Kairos Power and BWXT team up on TRISO

September 3, 2025, 12:01PMNuclear News
Kairos Power’s fluoride salt–cooled high-temperature Reactor (KP-FHR) uses TRISO fuel embedded in annular graphite pebbles roughly the size of a golf ball. (Photo: Kairos Power)

Kairos Power and BWX Technologies announced today that they will work together to “collaboratively explore” optimizing commercial production of TRISO fuel for Kairos’s planned advanced reactor fleet—beginning with the 50-MWe Hermes 2, slated for operation in 2030—and other potential customers. Their collaboration could include jointly developing a TRISO fuel fabrication facility.

Aalo breaks ground in Idaho

September 3, 2025, 7:01AMNuclear News
Members of the Aalo team at the ground-breaking ceremony. (Photo: Aalo)

Eight days after Aalo Atomics released the details of its securing of $100 million in Series B funding, the company announced that it has broken ground on the 50-MWe Aalo-X. Sited in the desert beside Idaho National Laboratory, it will be the company’s first nuclear power plant, and it remains on track to go on line by July 4, 2026.

New consortium to address industry need for nuclear heat and power

September 2, 2025, 3:00PMNuclear News

Hoping to tackle a growing global demand for energy, The Open Group, a vendor-neutral technology and standards membership organization, has announced the formation of the Industrial Advanced Nuclear Consortium (IANC) to collaborate on finding advanced nuclear energy solutions to serve industrial customers.

Nuclear power on the moon: What we’re watching

September 2, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
A still image from a NASA video illustrating power needs on the lunar surface. (Image: NASA)

After the Trump administration’s new push to get a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 was first reported by Politico last month, media played up the shock value for people new to the concept. Few focused on the technical details of the new plan for lunar fission surface power (FSP), which halts and replaces a program that began under the first Trump administration with an early hope of getting a reactor on the moon by the end of 2026. Now, the focus is on streamlining NASA’s internal processes to support commercial space companies that can build a reactor with more than twice the power and mass and have it ready for launch by 2030.

NRC completes environmental review of Peach Bottom, Browns Ferry SLRs

September 2, 2025, 7:19AMNuclear News
Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. (Photo: NRC)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found that the environmental impacts of renewing the operating licenses of the Peach Bottom and Browns Ferry nuclear power plants for an additional 20 years are not great enough to prohibit doing so. If renewed, the licenses will allow the plants to operate for up to 80 years.

Watch as solid hydrogen is extruded to feed German stellarator

August 29, 2025, 12:02PMNuclear News
A plastic pellet replica alongside a dime and the tool that cuts each pellet from a solid hydrogen filament. (Photo: Larry Baylor/ORNL)

In May, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Greifswald, Germany, concluded an experimental campaign by sustaining a plasma with a high triple product for 43 seconds. The machine far surpassed its own previous performance with a value that the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) says “exceeds previous tokamak records for long plasma durations”—in part because of a fuel pellet injection system developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Watch ORNL’s video of that fuel pellet injection system—in use since September 2024—as it extrudes a column of frozen hydrogen and then cuts individual 3.2-millimeter-long pellets. The process, which takes just half a millisecond, was captured in slow motion by ORNL engineer Steve Meitner.

Start-up looks to commercialize inertial fusion energy

August 28, 2025, 3:01PMNuclear News

Another start-up hoping to capitalize on progress the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has made in realizing inertial fusion energy has been launched. On August 27, San Francisco–based Inertia Enterprises, a private fusion power start-up, announced the formation of the company with the goal of commercializing fusion energy.

Hanford looks inside sealed nuclear reactors using modern technology

August 28, 2025, 12:04PMNuclear News
Lidar technology creates detailed imaging by scanning the interior structure of cocooned reactors at the Hanford Site, supporting future monitoring and safety planning. (Image: DOE)

A new imaging technology is being used on decommissioned reactors at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Washington state, revealing a detailed look inside the sealed enclosures.

Constellation-Meta agreement ensures future of Clinton plant

August 28, 2025, 9:31AMNuclear News
The Clinton nuclear power plant. (Photo: Constellation)

Constellation has reported that its employees were joined by hundreds of community members and labor leaders on August 26 at the Clinton Clean Energy Center to celebrate a power purchase agreement between Constellation and Meta that supports the relicensing, continued operation, and expansion of Clinton for another two decades. The rally was held at the plant site, located in rural DeWitt County, Ill.

General Atomics makes $20M investment in Canadian fusion venture

August 28, 2025, 7:07AMNuclear News
UNITY-2 fuel cycle test facility. (Image: FFC)

San Diego, Calif.–based General Atomics has announced a $20 million, 10-year strategic investment in Canada’s Fusion Fuel Cycles Inc. (FFC), a joint venture between Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and Japan’s Kyoto Fusioneering. The investment will help accelerate the development of FFC’s flagship project, the Unique Integrated Testing Facility (UNITY-2), a deuterium-tritium fuel cycle test facility located at CNL’s Chalk River Laboratories.

A busy week in Utah for nuclear development

August 27, 2025, 2:57PMNuclear News

Almost every day this week has featured headlines concerning announcements, signings, and progress across Utah’s nuclear sector.

At a glance: TerraPower, Flagship, and the state signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on siting a Natrium reactor; $5 million may come to Camp Williams for General Matter–related site preparation work; and Nusano cut the ribbon on a radioisotope production facility.

DOE allocates HALEU to Antares, Standard Nuclear, and ACU/Natura

August 27, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News

The Department of Energy made conditional commitments yesterday to provide high-assay low-enriched uranium to three companies: reactor developer Antares Nuclear; fuel fabricator Standard Nuclear; and Natura Resources, which is backing Abilene Christian University’s development of a small Molten Salt Research Reactor and pursuing a commercial reactor design of its own. Following a contracting process, some of the companies “could receive their HALEU later this year.”

New World screwworm officially crosses border into . . . Maryland?

August 27, 2025, 9:31AMNuclear News
Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins annouces plans to establish a SIT facility at Moore Air Base. (Photo: USDA)

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.

DOE-NE’s newest fuel consortium includes defense from antitrust laws

August 26, 2025, 3:23PMNuclear News

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.

IAEA meeting focuses on nuclear science and food safety

August 26, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
IAEA deputy director general Najat Mokhtar (second from right) delivers welcoming remarks at the joint IAEA/WHO/FAO food safety meeting. (Photo: S. Ramirez/IAEA)

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.

Fermi America announces three new partnerships

August 26, 2025, 7:01AMNuclear News
Concept art of the Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus (Source: Fermi America)

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 forms partnership with University of South Carolina

August 25, 2025, 3:00PMNuclear News

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.