NEI chief executive highlights “unlimited potential” for nuclear in state of the industry address

May 21, 2025, 3:02PMNuclear News

Korsnick

In the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual State of the Nuclear Energy Industry report, NEI president and CEO and Maria Korsnick expressed optimism about the nuclear industry and she issued a call to action.

Her address was part of NEI’s Nuclear Energy Policy forum. The forum, being held in Washington, D.C., on May 20 and May 21, brings together industry leaders, policy stakeholders, and clean energy experts to discuss nuclear advocacy. Korsnick’s remarks focused on the private capital flowing into the industry, progress on regulatory reform and new nuclear technology, and how the U.S. is trying to take the lead on the global nuclear stage.

“We are here at an unprecedented time in our industry history,” Korsnick said. “I’m proud to say that the nuclear industry has a future of unlimited potential.”

Developers can apply now to test a fueled reactor in NRIC’s DOME

May 21, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
A view of the DOME microreactor testbed, which is managed by the National Reactor Innovation Center. (Image: NRIC)

The National Reactor Innovation Center is accepting applications from developers ready to take a fueled microreactor to criticality inside the former Experimental Breeder Reactor-II containment building at Idaho National Laboratory, now repurposed as DOME—a microreactor test bed. According to a Department of Energy announcement, DOME will be ready to receive the first experimental reactor in the fall of 2026, with testing likely to begin in 2027.

New simulator will train Savannah River’s remote crane operators

May 21, 2025, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
Simulator instructor Marc Widener at the controls of a new crane simulator for the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said it will use a new simulator to help train operators on the safe and efficient movement of a remotely operated crane at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The DWPF, where Savannah River’s liquid high-level radioactive waste is vitrified and placed into storage containers, uses an unmanned bridge crane system to install and replace equipment in the high-humidity, high-radiation, and harsh chemical environment of the facility’s processing cells.

TVA files for Clinch River SMR construction permit

May 21, 2025, 7:01AMNuclear News
A rendering of the Clinch River SMR. (Image: TVA)

The Tennessee Valley Authority announced yesterday that it has submitted a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the construction of a GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 small modular reactor at the Clinch River nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Urenco USA feeds UF6 into new U.S. commercial enrichment cascade

May 20, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
Urenco staff at the facility in Eunice, N.M. (Photo: Urenco)

Urenco USA has initiated production of enriched uranium in its newest gas centrifuge enrichment cascade—the first in a planned expansion of its Eunice, N.M., facility announced in July 2023. When the expansion is complete, early in 2027, the site will have increased its capacity by about 15 percent, adding about 700,000 separative work units (SWU) per year, the company said May 19.

IAEA starts its “SMR School” with workshop in Kenya

May 20, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
Participants listen to a speaker at the IAEA SMR School in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: IAEA)

An initiative to educate government, regulatory, and industry representatives around the world about small modular reactors has been launched by the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the first such “SMR School” workshop, which was hosted by the government of Kenya in the capital city of Nairobi from on May 5–9.

AI and productivity growth

May 19, 2025, 3:02PMNuclear NewsCraig Piercy

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

This month’s issue of Nuclear News focuses on supply and demand. The “supply” part of the story highlights nuclear’s continued success in providing electricity to the grid more than 90 percent of the time, while the “demand” part explores the seemingly insatiable appetite of hyperscale data centers for steady, carbon-free energy.

Technically, we are in the second year of our AI epiphany, the collective realization that Big Tech’s energy demands are so large that they cannot be met without a historic build-out of new generation capacity. Yet the enormity of it all still seems hard to grasp.

or the better part of two decades, U.S. electricity demand has been flat. Sure, we’ve seen annual fluctuations that correlate with weather patterns and the overall domestic economic performance, but the gigawatt-hours of electricity America consumed in 2021 are almost identical to our 2007 numbers.

“Robust” interest in Summer’s partially constructed reactors

May 19, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
The unfinished reactor containment building at Unit 2 of the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant in September 2024. (Photo: South Carolina's Nuclear Advisory Council)

Santee Cooper is satisfied with the response generated by its initial request for proposals to buy what remains of the Summer-2 and -3 nuclear power plant project in South Carolina. The RFP was issued in January and the application window closed May 5.

Atomic Museum marks 20 years of education

May 19, 2025, 9:34AMANS Nuclear Cafe
Photo: Atomic Museum

The National Atomic Testing Museum, better known as the Atomic Museum, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Located in Las Vegas, Nev., the museum was established in 2005 to preserve the legacy of the Nevada Test Site, now called the Nevada National Security Sites.

NRC discontinues spent fuel pool rulemaking

May 19, 2025, 7:00AMRadwaste Solutions

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is discontinuing its rulemaking activity, “Long-Term and Unattended Water Makeup of Spent Fuel Pools,” and denying a petition for rulemaking. The new rule, as requested by the petitioner, would have required nuclear power plant licensees to ensure that their spent nuclear fuel pools are capable of cooling and maintaining water levels during extended power outages.

Open house on the NS Savannah

May 16, 2025, 12:00PMANS Nuclear Cafe
The NS Savannah in 1962. (Photo: DOE)

In commemoration of National Maritime Day, there will be an open house on the NS Savannah this Sunday, May 18, in Baltimore, Md. The world’s first nuclear-powered merchant ship, Savannah was built through a joint program between the Atomic Energy Commission and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) as part of President Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace program.

Learn more: For more details on Sunday’s tour of the Savannah, click here.

NRC news roundup

May 16, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
Unit 1 of the VC Summer nuclear power plant. (Photo: DJ Slaw)

Here’s a look at some recent announcements from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Summer SLR: The NRC this month published its final environmental impact statement for Summer Unit 1’s subsequent license renewal application. Dubbed a supplemental EIS, the report is an important step in determining if Dominion Energy can continue operating its 966-MWe Westinghouse pressurized water reactor unit for an additional 20 years beyond August 6, 2042, the current end of its license.

ANS holds Educator Training webinar on nuclear waste

May 16, 2025, 7:00AMANS News

A recent American Nuclear Society webinar tackled misconceptions about nuclear waste. Christopher Perfetti, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the University of New Mexico, presented “The How, Why, and Where of Nuclear Waste,” the latest online event in ANS’s Educator Training series.

Moderated by ANS past president Eric Loewen (2011–12), this presentation was built to be an accessible and informative Nuclear Waste 101 offering as part of the Society’s broader effort to develop a program specifically tailored to educating K-12 teachers.

Webinar: MC&A and safety in advanced reactors in focus

May 15, 2025, 3:00PMANS News

Towell

Russell

Prasad

The American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division recently hosted a webinar on updating material control and accounting (MC&A) and security regulations for the evolving field of advanced reactors.

Moderator Shikha Prasad (CEO, Srijan LLC) was joined by two presenters, John Russell and Lester Towell, who looked at how regulations that were historically developed for traditional light water reactors will apply to the next generation of nuclear technology and what changes need to be made.

Deep Isolation validates its disposal canister for TRISO spent fuel

May 15, 2025, 12:00PMRadwaste Solutions
Deep Isolation’s Universal Canister System. (Photo: Deep Isolation)

Nuclear waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation announced it has successfully completed Project PUCK, a government-funded initiative to demonstrate the feasibility and potential commercial readiness of its Universal Canister System (UCS) to manage TRISO spent nuclear fuel.

NWMO chooses vendors for Canadian repository

May 15, 2025, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
NWMO vice president and chief engineer Chris Boyle addresses vendors at the NWMO’s Discovery and Demonstration Center. (Photo: NWMO)

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization has selected five companies it is to work with to design and plan the organization’s proposed deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel. As the owner of the project, the NWMO will be working with WSP Canada, Peter Kiewit Sons (Kiewit), Hatch Ltd., Thyssen Mining Construction of Canada, and Kinectrics.