The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday announced it was discontinuing three rulemaking activities intended to enhance the security of a deep geologic repository and the protection of spent nuclear fuel.

The NRC said that, among other reasons, it has decided not to proceed with the previously proposed rules due to a change in agency priorities resulting from President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”

It has been an unusually busy week in the world of West Coast nuclear legislative momentum. In California, a bill is aiming to effectively repeal the state’s nuclear moratorium, while in Oregon, new legislation would have the state create a nuclear feasibility study.

Now, in Washington state, legislators are introducing various measures to move new nuclear prospects forward. One motion requests that Gov. Bob Ferguson respond to the Department of Energy’s request for information regarding states hosting Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.

The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility is leading research supported by two Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) grants aimed at developing accelerator technology to enable nuclear waste recycling, decreasing the half-life of spent nuclear fuel.

Both grants, totaling $8.17 million in combined funding, were awarded through the Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program, which aims to enable the transmutation of nuclear fuels by funding novel technologies for improving the performance of particle generation systems.

ANSTO’s Gordon Thorogood (left) and Robert Raposio examine the cylindrical, porous, reusable Mo-99 targets. (Photo: ANSTO)

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) announced that it has made progress on a more cost-effective way to produce the medical radioisotope molybdenum-99, with less enrichment of uranium-235 and less waste produced.

Historical photo of Trojan nuclear power plant, ca. 1974. (Photo: DOE)

As concerns over growing energy needs persist, yet another state is reconsidering nuclear power. A piece of legislation is currently progressing through Oregon’s legislature that would direct the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) to conduct a study to assess the feasibility of deploying new power reactors in the state.

Idaho National Laboratory has announced that the National Reactor Innovation Center’s Molten Salt Thermophysical Examination Capability (MSTEC) facility will begin operations in March 2026.

Providing testing capabilities for molten salts, including fuel salts, MSTEC extends INL’s abilities to advance molten salt reactor technology and provide data needed for safe reactor deployment.

Proposed legislation in California could exempt certain reactor designs from the state’s long-standing moratorium on new nuclear generation, effectively ending the moratorium.

California Assembly Member Lisa Calderon (D., 56th Dist.) filed A.B. 2647 with the California State Assembly last week.

If the bill progresses and becomes state law, it could pave the way to increasing the number of nuclear reactors in the state in the future. Currently, Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant houses the only operational commercial nuclear reactors in California.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management recently announced that, with the help of contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company, it has completed the safe demolition of the 175-foot-tall exhaust stack of the K West reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington state.

Canada’s first in situ recovery (ISR) uranium mining operation has been granted final regulatory approval. Toronto-based Denison Mines Corp. announced last week that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has approved the environmental assessment and issued the license to construct a mine and mill for the company’s Wheeler River uranium project, located in northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin. This project, which includes the Phoenix uranium deposit, previously received the necessary provincial approvals.

Adam Burak

We need facilities capable of converting uranium and thorium feedstocks into salts, as well as a source of thorium, if we are to build a domestic fuel salt supply chain.

Our current supply chain provides a potential pathway to produce one type of fuel salt. The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used uranium trifluoride/uranium tetrafluoride (UF_3/4) as fuel in the late 1960s, and some current developers are following suit. Uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) made as part of the enrichment process could be reduced to uranium fluoride salts with a +3 or +4 valence state. However, as oxygen and moisture are critical impurities for molten salt, a facility with the capability to properly handle molten salts would be necessary.

For the past several years, the University of North Carolina–Wilmington has hosted volunteer instructors from Wilmington-­based GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy who teach engineering courses and engage with students. This guest instructor program has grown under the guidance of Amy Craig Reamer, associate professor of practice and director of engineering in the UNCW College of Science and Engineering’s Department of Computer Science. Under her oversight, an informal but strong public-­private partnership has been established to the benefit of UNCW students and the wider Wilmington community.

A new strategic partnership is providing Kairos Power with the expertise and specialized facilities of Oak Ridge National Laboratory to help accelerate the development of the California-based company’s Hermes. This partnership is the fourth between ORNL and Kairos Power since 2020, and it is focused in part on the manufacture and management of TRISO fuel pebbles for the fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature demonstration reactor now under construction in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

I spent a fair amount of time over the holiday break pondering the makings of a good year for nuclear technology in 2026.

Last year was white-­hot. Between the fundamental upward shift in domestic electricity demand, the continuing proliferation of data center projects in all corners of the U.S., the increasingly voracious appetite of the financial markets for nuclear investment, and the Trump administration’s full-­throttle approach to nuclear policy, 2025 will likely be remembered as a significant, positive inflection point in the history of the harnessed atom.

I hope 2026 will be even better, but for it to be so, it will have to be different. It needs a seriousness about it, a scrape of the froth. Advanced nuclear energy technology is in a hardening phase at the moment, where the green shoots of innovation must now grow into robust commercial enterprises capable of scaling quickly and safely. Not everyone will succeed.

Idaho National Laboratory and computer chip maker Nvidia have announced a public-private partnership to advance nuclear energy deployment through artificial intelligence. According to INL, the collaboration aims to cut reactor development times in half and reduce operational costs by 50 percent by using AI to design, license, manufacture, construct, and operate reactors with human-in-the-loop workflows.

Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.

Gov. Tony Evers delivering his 2026 State of the State address. (Photo: Tony Evers/YouTube @Governor Tony Evers)

During his State of the State address on February 17, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced the launch of a new nuclear siting study that will be undertaken by a partnership between the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Wisconsin and the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

The U.S. nuclear industry took a further step to solidify its influence in Central Europe on February 16, when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signed the U.S.-Hungary Civil Nuclear Intergovernmental Agreement, potentially setting the stage for decades of cooperation in civilian nuclear energy between the two countries. This new agreement comes one month after the signing of a similar agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the government of Slovakia.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) will hear arguments on February 26 on challenges to a construction permit application from Long Mott Energy (LME) for a multiunit reactor facility at Dow Chemical Company’s Seadrift site in Calhoun, Texas. LME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow.

Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker issued a new executive order (EO) on February 18 directing both the Illinois Power Agency and the Illinois Commerce Commission to issue a notice of intent (NOI) to potential developers of new nuclear power plants.

The signing of that EO took place on the same day Pritzker delivered his 2026 State of the State address, in which he set a goal of building at least 2 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in the state.

The Roy G. Post Foundation has announced the awarding of 87 scholarships totaling more than $500,000 for graduate and undergraduate students demonstrating excellent academic achievements, leadership qualities, and positive impacts in their communities.