Advanced Reactors


Texas A&M looks to host 4 SMR projects

February 6, 2025, 12:02PMNuclear News
Participants celebrate Texas A&M’s announcement about hosting SMR units from four nuclear companies. (Photo: Texas A&M)

Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp has announced that the university could soon become a home to small modular reactors from four advanced nuclear companies: Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Terrestrial Energy, and Aalo Atomics.

NANO Nuclear opens N.Y. site to demonstrate microreactor technology

February 5, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
Concept art of NANO Nuclear’s ALIP MR-12 internal structure (skeleton). (Image: Nano Nuclear)

To better educate customers and stakeholders on its technology, NANO Nuclear Energy has opened a new demonstration facility in Westchester County, N.Y., that offers an up-close look at nonnuclear parts and components of the four microreactors the company has in development.

Core Power, Glosten partner to develop U.S. floating nuclear plant

February 3, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
Concept art showing a FNPP design. (Image: Glosten)

A team of innovative companies has plans to bring floating nuclear power plants to U.S. ports.

Core Power, a maritime and nuclear technology company, announced in January a new partnership in with naval architecture company Glosten. The pair is working on a design for a floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) that could generate up to 175 gigawatt-hours of clean electricity annually and provide clean power to ships, equipment, and port vehicles, Offshore Energy reported.

Purdue study describes benefits of coal-to-nuclear for Indiana

January 9, 2025, 12:04PMANS Nuclear Cafe

“SMRs present a viable opportunity for Indiana to transition to a cleaner, resilient, and diversified energy future. Successful deployment of SMR technology requires a careful balance of economic, regulatory and social considerations along with development of the technology.” Those are among the conclusions of a comprehensive study conducted on small modular reactors primarily by researchers at Purdue University and funded by the Indiana Office of Energy Development.

Manufacturing contracts awarded for TerraPower’s Natrium SMR

December 20, 2024, 12:02PMNuclear News

TerraPower announced this week that it has awarded the major manufacturing contracts for its Natrium plant reactor enclosure system.

These vendor awards help advance deployment and commercialization of what the company is calling “America’s first advanced reactor,” according to TerraPower’s press release. The news is also a major milestone in establishing the advanced nuclear supply chain, the company added.

Last Energy seeks $103.7M for Welsh microreactor project

December 18, 2024, 7:01AMNuclear News
Concept art of the Llynfi Energy Project in South Wales. (Source: Last Energy)

American start-up Last Energy has received a letter of interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), confirming the bank’s willingness to move forward with due diligence for $103.7 million in financing for the company’s project in southern Wales.

NRC approves “state-of-the-art” Westinghouse eVinci I&C platform

December 13, 2024, 9:24AMNuclear News
Westinghouse’s eVinci microreactor. (Photo: Westinghouse)

Westinghouse Electric Company’s eVinci Advanced Logic System (ALS) Version 2 (v2) instrument and control (I&C) platform has received approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission through a final safety evaluation report on two topical reports.

The eVinci is now the first and only microreactor with an I&C system approved by the NRC, which opens a path to autonomous operation. The approvals also allow the ALS v2 platform to be used by any reactor currently in the U.S. fleet.

Aalo Atomics claims “provisional” site for reactor demo at INL

December 12, 2024, 12:05PMNuclear News
This photo of INL’s MFC indicates a plot of land in the foreground, which Aalo says it has been “tentatively” granted by INL. (Image: Aalo)

Aalo Atomics and the Department of Energy announced yesterday that the company has worked with Battelle Energy Alliance and the DOE’s Idaho Operations Office to develop a plan—described as “provisional,” “potential,” and “tentative”—to grant Aalo a one-acre plot of land at Idaho National Laboratory site to build a new facility that would house an experimental reactor. Aalo hopes the reactor, dubbed Aalo-X, will help the company license and commercialize Aalo-1, a 10-MWe sodium-cooled reactor.

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Radiant secures funding, moves toward microreactor testing in INL’s DOME

November 25, 2024, 9:36AMNuclear News
A rendering of a data center powered by Radiant's Kaleidos microreactors (shown in the foreground). (Image: Ryan Seper)

Radiant Industries has announced a $100 million Series C funding round to be used primarily to complete its Kaleidos Development Unit (KDU) microreactor for testing in Idaho National Laboratory's Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility within two years.

NRC okays construction permits for Hermes 2 test facility

November 21, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News
Concept art for a Hermes plant. (Image: Kairos Power)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced yesterday that it has directed staff to issue construction permits to Kairos Power for the company's proposed Hermes 2 nonpower test reactor facility to be built at the Heritage Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The permits authorize Kairos to build a facility with two 35-MWt test reactors that would use molten salt to cool the reactor cores.

New work for old FLiBe? DOE considers reuse of molten salt reactor coolant

November 7, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News
A technician prepares salts for use in MSRE in 1964. (Photo: ORNL)

FLiBe—a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride—is not an off-the-shelf commodity. The Department of Energy suspects that researchers and reactor developers may have a use for the 2,000 kilograms of fluoride-based salt that once ran through the secondary coolant loop of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Proposed rule for more flexible licensing under Part 53 is open for comment

October 31, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a proposed rule that has been almost five years in the making: Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors. The rule, which by law must take its final form before the end of 2027, would establish risk-informed, performance-based techniques the NRC can use to review and license any nuclear power reactor. This is a departure from the two licensing options with light water reactor–specific regulatory requirements that applicants can already choose.

Microreactor developer Ultra Safe Nuclear files for bankruptcy

October 30, 2024, 12:32PMNuclear News

Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear (USNC), developer of a high-temperature, gas-cooled microreactor design that has drawn interest from potential customers and research and development funding from the Department of Energy, announced yesterday that it has filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to facilitate its sale to Standard Nuclear Inc. The filing, made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., includes USNC and its subsidiaries, Ultra Safe Nuclear-Technologies, USNC-Power, and Global First Power.

American Nuclear Society applauds Google's and Amazon's investments in nuclear

October 16, 2024, 10:23AMPress Releases

Washington, D.C. — Craig Piercy, CEO of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), issued the following statement:

"The American Nuclear Society applauds the announced partnerships between Google and Kairos Power and by Amazon and X-energy. Together, these deals will add at least 820 megawatts of zero carbon electricity to the U.S. energy supply. This is a major step toward securing the commercial deployment of advanced nuclear technologies that will make the world a cleaner and more prosperous place."