Thomas Burnelis

Transitioning in nuclear from the U.S. Navy to the commercial industry was always a goal for me, but stepping directly into a fully digital control room was a paradigm shift. Moving from the tactile, analog world of my military background to the data-rich environment of modern advanced reactors was jarring. Digital systems offer an unprecedented wealth of information, but unlocking that potential requires a fundamental shift in how we approach testing, commissioning, and startup.

Commissioning analog plants meant physical verification, such as lifting leads, injecting signals, and manually tweaking potentiometers to calibrate gains and offsets. Digital instrumentation and control (I&C) completely redefines this landscape. Today, nearly all plant data are available at our fingertips, but this brings the challenge of filtering an immense amount of data and system alarms. Troubleshooting has largely migrated from the field and into software, following digital signals from operator inputs to field devices.

With notable changes potentially incoming—such as no longer requiring draft environmental impact statements and the addition of new categorical exclusions—NRC staff shared additional details on these and other proposals during a July 23 meeting on the NEPA proposed rule.

W7-X, located at IPP, is currently the largest superconducting stellarator facility in the world. The project conducts research aimed at filling key knowledge and technology gaps for developing a stellarator-based power plant.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has signed memorandums of understanding with the five states to continue exploring opportunities to host these campuses, envisioned as federal–state partnerships to support work across the nuclear fuel life cycle, with a primary focus on fuel fabrication, enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing or recycling, separations, and radioactive waste management.

Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org

There may have been no more fitting place to gather for a conversation about the future of nuclear energy than Colorado.

For the nuclear community, Colorado carries a special resonance. About an hour north of Denver stands Fort St. Vrain. Today, it is a garden-variety natural gas power plant. But there was a time it was an ambitious nuclear reactor—a high-temperature gas reactor with helium coolant and a uranium-thorium fuel cycle. It was ahead of its time in many ways and imperfect in execution, but unmistakably part of the long story of nuclear innovation in America.

Colorado is a state shaped by frontiers. We, too, are standing at a frontier, which brings me to this year’s conference theme: “Net Out, Power Up.” We chose this theme to reflect the complementary challenges facing two parts of our community. “Net Out” reflects fusion’s challenge: proving you can get more energy out than you put in. “Power Up” reflects fission’s challenge: scaling advanced nuclear technologies quickly enough to meet rising demand.

The announcement comes a few weeks after Centrus Energy signed a contract to finalize the terms of a $900 million DOE task order to expand production capacity for HALEU at its American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

In February, Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive order directing the commission to release two NOIs, one aimed at nuclear power plant developers and another for potential host communities. The second NOI requested information from Illinois communities interested in having a nuclear facility and gave them a deadline of May 25 to respond. Pritzker’s executive order arrived about a month after he lifted the state’s moratorium on new nuclear reactors being built in the state.

Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.

Amidst growing prominence of microreactors and other nuclear technologies, the NRC has issued a proposed rule to address how to safely transport new nuclear reactors and their associated radioactive material.

Standard Nuclear is participating in the DOE’s Fuel Line Pilot Program and Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, and is also among the companies receiving HALEU from the DOE for use in their fuel production or reactor programs.

According to a White House press release on the same day, $5 billion in federal commitments will be put toward the Genesis Mission.

SuperCritical aims to use this license to extract uranium from seawater at an industrial scale in the United States and abroad.

Mark Peterspresident@ans.org

It is both an honor and a privilege to begin my term as president of the American Nuclear Society. I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me by the membership, and I look forward to serving this remarkable Society over the coming year.

I would also like to recognize the leadership of my predecessor, Hash Hashemian, as well as the dedication of ANS CEO Craig Piercy, our staff, and countless volunteers. ANS succeeds because people choose to contribute their time, expertise, and energy in service of a mission larger than themselves.

We begin this year at a moment of tremendous opportunity for nuclear science and technology. Around the world, there is growing recognition that nuclear energy and nuclear technologies are essential to addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges. At the same time, advances in areas ranging from medical isotopes and fusion to space nuclear systems and advanced reactors are creating new possibilities for innovation and impact.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have reached a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that could allow the Middle Eastern country to develop civilian nuclear infrastructure and provide a new commercial market to the U.S. nuclear industry.

On Tuesday evening, the Wall Street Journal first reported that the two sides had reached an agreement with a term of 30 years. Then, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that he and Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman had signed the agreement alongside an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement.

During the meeting, titled “Advanced Reactor Landscape: Current Status and Moving Forward,” federal and industry officials presented on their respective endeavors, providing new updates, refreshers on previously announced information, and takeaways from their experiences.

Researchers at the University of Arizona have shown that, when exposed to gamma radiation, graphene nanoribbons exhibit altered current flow from quantum effects while maintaining their atomic framework, suggesting strong potential for use in sensors for monitoring gamma-induced damage to materials and devices in extreme environments, such as fusion machines.

QLE is an Austin, Texas–based subsidiary of ASP Isotopes (ASPI), which is developing an isotope enrichment platform for applications in nuclear energy, nuclear medicine, and semiconductors. QLE specializes in the uranium conversion step of the nuclear fuel cycle—the conversion of yellowcake uranium concentrate (U3O8) into UF6 prior to enrichment.

“We think this technology is a pretty major improvement in measuring magnetic fields,” said Israel Owens, a Sandia physicist and co-inventor of the sensor. “We think it’ll be essential especially for research in fusion, high-energy physics, and the power utilities industry. We’re really excited about where things are going.”

If approved, the Ontario, N.Y., facility’s operating license would be extended through September 18, 2049. The plant was first issued a 40-year license in 1969, followed by a 20-year renewal in 2004 that extended the license into 2029.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, as part of a technical cooperation project, is equipping laboratories and training specialists in nine countries to better deal with the infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) in rainbow trout.

Fast forward to 2026 and the European country’s nuclear energy ambitions have become clearer. On July 13, Serbia’s Ministry of Mining and Energy held a four-day workshop outlining the country’s plans to kickstart a nuclear program.

The Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED), which leads the program, describes it as a “first-of-its-kind state designation system” that formally recognizes communities that have taken measurable steps to prepare for new nuclear deployment.

For the study, published recently in Corrosion Science, the team ran simulations for nichrome-based alloys, which have excellent strength, creep resistance, and tolerance to radiation-induced degradation, making them top candidates for use in molten salt reactors and other advanced energy systems.

This week, NRC staff led separate virtual public information meetings on each of the proposed rules, providing details to the public on what each one would change.

Danagoulian

Areg Danagoulian of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is proposing a mechanism for verifying that Earth-orbiting satellites are in compliance with the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placement of nuclear weapons in space. Danagoulian’s “concept and feasibility study,” titled “Verification of the Outer Space Treaty with cosmic protons,” was published recently in the journal Nature.

Michael Goff

I don’t think we’ve ever had a busier year in the Office of Nuclear Energy, and it’s probably been decades since we’ve had this much momentum within the overall U.S. nuclear industry.

President Trump and Energy Secretary Wright have made very clear the important role that nuclear must play in meeting our energy needs, and that’s well demonstrated by the four executive orders that the president signed [more than] 375 days ago. In nuclear, we’re now talking about days, not years.

Those EOs set a goal for the United States to quadruple the amount of nuclear that we have. We need to go from the 94 reactors that we have operating right now, which generate roughly 100 gigawatts of electricity, to 400 gigawatts by 2050.

Despite some lingering concerns in areas like federal transparency, the role of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), and staff attrition in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the subcommittee advanced all six pieces of legislation to the full committee with bipartisan support.

ANS CEO Craig Piercy, who led the discussion, was joined by Chris Hayter, cofounder of Hi Tech Solutions and founder of Fulcrum Point Energy; Emy Lesofski, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s energy advisor and director of the Utah Office of Energy Development (OED); and Jeff Richardson, president of D&D and chief projects officer at EnergySolutions.