Nuclear News

Yesterday, Constellation announced that it has entered into a long-term nuclear power purchase agreement (PPA) for 176 MW of electricity from its Dresden nuclear power plant. That PPA, which will also help facilitate a 30-MWe uprate, is providing power to an unusual partner: Walmart.

Canada has launched a Nuclear Energy Strategy, a long-term vision of its nuclear power potential that includes plans to deploy up to 10 new large-scale reactors in the country by 2040.

The June 22 announcement, along with ongoing projects at Darlington and Bruce Power, further confirm Canada's ambitions to expand its nuclear power presence not just domestically but also abroad. Four pillars stand at the heart of the country’s Nuclear Energy Strategy: new nuclear builds in Canada, maintaining its status as a top nuclear supplier and exporter, expanding uranium production, and continuing nuclear fission and fusion innovations.

Two German institutions—the University of Rostock and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) research center—have come together to launch HEDI: The High Energy Density Initiative. The initiative will serve as a fusion research hub to investigate the physical processes and extreme conditions associated with nuclear fusion.

HEDI’s research into the behavior of matter at extremely high temperatures and pressures is expected to have applications for future inertial confinement fusion energy projects as well as for basic astronomical knowledge.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

Recently, I spent an afternoon at Kairos Power’s Hermes construction site in Oak Ridge, Tenn. What I saw there was not a rendering, not a licensing presentation, not another panel about the future of advanced nuclear. I saw dozens of pilings built to NQA-1 standards. I saw seismic isolators ready for installation. I saw heavy equipment moving dirt and crews preparing concrete and steel.

I also saw a company doing genuinely innovative work with precast concrete techniques that could materially improve how we construct reactors in the future. None of it looked theoretical. It looked industrial.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced the launch of a coordinated research project focused on a nuclear technique that can tackle the reemergence of New World screwworm (NWS) in Central America, Mexico, and the United States.

Earlier today, the Department of Energy announced that it has issued a conditional loan commitment to finance the purchase of “long-lead time items needed to rebuild America’s commercial nuclear supply chain.”

The American Nuclear Supply Chain Loans on offer are worth $17.5 billion and intended to help finance up to five projects to build a total of 10 new AP1000 reactors, with construction aimed to begin by 2030.

Responding to several executive orders and the ADVANCE Act of 2024, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to modernize its fuel cycle and materials licensing requirements by amending its regulations for byproduct, source, and special nuclear material.

According to the agency, the sweeping regulatory changes are deregulatory in nature and aimed at accelerating the deployment of next-generation nuclear technologies with a streamlined licensing pathway for nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities and updated requirements for advanced reactor fuels.

Last week, Everett, Wash., fusion start-up Helion Energy announced that it has received its radioactive materials license and radioactive air emissions license from the state of Washington.

According to the company, these milestones make it “the first company in the world to secure the regulatory licenses needed for a fusion power plant” and represent confirmation that it has the needed facilities, trained personnel, and safety programs in place to safely operate its fusion machine.

Terrestrial Energy has signed ground lease and research agreements with the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) to exclusively use about 77 acres of land at the Texas A&M–RELLIS campus, in Bryan, Texas, for development of the company’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). The agreements give Terrestrial Energy control of the site and provide support for completion of site characterization work, environmental evaluations, and testing and research activities related to the IMSR.

EnCore Energy announced on June 18 that the Bureau of Land Management issued a final decision and approved the Dewey Burdock uranium project, authorizing the company to begin construction for the uranium in situ recovery project in southwestern South Dakota.

Lancaster University in England is the home of an unusual nuclear power simulator that can be used for both fusion and fission education.

El Segundo, Calif.–based start-up Valar Atomics has taken its Ward 250 test reactor critical at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (USREL), becoming the second company in the Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program to reach the milestone, and, according to the DOE, the first to do so outside a national laboratory.

The DOE celebrated the achievement in a June 18 announcement, describing it as a "zero-power fueled criticality demonstration." The news follows a similar update for Antares Nuclear's Mark-0 reactor, which the DOE said achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory earlier this month.

Nuclear project developer Elementl Power announced on June 18 its plans to build a nuclear power plant in southeast Ohio with a planned capacity of up to 1.5 GW.

Elementl already has a reactor design in mind, having reached an early works agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi to deploy the company's BWRX-300 small modular reactors. According to Elementl, construction on the first unit could begin in 2030—subject to a final investment decision and regulatory approvals—with an anticipated completion date of 2034.

This week, two significant announcements have emerged from the United Kingdom’s advanced reactor sector.

On June 14, Rolls-Royce, the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory, and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced that they had signed two trilateral memorandums of cooperation to collaborate on “advanced modular reactor (AMR) technology, specifically high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR), and the coated particle fuel these reactors will use.”

Separately, on June 16, Bellevue, Wash.–based TerraPower announced that its Natrium reactor design has been formally submitted for U.K. regulatory review. The company also announced the formation of a new subsidiary, TerraPower UK Ltd.

Within the span of two weeks, three Swedish companies—Blykalla, Studsvik, and Nordic Baseload Power—submitted applications to their country’s government for state aid for their respective new nuclear builds. Applications are handled by Sweden’s Ministry of Finance.

In early June, SMR developer Blykalla submitted its application to the Swedish government, followed by engineering services firm Studsvik on June 12. And on June 16, energy company Nordic Baseload Power became the latest to apply for financial support. Overall, the Swedish government has received four applications for state aid since last year.

Zeno Power announced today that it is restoring hot cell infrastructure at the Vallecitos Nuclear Center to produce radioisotope power systems (RPSs) for use in extreme environments.

“The facility is initially supporting production of strontium-90–fueled nuclear batter[ies] for undersea applications,” said Tyler Bernstein, Zeno cofounder and CEO. “Zeno is also scoping options as it seeks to rapidly scale production of nuclear batteries for space domains.”

The central magnet bundle for the National Spherical Torus Experiment–Upgrade (NSTX-U) at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has been delivered to the facility in New Jersey, the national lab recently reported. The school bus–sized, 23,000-pound magnet bundle, manufactured at Elytt Energy in Bilbao, Spain, consists of a toroidal field magnet system and an ohmic-heating magnet system.

Oklo announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Standard Nuclear to explore commercial collaboration on nuclear fuel recycling and advanced fuel manufacturing. According to Oklo, the collaboration with TRISO fuel fabricator Standard Nuclear represents the company’s first third-party offtake pathway for recycled nuclear materials, including surplus U.S. plutonium.

New York’s ambitious efforts to add at least 5 gigawatts of new nuclear power raise several questions: How much will it cost the state, the federal government, and ratepayers? Where does private investment fit into the picture? What nuclear reactor designs should developers pursue?

To provide clarity and direction to these and other concerns, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Department of Public Service issued the preliminary draft of its advanced nuclear policy options paper on June 12.

Thea Energy has announced it is working with Nvidia and Synopsys to develop a digital twin of its stellarator fusion power plant concept, called Helios.

The team, which also includes Argonne National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, will “analyze and scale vast datasets, rapidly evolve Thea Energy’s plant designs, and stress-test system operation in a workflow that outpaces traditional tools,” according to the company.