Ranchers in Texas, alongside the U.S. Department of Agriculture, have been bracing for the return of the New World screwworm (NWS), a parasitic fly that lays its eggs in the wounds of warm-blooded animals and, once newly hatched, eats living flesh.

The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is setting up a nuclear fuel Defense Production Act Consortium that will seek voluntary agreements with interested companies “to increase fuel availability, provide more access to reliable power, and end America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials needed to power the nation’s nuclear renaissance.” According to an August 22 DOE press release, the plan invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to give consortium members “defense from antitrust laws when certain criteria are met” and “allow industry consultation to develop plans of action.” DOE-NE is looking for interested companies to join the consortium ahead of its first meeting, scheduled for October 14.

A recent three-day meeting organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency drew representatives from 14 countries to discuss links between foodborne contaminants like mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticide residues, and microplastics, as well as such health issues as impaired growth, gut health, hormone regulation, nutrient absorption, chronic diseases, and malnutrition.

Less than a week after the news of Fermi America’s first collaboration for its Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus being built in partnership with Texas Tech University, the company has announced three more industry partners: Parkhill, Lee Lewis Construction, and Westinghouse.

The Nuclear Company, which in April opened its primary engineering and construction office in Columbia, S.C., announced a partnership with the University of South Carolina’s Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing, whereby the company will invest up to $5 million in the college over five years. USC is to match the private investment with funds from federal grants, industry partners, and other donors.

The new report “How America Can Achieve Nuclear Energy Dominance,” from the Working Group on U.S. Nuclear Energy Dominance, outlines a plan of action for the Trump administration that includes deploying new nuclear reactors, developing domestic supply chains, promoting nuclear exports, reforming regulations, and developing the workforce.

Working group chair Todd Abrajano said, “We welcome the Trump administration’s bold moves to kick-start the U.S. nuclear energy sector, but we recognize that President Trump’s executive orders alone can’t achieve our goals.”

Navigation engineer Marina Starovoitova has been named captain of a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker, state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has announced. Starovoitova is the first woman to hold that position, Rosatom said. She was officially appointed on August 20 during a ceremony in Nizhny Novgorod that marked the 80th anniversary of Russia’s nuclear energy industry. The evening event, “Era of Dreamers,” was attended by about 30,000 spectators, including more than 20,000 employees of Rosatom.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia seeking the energy grail of cold fusion—alias lattice confinement fusion or low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR)— used electrochemistry to load extra deuterium ions into a metal lattice and found a “modest” performance boost of 15 percent, compared with experiments without the electrochemical loading technique, according to the university.

Enthusiasm is continuing to trend upward in New Jersey this week as industry and government have rallied over the idea of new nuclear capacity in the state.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy will hold a webinar on August 27 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EDT) to discuss commercial-scale facility and transportation criticality analyses for the high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel cycle.

Those interested in attending the workshop can register using this link.

Media outlets have been abuzz this week with news of cesium-137 contamination in Great Value (Walmart’s private-label brand) frozen shrimp, according to a Food and Drug Administration report.

Researchers announced earlier this month that they have completed major construction of the Gamma-Ray Energy Tracking Array (GRETA), a precision tool for gamma ray spectroscopy that, according to Paul Fallon, a researcher at University of California–Berkeley and GRETA’s project director, will be 10 to 100 times more sensitive than previous nuclear science experiments. Fallon was quoted in an August 8 article published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)—where GRETA’s project leaders are based and GRETA was assembled.

GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor and the British Rolls-Royce SMR have been downselected by Sweden’s state-owned Vattenfall as it evaluates the construction of new reactors for its Ringhals nuclear power plant site in Sweden.

Since Texas Tech University and Fermi America made a big splash unveiling their plans for the Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus in June, news has been quiet.

At the time, the company promised to make the 5,769-acre site in Amarillo, Texas, “the largest nuclear power complex in America.” Now, with the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding and the hiring of two nuclear professionals, Fermi America’s cofounders—former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry and his son, Griffin Perry—are one small step closer to achieving their ambitious goals.

Department of Energy contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions and Florida International University’s Applied Research Center have agreed to expand workforce opportunities for students at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

It was near-certain that more good news was on the horizon for some of the 10 companies recently selected for the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. Now, only one week later, one of those companies—Aalo Atomics—has become the first to make a major headline with its announcement that it has secured $100 million in Series B funding.

Despite being home to just one nuclear power plant, the 1,756-MWe Calvert Cliffs, Maryland is among the top producers of nuclear power in the country relative to its total generated power.

This is an energy strategy that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently said he plans to expand on, in part through his recent signing of the state’s Next Generation Energy Act, H.B. 1035.

TerraPower announced yesterday that it has begun construction on the Kemmerer Training Center (KTC) at the site of the Natrium project in Kemmerer, Wyo. According to the company, the state-of-the-art KTC is the second facility to reach the construction milestone of the advanced nuclear project.

In a flurry of press releases, blog articles, and LinkedIn posts all released August 18, Kairos Power, Google, and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced a new power purchase agreement (PPA) between Kairos and TVA to supply up to 50 MW to the TVA grid, which powers two data centers owned by Google.

This agreement marks a significant milestone: It’s the first time a U.S. utility has entered into a PPA to buy power from a Gen IV reactor.

Graphite is a key component of traditional nuclear reactors—many of which are aging. Because graphite tends to swell and fail after lengthy exposure to radiation, it is essential to maintain its structural integrity over the lifetime of a plant.

Recently, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and other institutions reported a new and better way to evaluate the quality of the graphite. This new procedure could allow nuclear power plant operators to predict structural failure before it happens in a more accurate and less destructive way than is currently available.