Cleanup crews successfully removed the defueled reactor vessel from the Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse naval nuclear propulsion prototype reactor plant. (Photo: DOE)
A milestone was reached by Idaho Cleanup Project crews in the deactivation and demolition of the defueled Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse (S1W) naval nuclear propulsion prototype reactor plant, which had once served as a training ground for about 14,000 U.S. Navy submariners and plant operators.
Gloveboxes being created at the Savannah River Site. (Photo: DOE)).
The fabrication of gloveboxes is underway for the plutonium pit production mission at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.
“Gloveboxes will be a key component of pit production operations within the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility [SRPPF],” said Dennis Carr, president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the management and operating contractor for the site. “The early procurement and fabrication of these gloveboxes is critical to delivering completion of this project for the National Nuclear Security Administration by the early 2030s.”
Solidified reaction mixtures removed from the alumina crucibles after a chlorination technique experiment. (Photo: Bryan Foley /SRNL)
Ensuring energy resilience for our nation is on the minds of leaders and citizens alike. Advances in nuclear power technologies are increasing needs within the nuclear industry supply chain. Savannah River National Laboratory’s decades of experience in nuclear materials processing makes the lab uniquely qualified to meet the current and future challenges of the nuclear fuel cycle.
Darlington nuclear power plant in Clarington, Ontario. (Photo: OPG)
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has amended Ontario Power Generation’s power reactor operating license for Darlington nuclear power plant to authorize the production of the medical radioisotopes lutetium-177 and yttrium-90.
Workers offload nitrogen into the LAW Facility at Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The nitrogen, mixed with other materials, will simulate tank waste as the facility prepares for waste operations later this year. (Photo: DOE)
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced that it has introduced waste simulant chemicals to the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) as part of the cold commissioning testing of the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility.
Specialized cylinders stand in a cylinder yard at the Paducah Site. (Photo: DOE)
A milestone has been reached at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site when work crews successfully fabricated valves from old equipment and installed them on 137 specialized cylinders. This action will enable future work crews to transform depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) stored inside the cylinders into depleted uranium oxide, a stable chemical form suitable for reuse, storage or disposal.
North Carolina State students with interest in nuclear and criticality safety engineering attend a promotional event. (Photo: SRNS)
North Carolina State University and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) have joined forces to address the ongoing need for specialists in nuclear and criticality safety engineering (N&CSE) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, near Aiken, S.C.
Zadok Tahsoh, an SC State senior nuclear engineering student, works with the control room simulator at the university’s Energy Exploration Center. (Photo: SC State)
NuScale Power Corporation’s latest Energy Exploration (E2) Center has opened at South Carolina State University, in Orangeburg. E2 Centers are designed to provide visitors with hands-on experiences in simulated scenarios of operations at nuclear power plants. NuScale has established 10 such centers around the world. The company officially presented the fully installed E2 Center to SC State on May 21, after a collaborative setup and training process was completed.
Commercial nuclear fuel rods being unloaded from cask inside a HFEF hot cell. (Photo: INL)
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
An aerial perspective of the 32-acre parcel OREM recently transferred at the ETTP. (Photo: DOE)
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management recently completed the transfer of a 32-acre parcel at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) for private sector use. The transfer brings the total amount of property transferred from federal ownership for economic reuse to 1,832 acres at the ETTP, which was once home to the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
An undated photo of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. (Photo: Ralf 1969)
The International Atomic Energy Agency team at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) reported hearing gunfire near the site this morning while a drone hit the plant’s training center.
In a news release today, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said this is the third drone to target the training center, located just outside the site perimeter, so far this year. He called for an immediate end to drones being flown over or near nuclear facilities.
A digital twin of Purdue’s reactor appears on monitors in Stylianos Chatzidakis’s lab. Chatzidakis observes PhD student Zach Dahm, seated, as he toggles through different views. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
A research reactor built in 1962 that was converted to digital control and operation in 2019 is aiding the development of advanced nuclear reactors, such as small modular reactors and microreactors. An article published by Purdue University describes how Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1), currently the only facility to be licensed for a fully digital safety and control system by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is being used to perform “first-of-a-kind experiments that are unique to the nuclear sector.”