A still image from a NASA video illustrating power needs on the lunar surface. (Image: NASA)
After the Trump administration’s new push to get a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 was first reported by Politico last month, media played up the shock value for people new to the concept. Few focused on the technical details of the new plan for lunar fission surface power (FSP), which halts and replaces a program that began under the first Trump administration with an early hope of getting a reactor on the moon by the end of 2026. Now, the focus is on streamlining NASA’s internal processes to support commercial space companies that can build a reactor with more than twice the power and mass and have it ready for launch by 2030.
Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. (Photo: NRC)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found that the environmental impacts of renewing the operating licenses of the Peach Bottom and Browns Ferry nuclear power plants for an additional 20 years are not great enough to prohibit doing so. If renewed, the licenses will allow the plants to operate for up to 80 years.
A plastic pellet replica alongside a dime and the tool that cuts each pellet from a solid hydrogen filament. (Photo: Larry Baylor/ORNL)
In May, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Greifswald, Germany, concluded an experimental campaign by sustaining a plasma with a high triple product for 43 seconds. The machine far surpassed its own previous performance with a value that the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) says “exceeds previous tokamak records for long plasma durations”—in part because of a fuel pellet injection system developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Watch ORNL’s video of that fuel pellet injection system—in use since September 2024—as it extrudes a column of frozen hydrogen and then cuts individual 3.2-millimeter-long pellets. The process, which takes just half a millisecond, was captured in slow motion by ORNL engineer Steve Meitner.
Lidar technology creates detailed imaging by scanning the interior structure of cocooned reactors at the Hanford Site, supporting future monitoring and safety planning. (Image: DOE)
A new imaging technology is being used on decommissioned reactors at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Washington state, revealing a detailed look inside the sealed enclosures.
The Clinton nuclear power plant. (Photo: Constellation)
Constellation has reported that its employees were joined by hundreds of community members and labor leaders on August 26 at the Clinton Clean Energy Center to celebrate a power purchase agreement between Constellation and Meta that supports the relicensing, continued operation, and expansion of Clinton for another two decades. The rally was held at the plant site, located in rural DeWitt County, Ill.
UNITY-2 fuel cycle test facility. (Image: FFC)
San Diego, Calif.–based General Atomics has announced a $20 million, 10-year strategic investment in Canada’s Fusion Fuel Cycles Inc. (FFC), a joint venture between Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and Japan’s Kyoto Fusioneering. The investment will help accelerate the development of FFC’s flagship project, the Unique Integrated Testing Facility (UNITY-2), a deuterium-tritium fuel cycle test facility located at CNL’s Chalk River Laboratories.
Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins annouces plans to establish a SIT facility at Moore Air Base. (Photo: USDA)
Ranchers in Texas, alongside the U.S. Department of Agriculture, have been bracing for the return of the New World screwworm (NWS), a parasitic fly that lays its eggs in the wounds of warm-blooded animals and, once newly hatched, eats living flesh.
The role of state universities as trusted anchors for public engagement in an age of energy and environmental transition

Sukesh Aghara
In an era when affordable, clean energy is as much an economic imperative as it is an environmental one, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has an opportunity to lead not just through legislation but through partnership—between state leadership and its world-class universities.
Massachusetts has long led on decarbonization through electric vehicle adoption, rooftop solar, and offshore wind. We have reduced energy consumption through efficiency investments. From 2022 to 2024 alone, the state’s Mass Save programs facilitated energy savings equal to the annual usage of over 852,000 homes, avoided 684,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and delivered $2.3 billion in customer incentives. But to meet growing demand and industrial needs, it’s time to invite universities to help craft a bolder vision—one that includes advanced nuclear technologies.
IAEA deputy director general Najat Mokhtar (second from right) delivers welcoming remarks at the joint IAEA/WHO/FAO food safety meeting. (Photo: S. Ramirez/IAEA)
A recent three-day meeting organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency drew representatives from 14 countries to discuss links between foodborne contaminants like mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticide residues, and microplastics, as well as such health issues as impaired growth, gut health, hormone regulation, nutrient absorption, chronic diseases, and malnutrition.
Concept art of the Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus (Source: Fermi America)