The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will meet on January 25 to discuss grid reliability, operating reactors, advanced reactor activities, cybersecurity, and other topics.

The Department of Energy, in conjunction with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University, will conduct a biweekly webinar series aimed at providing a broad overview of nuclear waste management and disposal in the United States as well as the latest research activities. The target audience is undergraduate and graduate students in science, engineering, policy, sociotechnical, and social science programs.

A new material based on amidoxime chemical groups may allow electrochemical extraction technology to extract uranium ions from seawater more efficiently than previous methods, according to a recent study published by the American Chemical Society’s ACS Central Science. If put into practical use, the new method, which was developed by researchers in China, could offer an environmentally sustainable source of fuel for nuclear power plants.

Investors continue to be bullish on uranium, according to a number of recent news reports. Stockhead recently trumpeted, “Uranium has started 2024 the same way it ended 2023—like a bull in a china shop. Spot prices are now agonizingly close to US$100/lb for the first time since 2008, with term pricing not far behind.” Similarly, Mining.com noted, “The spot price of uranium continues to rise, boosted by pledges to triple nuclear power by mid-century, supply hiccups from producers such as Cameco . . . , and the looming threat of a ban on Russian exports to the West.”

A new type of cold spray coating, made from the metal tantalum and applied to the plasma-facing steel walls of fusion reactors, could lead to efficient, compact fusion reactors that are easy to repair and maintain, according to a study recently published in the journal Physica Scripta. The study was led by scientists and engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and involved researchers from South Korea, France, and Germany.

Three people were arrested on January 3 when they paraglided onto the site of a canceled nuclear power plant in Hartsville, Tenn., according to Nashville news station WSMV.

A coalition of energy and grid industry associations led by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) today requested $1.2 billion in repurposed supplemental funding in upcoming negotiations on the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for Distribution Transformer and Grid Components.

A new report from the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) describes the use of nuclear energy to decarbonize some activities normally powered by oil and gas.

Decarbonization Strategies for Upstream Oil and Gas Operations with Advanced Nuclear Technologies, prepared by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under contract to EPRI, was intended to “inform broader discussions around decarbonization [oil and gas] operations” at COP28, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12.

Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm visited the Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on December 5 to highlight the Biden administration’s support for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s advanced nuclear technology program.

Granholm indicated that the administration is willing to provide funding for the nation’s first commercial small modular reactor at the site. “Excited to see a shovel in the ground, hopefully in a few more years,” she said. “TVA is leading on small modular reactors with this site. Everybody’s looking to TVA to make sure that this can actually happen.”

Fifty-two percent of Americans either “strongly” or “somewhat” support nuclear energy as part of the United States’ energy mix, with the strongest support among Republicans (59 percent) and self-described independents (53 percent). Support among Democrats is 48 percent. Those are some of the results from the sixth annual American Climate Perspectives Survey conducted by ecoAmerica.

World Nuclear Energy Day takes place tomorrow, marking the 81st anniversary of the day in 1942 when Enrico Fermi and his team achieved the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction with Chicago Pile-1. It also is the anniversary of the first commercial nuclear reactor reaching criticality—at Shippingport, Pa., on December 2, 1957.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research is hosting two workshops on reactor topics before the end of the year.

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Radiological Security (ORS), part of the Department of Energy, announced this week that it partnered with Jordan's Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission (EMRC) to replace all of Jordan’s high-activity cesium-137 irradiators with X-ray technology.

A new NSTOR collection, "Reimagining Nuclear Futures: Emerging Voices on Technology, Policy, and Society," has been launched by Aditi Verma, assistant professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at the University of Michigan. The collection features technology policy op-eds, essays, and papers from emerging scholars in nuclear engineering and adjacent fields.

The collection is open access with no publication charges through the end of 2024.

NSTOR—Nuclear Science and Technology Open Research—is offered through the American Nuclear Society.

So far this year, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions Supply Chain Management (SCM) apprenticeship program has transitioned 12 new graduates to its team. According to SRNS, the apprentices and interns were attracted to the training program through new recruiting connections that SRNS has established with universities and colleges in the Aiken, S.C., area. The SCM program, which is designed to transition participants into full-time positions at the Savannah River Site, has recently increased internal incentives.

Shvyd’ko

A major step toward the creation of the most precise atomic clock ever—with an accuracy of one second in 300 billion years—was recently reported in Nature by an international team of researchers working at the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) facility. The researchers, led by senior physicist Yuri Shvyd’ko of Argonne National Laboratory, created a pulse generator based on the element scandium that demonstrated an extremely narrow resonance frequency capable of maintaining unprecedented time accuracy.

Atomic and nuclear clocks: In atomic clocks, the electrons in the atomic shells of certain elements—most commonly cesium—are raised to higher energy levels with microwave radiation. The microwave frequency is tuned to maximize the radiation absorption within a particular resonance range.

Ousmane Hisseine, an assistant professor of civil engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, is using his expertise in concrete infrastructure in hopes of improving the safety of small modular reactors.

Hall

Nuclear energy stocks “have become far more compelling to many investors in recent years,” and “there are good reasons to support this carbon-free source of energy,” according to investment entrepreneur and financial lecturer Jason Hall. In an article recently published by The Motley Fool, Hall discusses the opportunities and risks of investing in nuclear energy companies and offers his perspective on three top nuclear energy stocks.

Nuclear basics and new innovations: Hall started at the beginning, describing the most basic aspects of nuclear energy: the production of heat through fission, the generation of electricity via turbines, and the mining and enrichment of uranium for fuel. He noted that there “are only a small handful of companies with the expertise and financial strength to deal with nuclear reactors, and almost all are either private, state-owned, or the subsidiary operation of a large industrial conglomerate.”

Purdue University’s School of Nuclear Engineering is hosting a two-day Atoms for Humanity symposium on campus at the Stewart Center’s Eliza Fowler Hall on October 25–26. The symposium—which will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (EDT) on the first day and from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EDT) on the second day—will highlight the role of nuclear energy as a clean energy source. It is open to everyone, and no registration is required.

The present size of the civil nuclear workforce in the United Kingdom is the largest it has been in the past 20 years. So reports the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA), the main trade association for the U.K. civil nuclear industry, in its recently released Jobs Map 2023. The London-based organization has released this report annually for more than a decade with the objective of giving the government the most up-to-date, accurate statistics on which to base economic and energy decisions. The NIA reports that the latest job growth has been fueled partly by projects on advanced and emerging nuclear technologies.