company’s German-made Deposition Hole Boring Machine (DHBM) took about 10 hours to drill the first hole, with a depth of 8.4 meters and a diameter of 1.75 meters, into the 1.9-billion-year-old bedrock. This is the first deposition hole intended for an iron-copper canister containing spent nuclear fuel—though test holes have been drilled at the site since 2022.

The Onkalo repository received a favorable safety assessment from the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland earlier in August.

Based on attendee reactions at yesterday’s final plenary session of the Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX 2026) in Dallas, Texas, the response is mixed as to whether the United States can fulfill its ambitious plans to quadruple the country’s nuclear generating capacity by 2050. When asked whether the nation would reach that goal, a number of hands in the room went up. But when asked the opposite, several hands also went up.

Moderator Jon Colby told attendees to think positively about the long term.

A simulation from the study shows density (top) and temperature (bottom) just before the time when fusion reactions peak in an asymmetric implosion. The hottest point coincides with the densest point of fuel, illustrating the direct ignition of a dense jet of fuel driven by asymmetry. The image was recently selected for the cover of Physics of Plasmas. (Image: LLNL)

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used simulations to show that inertial fusion power plants could tolerate significant low-mode asymmetries, such as those caused by laser alignment being off-center, revealing a trade-off between robustness and yield that could impact how power plants are brought on line.

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.