Eielson Air Force Base is shown in this screen grab from a video hosted on the base’s website. (Image: DOD)
Eielson Air Force Base in central Alaska has been the preferred location to demonstrate the benefits of microreactors to the U.S. Air Force—and by extension the Defense Department—since 2018. Now, a protracted solicitation process is nearing an end, and the Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency Energy (DLA Energy) expect to announce a final procurement decision by the end of the summer—or about one year after Oklo Inc. announced that it had been tentatively selected to supply a microreactor under a 30-year power purchase agreement.
A schematic of TerraPower’s proposed Natrium nuclear power plant. (TerraPower)
A public hearing in Kemmerer, Wyo., drew dozens of comments and questions about TerraPower’s plans to build the Natrium nuclear reactor demonstration project in the coming years.
The former site of the K-33 gaseous diffusion enrichment plant in Oak Ridge’s East Tennessee Technology Park is the future site of Hermes and Hermes 2. (Photo: Kairos Power)
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has completed its final safety evaluation for Kairos Power’s application to build its Hermes 2 molten salt–cooled reactor test facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency announced July 22. Earlier, and independently, the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) reviewed safety-related aspects of the Kairos application and provided its review to the Commission on July 17. The evaluation concluded that there are no safety aspects that would preclude issuing a construction permit for the facility, but that can’t happen until the NRC staff issues its final environmental assessment later this summer and the Commission assesses the staff’s work (under newly streamlined procedures for mandatory hearings) this fall before voting on whether to authorize a construction permit.
The North Anna nuclear power plant. (Photo: Dominion)
Dominion Energy Virginia has issued a request for proposals from leading nuclear companies to study the feasibility of putting a small modular reactor at its North Anna nuclear power plant.
While the utility says it is not a commitment to build an SMR at the site, the RFP is “an important first step in evaluating the technology and the North Anna site to support Dominion Energy customers’ future energy needs consistent with the company’s most recent Integrated Resource Plan.”
A view of INL’s desert site. (Photo: INL)
Aalo reported last week that it has submitted a regulatory engagement plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in “a huge step forward in getting regulatory approval for our Aalo-1 reactor.”
A rendering of the Natrium plant. (Image: Terrapower)
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formally accepted TerraPower’s small modular reactor construction permit application and is scheduling it for review.
The company’s Natrium reactor demonstration project—the nation’s first commercial advanced reactor of its kind—would be built on land in Wyoming near one of the state’s retiring coal plants. Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 would operate as a 345-MW sodium-cooled reactor in conjunction with molten salt–based energy storage.
A rendering of the Natrium plant. (Image: Terrapower)
TerraPower’s application to build its Natrium nuclear power plant near Kemmerer, Wyo., is available for public viewing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website.