Industry

In back-to-back press releases, Oklo recently announced two new partnerships that seek to advance the deployment of its commercial power reactors in the data center market.

These partnerships, one with Ohio-based Vertiv Holdings and one with Colorado-based Liberty Energy, continue Oklo’s trend in working to position their Aurora powerhouse as a key part of the energy solution for powering the AI boom.

Hash Hashemian
president@ans.org

I am deeply honored and grateful to have been elected president of the American Nuclear Society. Your support and confidence in me are truly humbling, and I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you.

As president, my top priority is to expedite the deployment of new nuclear reactors, beginning with small modular reactors and eventually progressing to Generation IV systems. I will also work to ensure that the United States keeps its global leadership in this field. For the U.S. to do that, the federal government must maintain and expand its financial support of the nuclear industry by preserving critical incentives, tax provisions, and infrastructure investments.

Following the signing of a new agreement, Kiewit Nuclear Solutions, a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation, is officially the lead constructor for Oklo’s first commercial Aurora powerhouse, which will be built at Idaho National Laboratory.

A subcontract has been signed with NQA-1 qualified fabricator AvanTech to support TerraPower’s Natrium project in Kemmerer, Wyo. AvanTech will design advanced sodium processing system modules and supporting skids for the Natrium plant as well as fabricate and deliver the test and fill facility’s cold trap skid.

Bellevue, Wash.–based TerraPower has awarded three supplier contracts to U.S. companies to support its Natrium demonstration project, construction of which began in June 2024 in Kemmerer, Wyo. The new contracts represent the fifth round of procurement awards for the Natrium project.

The Utilities Service Alliance and Curio have signed a memorandum of understanding that may lead to future supplier-partner agreements between USA’s utility members and Curio.

Paragon Energy Solutions has signed a memorandum of understanding with Terra Innovatum, a developer of micro-modular nuclear reactors, to support the design and integration of instrumentation and control systems for Terra’s Solo micro-modular reactor. Paragon is a provider of safety-related I&C systems for the nuclear energy community.

Talen Energy Corporation and Amazon have signed an expanded power purchase agreement (PPA) whereby Talen agrees to supply electricity from its Susquehanna nuclear power plant for AI operations and other cloud technologies at Amazon Web Services’ data center campus next to the power plant.

Taking advantage of growing global demand for nuclear decontamination and decommissioning, South Korea’s state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power hopes to enter the U.S. nuclear power plant D&D market next year, according to a report by English news site Pulse (a service of Mael Business News Korea).

Ontario Power Generation has awarded a $450 million execution contract to Candu Energy, an AtkinsRéalis company, for the first of four planned small modular reactors at the Darlington New Nuclear Project in Clarington, Ontario, Canada.

Oklo cofounder and CEO Jacob DeWitte and KHNP CEO Joo-ho Whang following the virtual signing of an MOU. (Source: Oklo)

Oklo announced last week that it hopes to expand development and global deployment of its advanced nuclear technology through a new partnership with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.

The memorandum of understanding includes plans for the companies to advance standard design development and global deployment of Oklo’s planned Aurora Powerhouse, a microreactor that would generate 15 MW and be scalable to 50 MWe. Oklo said each unit can operate for 10 years or longer before refueling.

Oklo and KHNP plan to cooperate on early-stage project development, including manufacturability assessments and planning of major equipment, supply chain development for balance-of-plant systems, and constructability assessments and planning.

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

ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE

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.”

Korsnick

In the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual State of the Nuclear Energy Industry report, NEI president and CEO and Maria Korsnick expressed optimism about the nuclear industry and she issued a call to action.

Her address was part of NEI’s Nuclear Energy Policy forum. The forum, being held in Washington, D.C., on May 20 and May 21, brings together industry leaders, policy stakeholders, and clean energy experts to discuss nuclear advocacy. Korsnick’s remarks focused on the private capital flowing into the industry, progress on regulatory reform and new nuclear technology, and how the U.S. is trying to take the lead on the global nuclear stage.

“We are here at an unprecedented time in our industry history,” Korsnick said. “I’m proud to say that the nuclear industry has a future of unlimited potential.”

SHINE Technologies, a fusion company building what is set to be the world’s largest medical isotope production facility at its Wisconsin campus, announced that it has agreed to acquire the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) business from Lantheus, a radiopharmaceutical-focused company based in Massachusetts.

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

ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE

TerraPower’s Natrium reactor advances on several fronts

TerraPower has continued making aggressive progress in several areas for its under-construction Natrium Reactor Demonstration Project since the beginning of the year. Natrium is an advanced 345-MWe reactor that has liquid sodium as a coolant, improved fuel utilization, enhanced safety features, and an integrated energy storage system, allowing for a brief power output boost to 500-MWe if needed for grid resiliency. The company broke ground for its first Natrium plant in 2024 near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyo.

DTE Energy, the owner of Fermi nuclear power plant in Michigan, is considering an extended uprate for Unit 2 that would increase its 1,100-MW generation capacity by 150 MW.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has awarded a five-year contract worth up to $74.8 million to Independent Strategic Management Solutions for professional support services at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

In a Q&A posted on TVA’s website last week about a “new nuclear heyday,” Bob Deacy shared his vision for the Clinch River nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.—and some news about next steps for the company’s small modular reactor plans.

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s senior vice president for the Clinch River project, Deacy described his vision for up to four SMRs built on plots smaller than a football field with state-of-the-art digital equipment and a newly trained workforce providing reliable 24/7 power to the grid.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced it has awarded a contract worth nearly $153 million to North Wind Dynamics for infrastructure support services at the DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky. According to DOE-EM, the company, a small business based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, was chosen based on “key personnel, organization, and management approach, past performance, and value to taxpayers.”