It has been 10 months since President Trump signed several executive orders that have reshaped the nuclear energy industry and set lofty goals for initiatives like the development and deployment of new nuclear technology.

One such initiative, the DOE’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, calls for at least 3 of the 11 reactors in the program to achieve criticality by July 4, 2026. Some have questioned whether this target is feasible.

TerraPower Isotopes, a TerraPower subsidiary, plans to increase its actinium-225 production 20-fold by opening a new manufacturing facility in Philadelphia, Pa., and by expanding the capacity of its Everett, Wash., facility. On March 17, TerraPower Isotopes said it expects the new facility to begin producing the medical radioisotope for targeted alpha therapy in 2029.

American enrichment start-up General Matter is to export nuclear fuel to Japan and South Korea, backed by up to $4.2 billion in potential debt financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM).

Hanford Site services contractor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) has agreed to pay the Department of Justice $3.45 million as part of a settlement agreement resolving allegations that HMIS overcharged the Department of Energy for millions of dollars in labor hours at the nuclear site in Washington state.

Fusion leaders at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference discussed the path forward for regulating the burgeoning fusion industry. The speakers discussed government and private industry initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom, with a focus on efforts shaping the near-term deployment of commercial fusion machines.

A recurring theme was the need to explain the difference between fission and fusion. Representatives from the Department of Energy and Type One Energy highlighted this as an important distinction for regulators, as it will allow fusion to undergo its own independent maturation process for developing standards and regulations in the same way that fission has. Lea Perlas, Fusion Program director at the Virginia Department of Health, said that confusion between fission and fusion has been a common cause for misplaced concerns among community members surrounding Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ proposed fusion plant site near Richmond, Va.

Attendees at last week’s 2026 Regulatory Information Conference, hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, saw extensive discussion of new reactor technologies, uprates, fusion, multiunit deployments, supply chain, and much more.

With the industry in a state of rapid evolution, there was much to discuss. Connected to all these topics was one central theme: the ongoing changes at the NRC. With massively shortened timelines, the ADVANCE Act and Executive Order 14300, and new interagency collaboration and authorization pathways in mind, speakers spent much of the RIC exploring what the road ahead looks like for the NRC.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

So much of what is happening in federal nuclear policy these days seems driven by a common approach popularized in the technology sector. Silicon Valley calls it “move fast and break things,” a phrase originally associated with Facebook’s early culture under Mark Zuckerberg. The idea emerged in the early 2000s as software companies discovered that rapid iteration, frequent experimentation, and a willingness to tolerate failure could dramatically accelerate innovation. This philosophy helped drive the growth of the social media, smartphones, cloud computing, and digital platforms that now underpin modern economic and social life.

Today, that mindset is also influencing federal nuclear policy. The Trump administration views accelerated nuclear deployment as part of a broader competition with China for technological and AI leadership. In that context, it seems willing to accept greater operational risk in pursuit of strategic advantage and long-term economic and security objectives.

The American Nuclear Society recently hosted a new webinar in its ongoing Educator Training series titled “Perspectives on Generation IV Reactors.” It was led by Edward A. Friedman, professor emeritus of technology management at Stevens Institute of Technology and the author of Nuclear Energy: Boom, Bust, and Emerging Renaissance.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has launched a new initiative to meet the government’s goal of increasing U.S. nuclear energy capacity by boosting the power output of existing nuclear reactors through uprates and restarts and by completing stalled reactor projects.

UPRISE, the Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort, managed by Idaho National Laboratory, is to “deliver immediate results that will accelerate nuclear power growth and foster innovation to address the nation’s urgent energy needs,” DOE-NE said in its announcement.

Yasir Arafat, president and chief technology officer of Aalo Atomics, participated in the first day of sessions at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC). There, he recapped some of the company’s recent milestones and revealed new details on what lies ahead for Aalo.

His attendance at the event coincided with a number of announcements in the past two weeks. Those announcements covered new contracts with Global Nuclear Fuel and Baker Hughes, the release of a new strategic roadmap, the completion of fuel enrichment by Urenco USA, and a new approval from the Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy is bringing the HB Line facility at the Savannah River Site back on line to recycle surplus plutonium and produce uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for advanced reactors.

Restarting the facility will be a multiyear process and will yield opportunities for increased domestic production of isotopes with scientific and commercial value. The DOE said that once operational, the HB Line will accelerate the Office of Environmental Management’s plutonium disposition mission by 10 to 13 years while reducing the existing cost.

Even a last-minute cancelation from Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright could not derail the optimism permeating day 1 of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC).

The optimistic theme came up several times during the morning plenary sessions that highlighted Tuesday’s agenda. The NRC commissioners who spoke said the optimism was a result of the “nuclear renaissance” they are encountering that feels different from past nuclear-related revivals that didn’t materialize.

The Department of Energy is set to expand on its Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program by introducing the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a DOE-led program to integrate the authorization, testing, and operation of reactors and fuel facilities from private nuclear developers. Furthermore, it will include two pathways—Launch Pad INL and Launch Pad USA—with options to access Idaho National Laboratory land or other sites around the nation.

The DOE plans to transition future pilot program applicants to the new Launch Pad model. Application requirements and review criteria will mirror those used in the reactor and fuel line pilot programs, and projects already in those programs will transition to Launch Pad with no need to reapply.

On March 3, the Department of Energy announced the release of $52.8 million in funds through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) and the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) program, ending a wait for applicants seeking fiscal year 2025 funds.

NEUP supports U.S. colleges and universities with funding for nuclear technology development, early-career faculty research activities, undergraduate scholarships, and graduate fellowships.

Last year, the state of Texas, in partnership with several arms of the federal government, mounted a major response to the New World screwworm (NWS)—a parasitic fly spreading through Mexico.

This year, as the NWS has continued its northward advance toward the U.S. border, eradication efforts have continued and intensified on multiple fronts.

It has been an unusually busy week in the world of West Coast nuclear legislative momentum. In California, a bill is aiming to effectively repeal the state’s nuclear moratorium, while in Oregon, new legislation would have the state create a nuclear feasibility study.

Now, in Washington state, legislators are introducing various measures to move new nuclear prospects forward. One motion requests that Gov. Bob Ferguson respond to the Department of Energy’s request for information regarding states hosting Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.

The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility is leading research supported by two Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) grants aimed at developing accelerator technology to enable nuclear waste recycling, decreasing the half-life of spent nuclear fuel.

Both grants, totaling $8.17 million in combined funding, were awarded through the Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program, which aims to enable the transmutation of nuclear fuels by funding novel technologies for improving the performance of particle generation systems.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management recently announced that, with the help of contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company, it has completed the safe demolition of the 175-foot-tall exhaust stack of the K West reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington state.

Idaho National Laboratory and computer chip maker Nvidia have announced a public-private partnership to advance nuclear energy deployment through artificial intelligence. According to INL, the collaboration aims to cut reactor development times in half and reduce operational costs by 50 percent by using AI to design, license, manufacture, construct, and operate reactors with human-in-the-loop workflows.

Valar's Ward250 microreactor being loaded, without fuel, onto a C-17 aircraft. (Photo: Valar Atomics)

A public-private partnership between the Departments of Defense and Energy and Valar Atomics marked a milestone over the weekend when Valar’s Ward250 microreactor was transported (without fuel) from California to Utah using three C-17 aircraft. The reactor will now trek from Hill Air Force Base to the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (URSEL) for testing and evaluation.

A formal press conference at Hill Air Force Base included Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Undersecretary of Defense Michael Duffey, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, and Valar Atomics CEO Isaiah Taylor.

During his remarks, Wright discussed the significance of the day, and said “a 5‑megawatt Valar Atomics nuclear reactor was just flown from L.A. to this air force base here in Utah—an incredible 5‑megawatt reactor that powers 5,000 homes, flown in the back of a plane.” The ability to transport microreactors like the Ward250 bolsters claims that the technology could be deployed to remote locations, military installations, or to support natural disaster relief missions.