Heavy lifts equal heavy progress at the construction site of V.C. Summer-2 and -3 in South Carolina. Following is the latest update on recent major milestones completed at what will be the first new commercial nuclear energy reactors in the United States in 30 years.

The 220th edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers and Authors has been posted at Next Big Future.  You can click here to access this latest installment of a long running tradition among pro-nuclear authors and bloggers.

If a tornado just happens to come through... flying steel pipes, telephone poles, or even automobiles will be no match for this building. This is the new Watts Bar FLEX building, housing emergency backup equipment like generators and pumps that could be used to replace equipment in case of damage from a natural disaster. Watts Bar will likely be the first nuclear facility in the United States to comply with all the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's post-Fukushima requirements, as the Tennessee Valley Authority works toward licensing for Watts Bar Unit 2 with a target date of beginning commercial operation in December next year.

Near Augusta, Georgia, the first new commercial nuclear power reactors under construction in the United States in 30 years continue to "go vertical."  Take an inside look at the latest from the Vogtle-3 and -4 construction site, including placement of the 1.8 million pound containment vessel bottom head for Unit 4, the cooling tower for Unit 3 surpassing 300 feet, and a very interesting visit to the Port of Savannah where many of the most massive Vogtle components arrive via ship.

A quick note about an interesting contest going on at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The 216th edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers and Authors is posted at Next Big Future.  You can click here to view this latest installment of a long running tradition among pro-nuclear authors and bloggers.

Thank you for your remarkable contributions to continuing progress and advancement in nuclear sciences and technologies-and congratulations to American Nuclear Society honors and awards recipients at the 2014 ANS Annual Meeting.

There is a lot going on in nuclear energy lately-and a correspondingly sizable haul of contributions by the internet's nuclear bloggers this week, posted at Next Big Future.  A new US EPA rule on power plant carbon emissions figures prominently.

CNBC's Mary Thompson visits the construction site of two new nuclear energy reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in South Carolina, and talks with South Carolina Electric & Gas Company Chief Nuclear Officer Jeffrey Archie about new construction and operation jobs-in South Carolina and industry-wide.

By Lenka Kollar

With Memorial Day Weekend at hand, this is a good time to sit down and take a more in-depth look at the history, and the future, of nuclear energy.  Dr. Roger Blomquist of Argonne National Laboratory leads a public tour on this fascinating topic.  Note the video begins at 0:40 and Dr. Blomquist begins at 7:30.

The 209th Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival: Nuclear Energy In Perspective

Florida governor Rick Scott and his cabinet met on May 13 for the final state-level site selection determination for new AP1000 nuclear reactors planned to be built at the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in southern Florida. The hearing was well-attended by opponents and supporters.

The second Sunday in May marks the celebration of Mother's Day in the United States and many countries. In honor of this wonderful tradition, the Nuclear Cafe Matinee is quite pleased to showcase interviews with nuclear engineer Julie Ezold, Californium-252 Production Program Manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Expanding U.S. nuclear exports a key component of effective nonproliferation policy

Studies by Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano purporting to link radiation from Fukushima to health effects in the United States have made for alarming headlines in news outlets on occasion, and have come under fire by critics who charge flawed methodology (for example, What Can We Do About Junk Science and Researchers Trumpet Another Flawed Fukushima Study).

Jacopo Buongiorno of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discusses some of the advantages of a nuclear reactor concept under development in collaboration with industry and other universities: floating off-shore nuclear power plants, constructed entirely in a shipyard, anchored off the coast, linked to the electric grid via undersea cable. Earthquakes and tsunamis would not be a threat, the ocean would be readily available to serve as a heat sink for reactor cooling, emergency evacuation planning would be a lesser consideration...

The World Bank reports that fewer than 10 percent of African households have access to the electrical grid.  Some countries such as Kenya and Nigeria are looking to add nuclear energy to their grids, Egypt has plans to implement nuclear energy and South Africa wants to expand its share.  This video from Voice of America News discusses some recent developments in nuclear energy in Africa and pros and cons.

The ANS Nuclear Criticality Safety Division (NCSD) is sponsoring a special session at the upcoming American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting in Reno, Nev., June 15-19. The session is titled "Critical and Subcritical Experiments" and will commence the morning of Wednesday, June 18. This session will contribute to the long history and hundreds of technical papers related to critical-mass experiments that first began at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the 1940s.

ICOSA Media caught up with NuScale chief executive officer Chris Colbert and TerraPower CEO John Gilleland at the recent CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Tex. The two leaders of these innovative nuclear energy companies discuss the how's and why's of their small and beautiful reactor designs-the NuScale Small Modular reactor and the TerraPower Traveling Wave reactor.