The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is providing the opportunity to request a hearing on Dow Chemical Company’s application to construct a 320-MWe nuclear power plant at the company’s Seadrift site in Calhoun, Texas. Long Mott Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, submitted its construction permit application to the NRC in March. It was accepted for review by the agency on May 12.

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.

A group of nine former commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a letter Wednesday to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, lending their support to efforts to remove mandatory hearings from the reactor licensing process. The move could speed up the new reactor licensing process by about three to six months and save millions of dollars.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a special inspection at Constellation’s Quad Cities nuclear plant to review two events caused by battery issues. Neither event had any impact on public health or plant workers.

Meta is teaming up with Constellation to buy nuclear power from an Illinois plant over the next 20 years in a power purchase agreement that helps support the goals of both companies.

Oklo cofounder and CEO Jacob DeWitte and KHNP CEO Joo-ho Whang following the virtual signing of an MOU. (Source: Oklo)

Oklo announced last week that it hopes to expand development and global deployment of its advanced nuclear technology through a new partnership with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.

The memorandum of understanding includes plans for the companies to advance standard design development and global deployment of Oklo’s planned Aurora Powerhouse, a microreactor that would generate 15 MW and be scalable to 50 MWe. Oklo said each unit can operate for 10 years or longer before refueling.

Oklo and KHNP plan to cooperate on early-stage project development, including manufacturability assessments and planning of major equipment, supply chain development for balance-of-plant systems, and constructability assessments and planning.

NuScale earned approval for its “larger” US460 77-MWe small modular reactor plant design, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last week.

The standard design approval (SDA) is a determination by NRC staff that a reactor design meets the agency’s applicable design requirements, and companies can reference it when applying for a license to build and operate the reactor—but it does not ensure license approval from the commission.

The Palisades nulear power plant received a final “clean bill” of environmental assessment impact from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission today.

The findings of the NRC staff's EA showed no significant environmental impact for the Covert, Mich., plant, which plans to restart after operations were halted three years ago this month due to economic hardships in the energy market.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted Dow’s construction permit application to build an X-energy small modular reactor in Seadrift, Texas.

Utah-based EnergySolutions announced that it is working with Milwaukee-based utilities company WEC Energy Group to explore new nuclear generation in Wisconsin and will begin efforts to pursue an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the closed Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin.

Recent testing of a monitoring well in Minnesota near the Mississippi River detected tritium levels just below the safety standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, Xcel Energy reported this week.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding an in-person open house on Thursday, May 15, to discuss the 2024 safety performance of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia.

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.

Kairos Power announced this morning that safety-related nuclear construction has begun at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., site where the company is building its Hermes low-power test reactor. Hermes, a scaled demonstration of Kairos Power’s fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature reactor technology, became the first non–light water reactor to receive a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2023. The company broke ground at the site in July 2024.