Wright

Chris Wright, president-elect Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Energy, spent hours today fielding questions from members of the U.S. Senate’s committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

During the hearing, Wright—who’s spent most of his career in fossil fuels—made comments in support of nuclear energy and efforts to expand domestic generation in the near future. Asked what actions he would take as energy secretary to improve the development and deployment of SMRs, Wright said: “It’s a big challenge, and I’m new to government, so I can’t list off the five levers I can pull. But (I’ve been in discussions) about how to make it easier to research, to invest, to build things. The DOE has land at some of its facilities that can be helpful in this regard.”

As demand for artificial intelligence and data centers grows, President Biden issued an executive order yesterday aimed to ensure clean-energy power supply for the technology.

Westinghouse Electric Company announced last week that NASA and the Department of Energy have awarded the company a contract to continue developing a lunar microreactor concept for the Fission Surface Power (FSP) project.

The U.S. departments of Energy and State have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Republic of Korea’s ministries of Trade, Industry and Energy and of Foreign Affairs for the two nations to partner on nuclear exports and cooperation.

The Department of Energy has announced a competitive funding opportunity of up to $13 million to help first movers defray the licensing costs of bringing advanced nuclear reactors to market.

The Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) has awarded four fiscal year 2025 vouchers to support the development of advanced nuclear technologies. Each company will get access to specific capabilities and expertise in the DOE’s national laboratory complex—in this round of awards both Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are named—and will be responsible for a minimum 20 percent cost share, which can be an in-kind contribution.

The Department of Energy has agreed to hold a 30-day review and comment period on a draft environmental analysis associated with a proposed plan for retrieving, grouting, and transporting some of Hanford’s low-activity tank waste for out-of-state disposal.

Advanced nuclear company Oklo and data center developer Switch closed out 2024 by announcing a new partnership to deploy 12 GW of advanced nuclear power under a master power agreement.

The Department of Energy has offered up to $80 million of Inflation Reduction Act funding to back potential advancements in high-assay low-enriched uranium production. The new funding opportunity, announced in December, will prioritize technological advancement developing innovative technologies and approaches to strengthen the front-end of the HALEU supply chain. Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. (EST) on February 26, 2025.

Work to prepare Hanford’s Reduction Oxide Plant (REDOX) for decontamination and demolition has been put on hold as the Department of Energy shifts focus to higher-priority work at the nuclear site in Washington state.

The Department of Energy announced yesterday the six companies that it has selected to supply low-enriched uranium (LEU) from new domestic enrichment sources under future contracts for up to 10 years. The contract recipients are: Centrus Energy’s American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), Laser Isotope Separation Technologies (LIS Technologies), Orano Federal Services, and Urenco USA’s Louisiana Energy Services.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced last week that unfueled test rods featuring the company’s SiGA fuel cladding—made of a silicon carbide composite material—successfully survived 120 days of irradiation in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory.

Tokamak Energy’s ST40 experimental fusion facility will receive a $52 million upgrade under a joint public-private effort with the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.K. Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) aimed at advancing the fusion science and technology needed to deliver a future pilot plant.

Following approval in October from the American National Standards Institute, ANSI/ANS-3.11-2024, Determining Meteorological Information at Nuclear Facilities, was published in late November. This standard provides criteria for gathering, assembling, processing, storing, and disseminating meteorological information at commercial nuclear power plants, U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear facilities, and other national or international nuclear facilities.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will soon, for the first time, begin using drones to internally inspect radioactive liquid waste tanks at the department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Inspections were previously done using magnetic wall-crawling robots.

The Department of Energy’s estimated overall liability for failing to dispose of the country’s commercial spent nuclear fuel jumped as much as 10 percent this year, from a range of $34.1 billion to $41 billion in 2023 to a range of $37.6 billion to $44.5 billion in 2024, according to a financial audit of the DOE’s Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) for fiscal year 2024.

The Solid Waste Management Facility (SWMF) at the Savannah River Site saw a large reduction of transuranic (TRU) waste in fiscal year 2024, achieving the highest volume of TRU waste shipped out of state by the facility in the past 10 years, according to the Department of Energy.

TRU waste typically consists of protective clothing, tools, rags, equipment, and miscellaneous items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium and other heavy elements.

Radiant Industries has announced a $100 million Series C funding round to be used primarily to complete its Kaleidos Development Unit (KDU) microreactor for testing in Idaho National Laboratory's Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility within two years.

The Department of Energy announced November 19 that up to $16 million is available through a new High-Assay Low-Enrichment Transportation Package funding opportunity to research, develop, and acquire Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing for transportation of HALEU—using new or modified packages.

Some 30 nuclear engineering departments at universities across the United States graduate more than 900 students every year. These young men and women are the present and future of the domestic nuclear industry as it seeks to develop and deploy advanced nuclear energy technologies, grow its footprint on the power grid, and penetrate new markets while continuing to run the existing fleet of reactors reliably and economically.