The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.^1–3

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

The NRC’s staff EA and conclusion of 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.

Here is a recap of industry happenings from the recent past:

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DOD selects companies for its installations microreactor program

The Department of Defense has selected eight technology companies as being eligible to seek funding for developing microreactor technologies as part of the DOD’s Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program. That program seeks to “design, license, build, and operate one or more microreactor nuclear power plants on military installations . . . to support global operations across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace.” The selected companies are Antares Nuclear, BWXT Advanced Technologies, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Kairos Power, Oklo, Radiant Industries, Westinghouse Government Services, and X-energy. Specific objectives of the DOD program are to “field a decentralized scalable microreactor system capable of producing enough electrical power to meet 100 percent of all critical loads” and to “utilize the civil regulatory pathways of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stimulate commercial nuclear microreactor technology development and the associated supply chains in the U.S.”

The owners of the two-unit Hatch nuclear power plant are hoping to operate the facility for up to 80 years. Southern Nuclear submitted its application this month to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a subsequent license renewal for the dual-unit plant in Baxley, Ga.

The SLR seeks to extend the operating licenses of both boiling water reactors at Hatch from 60 to 80 years. The NRC approved the plant’s first 20-year license renewal in January 2002, which extended Unit 1’s license through August 6, 2034, and Unit 2’s through June 13, 2038.

Applications for the American Nuclear Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship are due June 6. ANS will be sponsoring two Fellows for the 2026 term, both of whom will be selected in July and will each receive a stipend of $95,000. The term of the fellowship will run from January to December 2026.

ANS encourages interested members to apply. Application instructions can be found here.

A milestone was reached by Idaho Cleanup Project crews in the deactivation and demolition of the defueled Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse (S1W) naval nuclear propulsion prototype reactor plant, which had once served as a training ground for about 14,000 U.S. Navy submariners and plant operators.

The fabrication of gloveboxes is underway for the plutonium pit production mission at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.

“Gloveboxes will be a key component of pit production operations within the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility [SRPPF],” said Dennis Carr, president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the management and operating contractor for the site. “The early procurement and fabrication of these gloveboxes is critical to delivering completion of this project for the National Nuclear Security Administration by the early 2030s.”

Ensuring energy resilience for our nation is on the minds of leaders and citizens alike. Advances in nuclear power technologies are increasing needs within the nuclear industry supply chain. Savannah River National Laboratory’s decades of experience in nuclear materials processing makes the lab uniquely qualified to meet the current and future challenges of the nuclear fuel cycle.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has amended Ontario Power Generation’s power reactor operating license for Darlington nuclear power plant to authorize the production of the medical radioisotopes lutetium-177 and yttrium-90.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced that it has introduced waste simulant chemicals to the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) as part of the cold commissioning testing of the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility.

The new Great Lakes Fusion Energy Alliance wants to build a fusion energy engineering consortium in the Great Lakes region to expand the Midwestern momentum behind fusion energy development and commercialization. The ultimate goal is to build fusion energy power plants in the region, but first the nascent organization is looking to invite other stakeholders into its alliance of universities, fusion companies, and supply chain and government partners. Together, they plan to “accelerate commercialization, expand the workforce, grow the supply chain, and make fusion more economically viable and sustainable as a global center of excellence.”

A milestone has been reached at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site when work crews successfully fabricated valves from old equipment and installed them on 137 specialized cylinders. This action will enable future work crews to transform depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) stored inside the cylinders into depleted uranium oxide, a stable chemical form suitable for reuse, storage or disposal.

North Carolina State University and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) have joined forces to address the ongoing need for specialists in nuclear and criticality safety engineering (N&CSE) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, near Aiken, S.C.

James Chamberlain, director of the Nuclear, Utilities, and Energy Sector at Rullion, has declared that the nuclear industry will not have workforce challenges going forward. “It’s time to challenge the scarcity narrative,” he wrote in a recent online article. “Nuclear isn't short of talent; it’s short of imagination in how it attracts, trains, and supports the workforce of the future.”

NuScale Power Corporation’s latest Energy Exploration (E2) Center has opened at South Carolina State University, in Orangeburg. E2 Centers are designed to provide visitors with hands-on experiences in simulated scenarios of operations at nuclear power plants. NuScale has established 10 such centers around the world. The company officially presented the fully installed E2 Center to SC State on May 21, after a collaborative setup and training process was completed.

The American Nuclear Society’s 2025 Annual Conference is right around the corner, taking place June 15–18 in Chicago at the Downtown Marriott.

Make sure to register for the meeting, make hotel reservations, and see the full conference program.

The Trump administration issued four executive orders on Friday aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment ahead of significant growth in projected energy demand in the coming decades. These orders aim to reclaim leadership in nuclear technology crucial for national security and competitive AI advancements.

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 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.

The U.S. House of Representatives pulled an all-nighter this week to narrowly pass (by a vote of 215–214) a revised budget plan Thursday morning and send it to the Senate for a reconciliation vote of its own.

Nuclear advocates have been monitoring the latest language regarding tax credits that have been in place since 2021 to help drive deployment. Earlier versions of the bill called for phasing out the nuclear credits.