Power & Operations

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released a notice of intent to conduct a scoping process and prepare an environmental impact statement to evaluate Fermi America’s plan to construct and operate four AP1000 reactors at its Project Matador Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus in Texas.

While that announcement may seem routine, the process envisioned is not. As part of the company’s combined license (COL) application with the NRC, it has agreed to participate in an accelerated environmental review pilot program under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Under this pilot, the applicant(s) develop a draft EIS under NRC supervision.

A new report commissioned by the Nuclear Scaling Initiative, conducted by energy consultant Solestiss, and funded by the Bezos Earth Fund identifies and recommends solutions to overcome current bottlenecks in the supply chain for advanced reactors.

Broadly speaking, the report recommends the repeated deployment of Gen III+ reactor designs to rebuild the foundation of domestic manufacturing, workforce, and qualification capacity.

X-energy announced Thursday that it has signed a letter of intent with Talen Energy to assess the deployment of X-energy’s Xe-100 reactor in Pennsylvania and throughout the market area of the PJM Interconnection regional transmission organization. That area, where the companies intend to explore the deployment of at least three four-unit Xe-100 power plants, includes several states in the eastern United States, from New Jersey to Illinois.

Arizona Public Service has informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its intention to renew the operating licenses of the Palo Verde nuclear power plant’s three reactors for a second 20-year term, which could extend operations at the facility into the 2060s.

According to the announcement, APS won’t submit the subsequent license renewal application to the NRC until late 2027. The renewal would allow Unit 1 to operate through 2065, Unit 2 through 2066, and Unit 3 through 2067.

On March 17, Oklo released a series of four press releases in the span of a few hours containing some of the first substantial updates the company has given on its various approval processes with the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission since January.

Specifically, Oklo announced that it has received two nuclear safety design agreement (NSDA) approvals from the DOE and a materials license from the NRC.

At last week’s Regulatory Information Conference, Jamie Pelton cochaired a panel on Palisades nuclear power plant’s restart—a “historic restart,” as she put it.

Her choice of words was perhaps an understatement. After all, no U.S. nuclear plant has yet restarted after being slated for decommissioning.

March has put Westinghouse front and center in multiple news stories, from its role in Japan’s investment in U.S. nuclear energy to the economic impact that 10 potential AP1000 reactors could bring to the United States.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released its 2025 annual performance assessments of the country’s 95 operating commercial nuclear reactors. And of the 95 reactors, all but five earned the highest marks.

Nuclear power plant assessments can fall under one of five categories: Licensee Response, Regulatory Response, Degraded Cornerstone, Degraded Performance, and Unacceptable Performance. Ninety reactors fell under Licensee Response, the highest performance category in safety and security. Plants that achieve this level of performance are subject to a Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) baseline inspection.

Yasir Arafat, president and chief technology officer of Aalo Atomics, participated in the first day of sessions at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC). There, he recapped some of the company’s recent milestones and revealed new details on what lies ahead for Aalo.

His attendance at the event coincided with a number of announcements in the past two weeks. Those announcements covered new contracts with Global Nuclear Fuel and Baker Hughes, the release of a new strategic roadmap, the completion of fuel enrichment by Urenco USA, and a new approval from the Department of Energy.

Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) at the site of the closed Indian Point nuclear power plant on Friday, March 6, as Lawler called for the reopening of the facility. He emphasized that the shutdown of the plant in 2021 has led to higher electricity costs for the people of New York state and increased strain on the state’s electric grid.

The Department of Energy is set to expand on its Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program by introducing the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a DOE-led program to integrate the authorization, testing, and operation of reactors and fuel facilities from private nuclear developers. Furthermore, it will include two pathways—Launch Pad INL and Launch Pad USA—with options to access Idaho National Laboratory land or other sites around the nation.

The DOE plans to transition future pilot program applicants to the new Launch Pad model. Application requirements and review criteria will mirror those used in the reactor and fuel line pilot programs, and projects already in those programs will transition to Launch Pad with no need to reapply.

Constellation has submitted an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requesting three amendments to its renewed facility license to support the potential restart of Crane nuclear power plant (formerly Three Mile Island-1).

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is recommending proposed changes for the Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) baseline inspection program that could reduce the number of hours spent annually on direct inspections at U.S. nuclear power plants by 38 percent.

In addition to the proposed ROP changes, NRC staff published recommendations for the baseline security program that would reduce the number of direct inspection hours necessary for this program by about 50 percent compared to current levels. This includes the Force-on-Force (FOF) inspection program.

Idaho National Laboratory and computer chip maker Nvidia have announced a public-private partnership to advance nuclear energy deployment through artificial intelligence. According to INL, the collaboration aims to cut reactor development times in half and reduce operational costs by 50 percent by using AI to design, license, manufacture, construct, and operate reactors with human-in-the-loop workflows.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) will hear arguments on February 26 on challenges to a construction permit application from Long Mott Energy (LME) for a multiunit reactor facility at Dow Chemical Company’s Seadrift site in Calhoun, Texas. LME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow.

Ontario Power Generation has signed a partnership agreement with the city of Port Hope focused on bringing “large-scale new nuclear generation” to the utility’s Wesleyville location, a 1,300-acre site on the shores of Lake Ontario that has been left undeveloped for four decades. The Ontario government believes that this site has the potential to generate as much as 10 GW of electricity and become “the world’s largest nuclear station,” in the words of Stephen Lecce, the province’s minister of energy and mines.

Charlotte, N.C.–based Geenex, a developer of utility-scale solar power and battery storage within the PJM Interconnection, announced on Tuesday that it is expanding into nuclear energy development, focusing on the siting and permitting of advanced small modular reactors.

Ontario Power Generation, Canada's leading power generator, has completed construction work on its massive Darlington refurbishment project, the utility announced yesterday. The overall project is forecast to be delivered four months ahead of schedule and C$150 million (about $110 million) under budget, OPG stated, adding that station staff are now completing final testing on the Unit 4 reactor in preparation of its return to full commercial operation.

Westinghouse Electric Company will collaborate with Tetra Tech Canada to explore the possible development and deployment of Westinghouse’s nuclear power reactors in Ontario, Canada, under a memorandum of understanding signed by the companies on January 28.

This week, the government of Saskatchewan, alongside electric utility SaskPower, announced plans to formally evaluate the deployment of large nuclear technologies. This process will take place in parallel with the Canadian province’s plans to deploy a small modular reactor.