ORNL, INL make deals on AI for nuclear licensing

July 25, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
ORNL leadership gathered at the Nuclear Opportunities Workshop in Knoxville, with Trey Lauderdale, CEO of Atomic Canyon. From left: Joe Hoagland, Director of Special Initiatives; Susan Hubbard, Deputy for Science and Technology; Stephen Streiffer, ORNL Director; Lauderdale; Gina Tourassi, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing and Computational Sciences; and Mickey Wade, Associate Laboratory Director for Fusion and Fission Energy and Science. (Photo: Carlos Jones/ORNL)

The United States has tight new deadlines—18 months, max—for licensing commercial reactor designs. The Department of Energy is marshaling the nuclear expertise and high-performance computing assets of its national laboratories, in partnership with private tech companies, to develop generative AI tools and large-scale simulations that could help get nuclear reactor designs through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process—or the DOE’s own reactor pilot program. “Accelerate” and “streamline” are the verbs of choice in recent announcements from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, as they describe plans with Atomic Canyon, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Test reactor fuel fabrication will be fast-tracked by DOE under new pilot program

July 21, 2025, 12:12PMNuclear News

The Department of Energy has announced a program to accelerate nuclear fuel fabrication for new test reactors. The Fuel Line Pilot Program would see the DOE approve facilities developed by U.S. companies to produce the fuel needed for test reactors the DOE expects to authorize under the Reactor Pilot Program announced in June. Like the reactors they’re meant to fuel, the fabrication facilities would be built on sites outside the DOE’s national laboratories but authorized by the DOE under “a fast-tracked approach to enable future commercial licensing activities for potential applicants.”

INL to use Microsoft’s AI to streamline nuclear licensing

July 18, 2025, 7:08AMNuclear News
Image: INL

The Idaho National Laboratory has announced that it will collaborate with Microsoft on the use of artificial intelligence technologies to streamline the nuclear permitting and licensing application process. Using Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, INL will generate the engineering and safety analysis reports that are required to be submitted for construction permits and operating licenses for nuclear power plants.

ANS, nuclear experts study Trump’s executive orders to overhaul industry

June 9, 2025, 12:02PMNuclear News

In the weeks since President Donald Trump issued four nuclear energy–-focused executive orders (EOs), stakeholders across the nuclear industry weighed in on the plans and details. The American Nuclear Society convened an expert advisory group to study the directives and provide constructive input for the pending implementation.

Southern Nuclear applies for SLR for Hatch

May 30, 2025, 7:00AMNuclear News

The owners of the two-unit Hatch nuclear power plant are hoping to operate the facility for up to 80 years. Southern Nuclear submitted its application this month to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a subsequent license renewal for the dual-unit plant in Baxley, Ga.

The SLR seeks to extend the operating licenses of both boiling water reactors at Hatch from 60 to 80 years. The NRC approved the plant’s first 20-year license renewal in January 2002, which extended Unit 1’s license through August 6, 2034, and Unit 2’s through June 13, 2038.

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.

Disa seeks NRC license for its uranium mine waste remediation tech

April 3, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
A Disa HPSA test unit used in a study in the Navajo Nation. (Photo: Disa Technologies)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received a license application from Disa Technologies to use high-pressure slurry ablation (HPSA) technology for remediating abandoned uranium mine waste at inactive mining sites. Disa’s headquarters in are Casper, Wyo.

UMich NERS builds online platform to promote AI applications in nuclear engineering

January 24, 2025, 9:30AMANS Nuclear Cafe

A recent article on University of Michigan’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (UMich NERS) website highlights the university’s work on the application of artificial intelligence to nuclear engineering. Python-based Michigan Artificial Intelligence Standard Environment (pyMAISE) is a project that is providing an “automatic machine learning benchmarking library—the first of its kind created by nuclear engineers for nuclear engineers.”

Manufacturing contracts awarded for TerraPower’s Natrium SMR

December 20, 2024, 12:02PMNuclear News

TerraPower announced this week that it has awarded the major manufacturing contracts for its Natrium plant reactor enclosure system.

These vendor awards help advance deployment and commercialization of what the company is calling “America’s first advanced reactor,” according to TerraPower’s press release. The news is also a major milestone in establishing the advanced nuclear supply chain, the company added.

Diablo Canyon completes dry storage campaign, seeks ISFSI license renewal

November 12, 2024, 3:00PMRadwaste Solutions
The Diablo Canyon ISFSI cask loading team from Holtec, PG&E, and Diablo Canyon. (Photo: Holtec)

Holtec International announced that it has completed the campaign to transfer Diablo Canyon’s spent nuclear to dry storage ahead of its planned schedule, paving the way for the continued operation of the central California nuclear power plant.

Proposed rule for more flexible licensing under Part 53 is open for comment

October 31, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a proposed rule that has been almost five years in the making: Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors. The rule, which by law must take its final form before the end of 2027, would establish risk-informed, performance-based techniques the NRC can use to review and license any nuclear power reactor. This is a departure from the two licensing options with light water reactor–specific regulatory requirements that applicants can already choose.

DOE awards $17 million to answer critical questions with HALEU data

September 4, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News

The Department of Energy awarded $17 million on August 30 for 16 experiment and analysis projects expected to yield criticality data that will assist the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in licensing and regulating high-assay low-enriched uranium and the fuel infrastructure—including packaging and transportation containers—required to demonstrate and deploy HALEU-fueled advanced nuclear reactors. Project teams include six national laboratories taking lead roles in partnership with other labs, universities, and multiple industry partners.

ANS’s Nuclear 101 certificate course ready for inaugural class

August 21, 2024, 12:00PMANS News

The American Nuclear Society is excited to announce the launch of its inaugural Nuclear 101 certificate course, scheduled to take place in-person at the 2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo this November. This comprehensive five-day program is designed to provide participants with a robust understanding of nuclear energy and engineering, delivered by some of the field's foremost experts.

Kairos’s Hermes 2 passes NRC safety review

July 23, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News
The former site of the K-33 gaseous diffusion enrichment plant in Oak Ridge’s East Tennessee Technology Park is the future site of Hermes and Hermes 2. (Photo: Kairos Power)

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has completed its final safety evaluation for Kairos Power’s application to build its Hermes 2 molten salt–cooled reactor test facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency announced July 22. Earlier, and independently, the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) reviewed safety-related aspects of the Kairos application and provided its review to the Commission on July 17. The evaluation concluded that there are no safety aspects that would preclude issuing a construction permit for the facility, but that can’t happen until the NRC staff issues its final environmental assessment later this summer and the Commission assesses the staff’s work (under newly streamlined procedures for mandatory hearings) this fall before voting on whether to authorize a construction permit.