The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced last week that it has transferred 1.7 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium from Japan to the United States.

The U.S Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, through its Defense Production Act (DPA) Nuclear Fuel Cycle Consortium, has begun a new initiative aimed at securing the nation’s nuclear fuel supply chain.

The Department of Energy on April 22 issued two requests for applications seeking proposals from private industry on kickstarting the reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel in the United States.

According to the DOE, the RFAs represent an unprecedented opportunity for the private sector to restore the nation’s nuclear leadership.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy recently awarded about $49.7 million to 10 university-led projects aiming to develop nuclear workforce training programs around the country.

DOE-NE issued its largest award, $19.2 million, to the newly formed Great Lakes Partnership to Enhance the Nuclear Workforce (GLP). This regional consortium, which is led by the University of Toledo and includes the American Nuclear Society, will use the funds to fill a variety of existing gaps in the nuclear workforce pipeline.

The Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) called for the deployment of six 77-MWe pressurized water reactors at Idaho National Laboratory that would provide power to INL and to Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) customers in Utah and surrounding states. But UAMPS and NuScale Power mutually agreed to end the project in late 2023, ending a first-of-a-kind SMR project that was years in the making.

Total project costs, had it been completed, were estimated at $8.03 billion, with $1.36 billion coming from the Department of Energy as part of a 10-year, noncompetitive, cost-share award.

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.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy awarded more than $19 million to five U.S. companies—Alpha Nur, Curio Solutions, Flibe Energy, Oklo, and Shine Technologies—to research and develop recycling technologies for spent nuclear fuel (SNF).

According to DOE-NE, the projects will support President Trump’s goal of curtailing U.S. reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium while reducing the volume of SNF stored across the country. Projects are to last up to three years and will require a minimum 20 percent cost share from each award recipient.

The Department of Energy is considering revisions to its regulations covering worker safety and health to help expedite the development of new nuclear reactors under its Reactor Pilot Program.

According to the DOE, the proposed changes to 10 CFR Part 851, “Worker Safety and Health Program,” have the benefit of “increased flexibility, streamlined processes, cost savings, enhanced agility, and improved worker engagement.”

On January 15, in an 82–14 vote, the U.S. Senate passed an Energy and Water Development appropriations bill to fund the U.S. Department of Energy for fiscal year 2026 as part of a broader package that also funded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the establishment of the Center for Used Fuel Research (CUFR), to be hosted at the Idaho National Laboratory and focused on spent nuclear fuel performance, canister aging, and the fostering of innovation and collaboration.

According to the DOE, the CUFR is designed to be a national and international hub for applied research that supports and maintains compliance and advances public confidence in the safe storage and transportation of both commercial and DOE-managed spent fuel.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy is requesting comments on a draft voluntary agreement for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Defense Production Act (DPA) Consortium, with a short deadline of November 24 for comments.

Notice of the request for comments, along with the text of the draft voluntary agreement, was published in the November 17 Federal Register.

Williams

Garrish

Theodore “Ted” Garrish is the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy and Brandon Williams is the DOE’s undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration following their confirmations yesterday by the U.S. Senate.

While awaiting confirmation, Garrish has been serving since January as senior advisor to Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He assumes the duties of NE-1 that Michael Goff has held as interim assistant secretary since Kathryn Huff stepped down from the NE-1 role in May 2024. The post of acting NNSA administrator has been held by Teresa Robbins since January 20; Jill Hruby held the post from 2021 to 2025.

The Department of Energy announced recently it will provide more than $35 million for 42 projects to help move emerging energy technologies from DOE national laboratories, plants, and sites related to grid security, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and advanced manufacturing to the marketplace. The selected projects will leverage over $21 million in cost-share from private and public partners, bringing total funding to more than $57.5 million.

A full list of the FY2025 selections is available here.

The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is setting up a nuclear fuel Defense Production Act Consortium that will seek voluntary agreements with interested companies “to increase fuel availability, provide more access to reliable power, and end America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials needed to power the nation’s nuclear renaissance.” According to an August 22 DOE press release, the plan invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to give consortium members “defense from antitrust laws when certain criteria are met” and “allow industry consultation to develop plans of action.” DOE-NE is looking for interested companies to join the consortium ahead of its first meeting, scheduled for October 14.

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board announced it will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, August 27, to review information on the Department of Energy’s activities to manage spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste and to receive program updates from the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series.

Watch the full webinar here.

The Department of Energy announced on June 5 that three companies—all of which are new to the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) voucher program—will receive vouchers to support their research on advanced fuels, materials, and sensors. The second round fiscal year 2025 vouchers will let the companies access specialized research facilities and expertise in the DOE’s national laboratory complex.

The Department of Energy reissued a $900 million solicitation on March 24 designed to de-risk the deployment of “Gen-III+” light water small modular reactors. The same funding was previously offered in October 2024, with applications due January 17. Now, potential applicants have until April 23 to apply for a grant under a solicitation modified to “better align with President Trump's bold agenda to unleash American energy and AI dominance.”

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated a new method to track chemical changes in molten salt, according to a March 17 announcement from the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

FLiBe—a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride—is not an off-the-shelf commodity. The Department of Energy suspects that researchers and reactor developers may have a use for the 2,000 kilograms of fluoride-based salt that once ran through the secondary coolant loop of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.