From remediation to renaissance: Our nuclear future begins with cleanup

August 22, 2025, 9:35AMNuclear NewsHash Hashemian and Ken Rueter
A view of the East Tennessee Technology Park after core cleanup was completed. (Photo: DOE)

ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy’s reflection on the 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test (Nuclear Newswire, July 16) was a thoughtful and fitting remembrance of the achievements and legacy of the World War II generation of nuclear pioneers. We also see legacy environmental cleanup as a vital next step as our industry launches what Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has defined as “Manhattan Project 2.0.”

Work advances on X-energy’s TRISO fuel fabrication facility

August 11, 2025, 9:32AMNuclear News

Small modular reactor developer X-energy, together with its fuel-developing subsidiary TRISO-X, has selected Clark Construction Group to finish the building construction phase of its advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility, known as TX-1, in Oak Ridge, Tenn. It will be the first of two Oak Ridge facilities built to manufacture the company’s TRISO fuel for use in its Xe-100 SMR. The initial deployment of the Xe-100 will be at Dow Chemical Company’s UCC Seadrift Operations manufacturing site on Texas’s Gulf Coast.

Kairos project moves ahead at Oak Ridge

July 18, 2025, 9:29AMNuclear News
The ETU 3.0 reactor vessel was lowered into position using construction cranes and mounted on a support structure attached to the building’s foundation. (Photo: Kairos Power)

A reactor vessel has been installed by Kairos Power for its third Engineering Test Unit (ETU 3.0) at the company’s campus in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

NRC dockets TVA’s Clinch River construction application

July 15, 2025, 7:00AMNuclear News
A rendering of the Clinch River SMR. (Image: TVA)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the Tennessee Valley Authority’s construction permit application for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor at its Clinch River site in Tennessee. The NRC expects to complete its review by December 2026.

Oak Ridge’s ETTP tops 1,800 acres in latest private sector land transfer

May 23, 2025, 12:00PMRadwaste Solutions
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.

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.

TVA files for construction permit for Clinch River SMR

May 6, 2025, 9:29AMNuclear News

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week shared a portion of the construction permit application from the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a small modular reactor at the Clinch River nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

In anticipation of TVA’s filing, NRC staff scheduled two public meetings in Oak Ridge for today, to discuss the agency’s process for licensing nuclear power plants.

Another building prepares to come down at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 complex

April 30, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
Workers with UCOR perform sampling and deactivation tasks in the basement of Beta-1 at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge. (Photo: DOE)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said that crews with the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its cleanup contractor UCOR are preparing to demolish another deteriorating Manhattan Project–era building at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

TVA to file for Clinch River SMR construction permit by June

April 21, 2025, 3:45PMNuclear News
Deacy (left) speaks with senior project manager Mike McDowell (center) and civil construction manager Buck Collins (right) outside the construction trailer at the Clinch River site in Tennessee. (Photo: TVA)

In a Q&A posted on TVA’s website last week about a “new nuclear heyday,” Bob Deacy shared his vision for the Clinch River nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.—and some news about next steps for the company’s small modular reactor plans.

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s senior vice president for the Clinch River project, Deacy described his vision for up to four SMRs built on plots smaller than a football field with state-of-the-art digital equipment and a newly trained workforce providing reliable 24/7 power to the grid.

Legacy waste removed from Oak Ridge after 50 years

April 18, 2025, 7:23AMNuclear News
OREM team members with the transport cask used to ship the legacy waste out of state for permanent disposal. (Photo: DOE)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has successfully removed legacy radioactive waste stored for more than five decades, marking a significant cleanup milestone. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and cleanup contractor UCOR processed and shipped highly radioactive source material, including radium-226 and boron, out of state for permanent disposal.

General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project

April 2, 2025, 3:01PMANS Nuclear Cafe

Nichols

The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.

As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”

PG&E launches AI solution at Diablo Canyon

November 14, 2024, 3:13PMNuclear News

Diablo Canyon will host a commercial installation of the first on-site generative artificial intelligence deployment at a U.S. nuclear plant.

Pacific Gas & Electric is deploying Atomic Canyon’s Neutron Enterprise to assist the utility’s management of datasets associated with operations of Diablo Canyon. The software, which runs on Nvidia’s full-stack AI platform, enables intelligent document processing, computation of semantic embeddings, and generative capabilities. Its infrastructure allows nuclear facilities to process and analyze vast amounts of complex documentation with unprecedented speed and accuracy, according to the company.

Oak Ridge community roundtable explores workforce challenges

November 7, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News
OREM manager Jay Mullis (center) discusses the demographics of the current Oak Ridge workforce and the skills needed in the years ahead to advance cleanup at ORNL and the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo: DOE)

Federal and contractor officials, community leaders, and educators gathered in Knoxville, Tenn., on October 29 for a roundtable event focused on ensuring the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its partners have the resources and infrastructure needed to support a robust, talented workforce in the years ahead.

TerraPower reaches market-scale production of Ac-225

October 4, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News

TerraPower Isotopes, a subsidiary of Bellevue, Wash.–based TerraPower, announced it is now producing actinium-225 at commercial scale, making the medical isotope available to the pharmaceutical industry through weekly production runs. As a result, TerraPower Isotopes said its actinium, after further manufacturing, is now used in multiple drug developers’ radiopharmaceuticals in human clinical trials across the globe.

Oak Ridge’s Mercury Treatment Facility receives new tanks

September 25, 2024, 9:29AMRadwaste Solutions
Workers prepare to remove from a specialized transportation trailer the first of three sludge-settling tanks for Oak Ridge’s Mercury Treatment Facility. (Photo: DOE)

Workers with the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its contractor UCOR have finished installing the first of three large sludge-settling tanks for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the site’s Y-12 National Security Complex. The tanks, each of which will be 38 feet tall and 15 feet wide with a capacity of 36,000 gallons, provide a visible sign of ongoing progress on the facility where much of the construction has so far been below ground.

Oak Ridge is Orano’s preferred site for enrichment, with no commitments yet

September 5, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News
Tennessee officials and lawmakers joined Orano representatives to announce Orano’s selection of Oak Ridge as its preferred site for a uranium enrichment facility. (Photo: tn.gov)

On September 4, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that Orano had selected Oak Ridge as its preferred site to build a “multibillion-dollar” uranium centrifuge enrichment facility. For Tennessee, the announcement underscores Oak Ridge’s draw for nuclear technology companies. For Orano and the nuclear power community, the announcement is another sign the nation is edging closer to adding front-end nuclear fuel cycle capacity.

K-25 viewing platform takes shape at Oak Ridge

August 21, 2024, 3:02PMRadwaste Solutions
Construction crews work to erect the platform’s structural framework. (Photo: DOE)

Crews are making significant progress on the construction of the K-25 viewing platform at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced on August 20. When completed next year, the elevated platform will offer a sweeping panoramic view of the massive 44-acre footprint of the K-25 Building, which once produced enriched uranium used in the weaponry that ended World War II.

WM2025 to focus on impact of advanced technology on waste management

August 16, 2024, 12:02PMRadwaste Solutions
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s William Magwood addresses the plenary audience of the 2024 Waste Management Conference in Phoenix. (Photo: WM Symposia)

Waste Management Symposia announced that the theme of next year’s Waste Management Conference (WM2025) will be “Empowering A Sustainable Future—Advanced Technologies, AI, and Workforce Development across the Nuclear Landscape.” To be held in Phoenix, Ariz., March 9–13, the conference will showcase how new technologies and the evolving digital world are transforming the global nuclear landscape, supply chains, infrastructure, and work norms.