Industry

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.”

James Conca

Nuclear is—period. But don’t take my word for it: ask the United Nations. The 2021 report Life Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generation Options, by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), shows that nuclear has the lowest overall impacts on human health and the environment, by any measure and from any perspective.

In his 1938 article “Economics in Eight Words,” Walter Morrow really hit the nail on the head when he quipped, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Although he was referring to the olden days when saloons offered free lunches only if you bought alcoholic drinks, it is perfectly suited to the energy industry.

Researchers at GE Hitachi Nuclear recently completed a successful test on potential new building blocks made of steel-concrete composite.

Gary Adkins

Subsequent license renewal (SLR) authorizes nuclear power plants to operate for an additional 20 years beyond the 60 years of the initial license (years 1–40) and the first license renewal (years 41–60). NUREG-2191, Generic Aging Lessons Learned for Subsequent License Renewal (GALL-SLR), and NUREG-2192, Standard Review Plan for Review of Subsequent License Renewal Applications (SRP-SLR), were issued in July 2017 and provide guidance for generic evaluation of plant aging management programs and reviews of SLR applications, respectively, by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff.

The first SLR application was submitted to the NRC for review in January 2018. A total of 10 additional SLR applications addressing 20 operating units have been submitted to the NRC. Nine operating units have been approved by the NRC, and 13 units are under review. These 22 units do not have any issues, including operating experience issues, precluding them from achieving a renewed license.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

This month’s Nuclear News pays tribute to the people and projects that keep our nuclear power plants running.

In the nuclear industry, “life extension” is a venerable term that broadly describes the care required to sustain the safe and efficient operation of large, complex energy generation facilities for decades to come, some of which you will read about in these pages.

Of late, however, the general concept of life extension has also taken a firmer hold in our societal consciousness.

Whether we absorb it from Instagram videos about some Silicon Valley techie’s quest for immortality or sense it in one of the thousands of dryly written journal articles documenting our increasing ability to control and change life at the molecular level, the promise of extended life and health has universal appeal—and it’s never seemed more within reach than it does right now.

In the high-stakes world of power generation, ensuring continuous operation and reducing downtime are central priorities. With the increasing complexity of power generation systems, maintenance practices are evolving to meet these demands more efficiently. Understanding the roles of Predictive Maintenance (PdM), Preventive Maintenance (PM), and Reactive Maintenance (Run-to-Failure) is crucial for maintenance professionals in the energy sector to make informed decisions about equipment management and long-term operational strategy.