Excitement around fusion has only grown this year since the French magnetic confinement fusion tokamak known as WEST maintained a plasma for 1,337 seconds in February, toppling the 1,006-second record set by China’s EAST a few weeks prior. Investment, legislation, and new research are riding this new surge of attention, but fusion development has a long history.

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.

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced that its Nuclear Technology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) initiative has partnered with Ecuador’s Oceanographic Institute of the Navy (INOCAR) and Polytechnic School of the Coast (ESPOL) to build microplastic monitoring and analytical capacity to address the growing threat of marine microplastic pollution in the Galapagos Islands.

Leaders in Ghana announced recently that the country has a “framework agreement” with U.S.-based companies NuScale and Regnum Technology Group.

The announcement made by Stephen Yamoah, executive director of Nuclear Power Ghana, was reported by the Ghana News Agency on March 31. He also said Japanese firms will be working in partnership with NuScale and Regnum on the small modular reactors while the China National Nuclear Corporation will construct a large reactor.

While attendance at the 2025 Waste Management Conference was noticeably down this year due to the ongoing federal retrenchment, the conference, held March 9-13 in Phoenix, Ariz., still drew a healthy and diverse crowd of people working on the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, both domestically and internationally.

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog delivered emergency medical supplies to Ukraine last week as part of ongoing aid to the country since its conflict with Russia began in 2022.

Meirzhan Yussupov

As Western countries accelerate their decarbonization efforts, nuclear power is set to play a key role in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. For instance, the United Kingdom’s goal of expanding nuclear capacity to 24 gigawatts by mid-century, meeting 25 percent of projected electricity demand, highlights the need for reliable, low-carbon energy sources. As the world’s top uranium producer, Kazakhstan is poised to be a vital partner in this transition, supplying the fuel that powers nuclear reactors and supports the U.K.’s and other Western countries’ clean energy goals.

At COP28 in 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency emphasized the urgent need to accelerate deployment of nuclear power to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. This sentiment was reinforced the following year at COP29, where 31 countries committed to tripling nuclear capacity by 2050 to meet global climate goals. These developments highlight the growing recognition of nuclear energy’s role in providing reliable, low-carbon power essential for a sustainable future.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that its experts have confirmed that the tritium concentration in the latest batch of water to be released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is far below Japan’s operational limit. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) began discharging the treated and diluted water on March 12.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service has finally gained full control over a blaze that started February 14 after a drone struck the protective dome over the destroyed reactor from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant accident.

We welcome ANS members with long careers in the community to submit their own stories so that the personal history of nuclear power can be capured. For information on submitting your stories, contact nucnews@ans.org.

When I graduated from Scranton University in 1956 with a B.S. in physics, I was in awe of the nuclear era and determined to be part of a nuclear future. Fortunately, I landed a position with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as part of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program. The position included a one-year assignment as a visiting staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi site on February 19, where he joined scientists from the Third Institute of Oceanography in China, the Korean Institute for Nuclear Safety in South Korea, and the Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland in collecting seawater samples from a boat near the damaged nuclear power plant.

Social media this past weekend streamed with reactionary posts following a drone strike last Friday at the site of the destroyed reactor from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. The drone—armed with a warhead—ripped a hole in the New Safe Confinement (NSC), a large structure built to prevent any radioactive release from the damaged reactor unit 4 and to protect it from any external hazard. The drone strike caused a fire that was still smoldering in places as of Monday morning, and left a hole larger than 500 square feet. Efforts continue to mitigate the consequences of the fire and extinguish isolated smouldering areas of the NSC's insulation material.

Due to damage to the external and internal cladding of the NSC's arch and main crane system equipment, the safety boundaries and operational conditions of the NSC complex have been compromised, according to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Facebook page.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team has concluded that Spain has shown a strong commitment to nuclear and radiation safety, confirming that the country has successfully enhanced its regulatory framework, fully implementing IAEA recommendations made in 2018.

Plastic waste pollutes oceans, streams, and bloodstreams. Nations in Asia and the Pacific are working with the International Atomic Energy Agency through the Nuclear Technology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) initiative to tackle the problem. Launched in 2020, NUTEC Plastics is focused on using nuclear technology to both track the flow of microplastics and improve upstream plastic recycling before discarded plastic can enter the ecosystem. Irradiation could target hard-to-recycle plastics and the development of bio-based plastics, offering sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic products and building a “circular economy” for plastics, according to the IAEA.

A drone targeted and damaged an official vehicle of the International Atomic Energy Agency on December 10 as it traveled toward the front line in eastern Ukraine during a rotation of IAEA teams at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP). In a video message, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi condemned the strike as an “unacceptable” attack on IAEA staff working to prevent a nuclear accident during a military conflict.

U.S. and Israeli officials are now confirming that an October 25 Israeli attack in Iran destroyed an active top secret facility for nuclear weapons research, Axios reports. The strike is said to have significantly hampered efforts by Iran to resume weapons research, despite ongoing denials from the country’s leaders that there is an active weapons program.

A new program called Practical Arrangement, which has been created through a collaboration of the International Atomic Energy Agency and LinkedIn, aims to bring networking and training opportunities to women in the nuclear field. The partnership will provide essential resources, including training, research, and access to LinkedIn’s global network.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported that Ukraine’s operating nuclear power plants reduced electricity production yesterday morning as a precautionary measure following widespread military activities across the country that reportedly targeted its energy infrastructure.

Last week's inaugural ministerial meeting of the IAEA World Fusion Energy Group (WFEG), in Rome, Italy, drew government ministers and senior officials who represented “dozens of countries” interested in fusion energy technology.

As COP29 kicked off November 11, industry advocates worldwide are hoping to draw attention and increase buy-in to the need for more nuclear capacity.