New Jersey’s two nuclear power plants, Hope Creek and Salem, may be joined by other nuclear facilities after lawmakers lifted the state’s de facto moratorium on new nuclear construction.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill said state officials are eyeing sites for potential nuclear facilities. Executives at PSEG Nuclear—the operators of Hope Creek and Salem—welcome the news of the growing momentum for nuclear power in the state but cautioned it will take more than lifting a moratorium to make this feasible.

This year’s print edition of the Nuclear News Buyers Guide officially has been dropped in the mail and is on its way to ANS members now. The Buyers Guide is an annual directory that has been connecting every tier of nuclear suppliers with partners, customers, and the workforce since the 1960s—just as the commercial nuclear industry was truly gathering speed.

Print and digital resources: The Buyers Guide is accessible only to ANS members and subscribers of Nuclear News. It is additionally available for download to all ANS members on the ANS website.

A recent Government Accountability Office report found that the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management faces significant aging infrastructure, data accuracy issues, and funding challenges in managing nuclear waste cleanup facilities.

As of June 2025, DOE-EM faced more than $1.5 billion in reported repair needs across about 4,300 operating facilities at the 15 cleanup sites the office oversees, according to the report. In addition, DOE-EM’s budget request included over $950 million in maintenance spending in fiscal year 2026, an 80 percent increase since FY 2020.

A new prototype ion engine known as a lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster has passed a crucial test at NASA. The space agency is hoping to eventually combine this technology with nuclear fission to produce power and thrust for lengthy space flights, such as a crewed mission to Mars.

Ames National Laboratory has announced a new tool that combines artificial intelligence and physics-based modeling to identify materials that can be used in fusion systems, where materials must withstand intense heat, radiation, and mechanical stress.

Three companies have come together to form the U.K. Infinity Fusion Consortium with the objective of developing the first private sector–led fusion power plant in the United Kingdom using existing “commercially credible” technologies.

The consortium is expected to benefit from the combination of the three partners’ expertise. Tennessee-based fusion start-up Type One Energy brings its 400-MWe Infinity Two stellarator fusion power plant design. British fusion technology company Tokamak Energy has its HTS magnet technology and manufacturing background. Texas-based consulting firm AECOM has international engineering and infrastructure capabilities.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted Radiant Industries’ 10 CFR Part 70 license application for its R-50 microreactor production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and will launch an expedited review that it is aiming to complete within eight months.

According to NRC documents, the agency expects to complete its review of the license application by December 18, 2026. The timeline is described as “accelerated” in the NRC announcement—about 55 percent faster than the typical 18 months for Part 70 application reviews.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has announced that its Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) recently received department approval for the conceptual design for a spent nuclear fuel staging facility project at Idaho National Laboratory.

Today, commercial microreactors are common in the marketplace of nuclear ideas. Dozens of companies are vying for their designs to reach scaled deployment to meet surging energy demand.

However, the term “microreactor” didn’t appear in Nuclear News until 2019, when the Department of Defense popularized it (in a nuclear context) in the early days of what would become Project Pele. Even before then, however, all the way back in 2005, Toshiba was developing the 4S (Super-Safe, Small, and Simple), a 30-MWt, pool-type reactor designed for remote locations with small grids. Once sealed and delivered, the reactor would run for 30 years with no refueling. If the word “microreactor” had been in use then, the 4S would certainly have been categorized as such.

The Belgian government is looking to take control of all seven nuclear reactors in the country in an effort to revitalize a domestic nuclear energy sector that once looked ready to disappear.

GE Vernova has formed a strategic collaboration with nuclear project financing and manufacturing firm Blue Energy to “advance the world’s first gas-plus-nuclear power plant.” The companies say that they intend to design and develop a power plant using GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 small modular reactors and GE Vernova gas turbines to meet electricity demands related to AI and advanced manufacturing. Subject to a final investment decision in 2027, the first plant is to be located at a Blue Energy site in Texas and will power a nearby data center campus.

The University of Utah announced that it will be producing electricity with its TRIGA reactor for the first time this summer. The project is in collaboration with Elemental Nuclear Energy, and the electricity will be used to power a “mini AI data center.”

System modifications are often treated as the default solution. But in many cases, the problem can be addressed more directly, avoiding unnecessary engineering effort, extended timelines, and significant cost.

The Nuclear Company, a nuclear power project development firm, is partnering with global investment firm Brookfield to form a new company specializing in the execution of projects involving Westinghouse nuclear reactors.

X-energy recently announced that it has begun collaborating with Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities to deploy X-energy’s Xe-100 reactor in Kentucky. The news comes soon after X-energy went public on the Nasdaq and represents the latest in a string of growing investments Kentucky has made in nuclear development over the last two years.

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are exploring methods of using artificial intelligence and machine learning to better optimize formulas for stabilizing low-activity radioactive waste in glass through the vitrification process.

The work is helping inform waste vitrification activities at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE is currently commissioning the Low Activity Waste Facility at Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), which will be used to vitrify portions of the site’s nearly 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste.

The end-of-April spot price for uranium was $86.35 per pound, according to uranium fuel provider Cameco. While up slightly from the $84.25 of a month before, it was still lower than the $94.28 spot price at the end of January.

The Department of Energy announced a 10-year project agreement with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) to advance research on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator.

“This agreement reflects our deep commitment to international partnerships that accelerate progress in fusion energy,” said Jean Paul Allain, director of the Office of Fusion at the DOE. “The collaboration between the United States and IPP on W7-X has been extraordinarily productive for more than 20 years already, and this agreement pushes us forward into the next decade and beyond.”

Here is a recap of recent industry happenings:

ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE

GE Vernova, Hitachi seek opportunities in Southeast Asia

GE Vernova and Hitachi have entered into a memorandum of understanding to identify opportunities for the commercial deployment of the BWRX-300 small modular reactor in Southeast Asia. The companies agreed to carry out the collaboration through the GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Hitachi GE Vernova Nuclear Energy joint ventures. The companies will also look for opportunities to incorporate qualified Japanese suppliers into the partnership and to strengthen the supply chain for future BWRX-300 deployment in Southeast Asia. The BWRX-300 is under construction at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington site in Canada, and in the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the Tennessee Valley Authority’s application to construct the BWRX-300 at the utility’s Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

As the United States faces surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, and a push to bring manufacturing back home, Idaho National Laboratory is leading an effort to modernize and expand the nation’s nuclear power capabilities by revamping the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program.