Subcommittee focuses on nuclear plans, deployment

May 22, 2025, 12:02PMNuclear News

Wright

Energy Secretary Chris Wright testified before the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Water Development Subcommittee yesterday to discuss how the Department of Energy would be impacted by the president’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget.

The meeting highlighted concerns from lawmakers about the DOE’s spending and efficiency—pointing to the rise in the department’s budget from $61 billion in FY 2021 to $160 billion last year.

Committee chair John Kennedy (R., La.) called the DOE spending pattern “unsustainable.”

“The average electricity bill . . . for the average American family over the past four years is up 28 percent. That’s the first thing they care about,” Kennedy said. “We’ve got to address it . . . and talk very specifically about what programs are working and what isn’t.”

Developers can apply now to test a fueled reactor in NRIC’s DOME

May 21, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
A view of the DOME microreactor testbed, which is managed by the National Reactor Innovation Center. (Image: NRIC)

The National Reactor Innovation Center is accepting applications from developers ready to take a fueled microreactor to criticality inside the former Experimental Breeder Reactor-II containment building at Idaho National Laboratory, now repurposed as DOME—a microreactor test bed. According to a Department of Energy announcement, DOME will be ready to receive the first experimental reactor in the fall of 2026, with testing likely to begin in 2027.

Urenco USA feeds UF6 into new U.S. commercial enrichment cascade

May 20, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
Urenco staff at the facility in Eunice, N.M. (Photo: Urenco)

Urenco USA has initiated production of enriched uranium in its newest gas centrifuge enrichment cascade—the first in a planned expansion of its Eunice, N.M., facility announced in July 2023. When the expansion is complete, early in 2027, the site will have increased its capacity by about 15 percent, adding about 700,000 separative work units (SWU) per year, the company said May 19.

Deep Isolation validates its disposal canister for TRISO spent fuel

May 15, 2025, 12:00PMRadwaste Solutions
Deep Isolation’s Universal Canister System. (Photo: Deep Isolation)

Nuclear waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation announced it has successfully completed Project PUCK, a government-funded initiative to demonstrate the feasibility and potential commercial readiness of its Universal Canister System (UCS) to manage TRISO spent nuclear fuel.

NNSA to conduct NEPA review of plutonium pit production

May 13, 2025, 12:01PMNuclear News

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced that it will prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) to ensure National Environmental Policy Act compliance for the administration’s production of plutonium pits. The NNSA is inviting the public to participate in the PEIS process and to comment on the scope, environmental issues, and alternatives for consideration in drafting the document.

Natalie Cannon is passionate about nuclear policy

May 13, 2025, 7:03AMNuclear News
Natalie Cannon (center) with fellow LANNS researcher Alex England (left) and Prof. Anna Erickson (right) work with the Clinical Linear Accelerator at Georgia Tech. (Photo: Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech)

Some people are born leaders, and some people make themselves leaders. Take Natalie Cannon, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has been driven to succeed since she was a teenager in Southern California, when she was inspired by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

TerraPower’s bid to start energy island construction gets EA/FONSI

May 12, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
An image of the energy island and the nuclear island of a Natrium reactor. (Image: TerraPower)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has concluded—with an assist from a Department of Energy environmental assessment released in February—that no environmental impact statement is needed for an exemption request from TerraPower that would allow the company to begin construction of the energy island of its planned Natrium sodium fast reactor in Kemmerer, Wyo. The NRC’s EA and finding of no significant impact (EA/FONSI), published on May 7, could clear the way for significant construction to begin while the NRC continues to review TerraPower’s construction permit application.

First concrete marks start of safety-related construction for Hermes test reactor

May 8, 2025, 3:01PMNuclear News
Drilling begins. (Photo: Kairos Power)

Kairos Power announced this morning that safety-related nuclear construction has begun at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., site where the company is building its Hermes low-power test reactor. Hermes, a scaled demonstration of Kairos Power’s fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature reactor technology, became the first non–light water reactor to receive a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2023. The company broke ground at the site in July 2024.

Oak Ridge’s Isotek dramatically increases world supply of Th-229

May 7, 2025, 12:02PMNuclear News
Isotek employees load canisters of Th-229 that will go to TerraPower to support cancer treatment research. (Photo: DOE)

Workers with Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management contractor Isotek have surpassed a significant milestone in the supply of medical radioisotopes, extracting more than 15 grams of rare thorium-229 through the Department of Energy’s Thorium Express Project.

TVA files for construction permit for Clinch River SMR

May 6, 2025, 9:29AMNuclear News

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week shared a portion of the construction permit application from the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a small modular reactor at the Clinch River nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

In anticipation of TVA’s filing, NRC staff scheduled two public meetings in Oak Ridge for today, to discuss the agency’s process for licensing nuclear power plants.

What does the nuclear supply chain need now?

May 5, 2025, 9:29AMNuclear NewsDoug VanTassell

Doug VanTassell

Certainty!

As CEO of Paragon, I’m excited by the momentum in our industry. But like every nuclear business leader, I grapple with the challenges of delivering projects on time amid capacity and investment constraints. While the industry’s future is bright, the timing of good news doesn’t always align with commitment orders.

Market uncertainty

For the commercial operating fleet, the past five years have been overwhelmingly positive. The private and public sectors recognize nuclear power as a reliable and clean energy source. Rising power rates have made deregulated nuclear plants profitable, while regulated markets have increased support from public utility commissions.

Ted Garrish faces Senate committee for DOE nuclear post

May 2, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News

Garrish

A veteran nuclear leader with more than four decades of experience testified before a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday as part of the nomination process to become the next NE-1, the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy.

Theodore “Ted” Garrish appeared before the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources to answer questions about how he would approach the position—which he last held from 1987 to 1989, during the Ronald Reagan administration.

Garrish told the committee he has dedicated his career to energy—especially nuclear energy—and has worked mostly in public service positions, including posts in the DOE and Office of International Affairs.

The committee will advance Garrish’s nomination to the full U.S. Senate for a final vote, but no timeline was laid out.

Idaho agrees to INL spent fuel waiver

May 1, 2025, 9:29AMRadwaste Solutions
INL’s Hot Fuel Examination Facility. (Photo: INL)

An agreement signed by the state of Idaho and the U.S. Department of Energy will open the way for a single cask of high-burnup spent nuclear fuel to be shipped from Dominion Energy’s North Anna nuclear power plant in Virgina to Idaho National Laboratory for research purposes.

IAEA Director General meets with key nuclear leaders in D.C.

April 30, 2025, 12:43PMNuclear News
On his recent trip to Washington, D.C., IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi (right) met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright. (Photo: IAEA/D. Candano)

International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi recently traveled to Washington, D.C., for the first time since Trump took office in January. In his three-day visit to the capital, Grossi spoke with key nuclear leaders from around the world and in the federal government, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair David Wright, on topics including nuclear power, safety, security, funding, and nonproliferation.

INL’s new innovation incubator could link start-ups with an industry sponsor

April 29, 2025, 12:01PMNuclear News
Idaho National Laboratory’s Idaho Falls campus. (Photo: INL)

Idaho National Laboratory is looking for a sponsor to invest $5 million–$10 million in a privately funded innovation incubator to support seed-stage start-ups working in nuclear energy, integrated energy systems, cybersecurity, or advanced materials. For their investment, the sponsor gets access to what INL calls “a turnkey source of cutting-edge American innovation.” Not only are technologies supported by the program “substantially de-risked” by going through technical review and development at a national laboratory, but the arrangement “adds credibility, goodwill, and visibility to the private sector sponsor’s investments,” according to INL.

Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components

April 25, 2025, 1:47PMNuclear News
Work on Argonne's METL sodium test loop. (Photo: Argonne National Laboratory)

Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.

Pacific Fusion: Fusing pulser innovation with General Atomics’ expertise

April 24, 2025, 12:10PMNuclear News
Concept art of Pacific Fusion’s planned demonstration system. (Image: Pacific Fusion)

Pacific Fusion has a staff that knows its way around pulsers and inertial fusion, and an ongoing collaboration with General Atomics. Today, the two companies are announcing plans to test Pacific Fusion’s pulser-driven inertial fusion energy concept, with commercial fusion power as the goal.

“We are building a fusion machine and testing all equipment—including components and a pulser module—at our Pacific Fusion test center,” Pacific Fusion cofounder and chief technology officer Keith LeChien told Nuclear News. “GA’s engineering expertise remains an important part of our progress, and we expect this collaboration to continue through future phases of development.”

Hanford to hold virtual meeting on proposed waste processing facility

April 23, 2025, 7:09AMNuclear News

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Field Office and Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) will hold a virtual public meeting on April 30 to learn more about the siting, construction, and operation of a proposed Contact-Handled Waste Processing Treatment and Storage Area at the DOE’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash.

Los Alamos researchers test TRISO transportation

April 22, 2025, 2:43PMNuclear News
This Deimos core configuration shows the fuel, stainless steel, polyethylene, and borated polyethylene positioned for the THETA project. (Photo: DOE)

Los Alamos National Laboratory recently performed a series of customized criticality experiments to obtain data that will support the transportation of HALEU TRISO fuel, the Department of Energy announced April 21.

Nuclear advocates fight potential cuts at DOE’s Loan Programs Office

April 22, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News

Nearly 60 percent of staff at the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear-friendly Loan Programs Office may be lost through President Trump’s deferred resignation program, the Washington Examiner reported.

According to the news outlet, 123 of the 210 current LPO employees have opted into the retirement buyout, which would amount to a 58.5 percent staffing cut in the office that helps finance new nuclear projects among other energy proposals. There is a 45-day period for federal employees older than 40 to change their minds, which could impact the final number of exiting staff.