Research & Applications


DOE awards $134M for fusion research and development

September 11, 2025, 2:57PMNuclear News

The Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it has awarded $134 million in funding for two programs designed to secure U.S. leadership in emerging fusion technologies and innovation. The funding was awarded through the DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program in the Office of Science and will support the next round of Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) collaboratives and the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) awards.

Atomic Canyon partners with INL on AI benchmarks

September 11, 2025, 11:58AMNuclear News

As interest and investment grows around AI applications in nuclear power plants, there remains a gap in standardized benchmarks that can quantitatively compare and measure the quality and reliability of new products.

Nuclear-tailored AI developer Atomic Canyon is moving to fill that gap by entering into a new strategic partnership with Idaho National Laboratory to develop and release the “first comprehensive benchmark suite for evaluating retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and large language models (LLMs) in nuclear applications.”

DOE awards $35M to help commercialize national lab technologies

September 5, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News

The Department of Energy announced recently it will provide more than $35 million for 42 projects to help move emerging energy technologies from DOE national laboratories, plants, and sites related to grid security, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and advanced manufacturing to the marketplace. The selected projects will leverage over $21 million in cost-share from private and public partners, bringing total funding to more than $57.5 million.

A full list of the FY2025 selections is available here.

Nuclear power on the moon: What we’re watching

September 2, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
A still image from a NASA video illustrating power needs on the lunar surface. (Image: NASA)

After the Trump administration’s new push to get a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 was first reported by Politico last month, media played up the shock value for people new to the concept. Few focused on the technical details of the new plan for lunar fission surface power (FSP), which halts and replaces a program that began under the first Trump administration with an early hope of getting a reactor on the moon by the end of 2026. Now, the focus is on streamlining NASA’s internal processes to support commercial space companies that can build a reactor with more than twice the power and mass and have it ready for launch by 2030.

Powering the future: How the DOE is fueling nuclear fuel cycle research and development

August 29, 2025, 2:55PMNuclear NewsDaniel E. Rodriguez and Supathorn Phongikaroon

As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.

Nuclear Dirigo

August 22, 2025, 2:57PMNuclear NewsPaul A. Wlodkowski
Rendering of a floating nuclear power plant concept, in foreground. (Image: American Bureau of Shipping/Herbert)

On April 22, 1959, Rear Admiral George J. King, superintendent of the Maine Maritime Academy, announced that following the completion of the 1960 training cruise, cadets would begin the study of nuclear engineering. Courses at that time included radiation physics, reactor control and instrumentation, reactor theory and engineering, thermodynamics, shielding, core design, reactor maintenance, and nuclear aspects.

GRETA, sensitive and flexible, heads to Michigan State to study the nucleus

August 21, 2025, 12:03PMNuclear News
GRETA will use multiple germanium crystals to track gamma rays emitted from nuclear decays. Pictured here are 24 of the 120 crystals in 6 modules. (Credit: Robinson Kuntz/Berkeley Lab)

Researchers announced earlier this month that they have completed major construction of the Gamma-Ray Energy Tracking Array (GRETA), a precision tool for gamma ray spectroscopy that, according to Paul Fallon, a researcher at University of California–Berkeley and GRETA’s project director, will be 10 to 100 times more sensitive than previous nuclear science experiments. Fallon was quoted in an August 8 article published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)—where GRETA’s project leaders are based and GRETA was assembled.

Missouri gets DOE grant for radioisotopes facility

August 12, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
Artist’s depiction of the planned Radioisotope Science Center at Discovery Ridge in Columbia, Mo. (Image: BSA LifeStructures)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science has committed $20 million to the University of Missouri that—with a matching $20 million from the state government—will support construction of a Radioisotope Science Center (RSC) at the university’s Discovery Ridge research park in Columbia, Mo., projected for completion in early 2029. The new facility will pair the DOE’s Office of Isotope R&D and Production (IRP)—formerly known as the DOE Isotope Program—with the decades of expertise developed at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR).

What’s in your Dubai chocolate? Nuclear scientists test pistachios for toxins

August 11, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Alexas_Fotos

For the uninitiated, Dubai chocolate is a candy bar filled with pistachio and tahini cream and crispy pastry recently popularized by social media influencers. While it’s easy to dismiss as a viral craze now past its peak, the nutty green confection has spiked global pistachio demand, and growers and processors are ramping up production. That means more pistachios need to be tested for aflatoxins—a byproduct of a common crop mold.

Ribbon-cutting scheduled for Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative

August 4, 2025, 3:39PMNuclear News
The Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative at the University of South Carolina–Aiken. (PHOTO: SRNL)

Energy Secretary Chris Wright will attend the opening of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative in Aiken, S.C., on August 7. Wright will deliver remarks and join Savannah River National Laboratory leadership and partners for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

INL makes a case for eliminating ALARA and setting higher dose limits

July 30, 2025, 3:00PMNuclear News

A report just released by Idaho National Laboratory reviews decades of radiation protection standards and research on the health effects of low-dose radiation and recommends that the current U.S. annual occupational dose limit of 5,000 mrem be maintained without applying ALARA—the “as low as reasonably achievable” regulatory concept first introduced in 1971—below that threshold.

Noting that epidemiological studies “have consistently failed to demonstrate statistically significant health effects at doses below 10,000 mrem delivered at low dose rates,” the report also recommends “future consideration of increasing this limit to 10,000 mrem/year with appropriate cumulative-dose constraints.”

ORNL, INL make deals on AI for nuclear licensing

July 25, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
ORNL leadership gathered at the Nuclear Opportunities Workshop in Knoxville, with Trey Lauderdale, CEO of Atomic Canyon. From left: Joe Hoagland, Director of Special Initiatives; Susan Hubbard, Deputy for Science and Technology; Stephen Streiffer, ORNL Director; Lauderdale; Gina Tourassi, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing and Computational Sciences; and Mickey Wade, Associate Laboratory Director for Fusion and Fission Energy and Science. (Photo: Carlos Jones/ORNL)

The United States has tight new deadlines—18 months, max—for licensing commercial reactor designs. The Department of Energy is marshaling the nuclear expertise and high-performance computing assets of its national laboratories, in partnership with private tech companies, to develop generative AI tools and large-scale simulations that could help get nuclear reactor designs through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process—or the DOE’s own reactor pilot program. “Accelerate” and “streamline” are the verbs of choice in recent announcements from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, as they describe plans with Atomic Canyon, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Argonne’s Aurora sets the stage for AI and nuclear energy executive summit

July 23, 2025, 7:00AMNuclear News
Energy Secretary Chris Wright (center) and leaders from Argonne, Intel, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise cut the ribbon to celebrate the Aurora exascale supercomputer. (Photo: Argonne)

Leaders from private companies, government, and national laboratories gathered at Argonne National Laboratory on July 17 and 18 for an exclusive AI x Nuclear Energy Executive Summit that the Department of Energy called a first-of-its-kind forum to “align next-generation nuclear systems with the needs of digital infrastructure.”

Inkjet droplets of radioactive material enable quick, precise testing at NIST

July 15, 2025, 12:06PMNuclear News
Close-up of a superconducting sensor board containing multiple transition-edge sensors (top row of squares), which detect energy released by individual radioactive decay events. (Photo: M. Carlson/NIST)

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a technique called cryogenic decay energy spectrometry capable of detecting single radioactive decay events from tiny material samples and simultaneously identifying the atoms involved. In time, the technology could replace characterization tasks that have taken months and could support rapid, accurate radiopharmaceutical development and used nuclear fuel recycling, according to an article published on July 8 by NIST.

Japan’s Helical Fusion raises $15M in Series A funding

July 14, 2025, 7:01AMNuclear News
Concept art of the central cross-section of the Helix Katana stellarator. (Image: Helical Fusion)

Helical Fusion, a private fusion start-up based in Japan, announced it has closed its first round of venture capital financing, securing ¥2.3 billion ($15.6 million) in funding. According to Helical Fusion, this brings the company’s total capital investment—including grants and loans—to ¥5.2 billion ($35.3 million).

NERS publishes report on machine learning and microreactors

July 9, 2025, 9:31AMANS Nuclear Cafe
The compact, transportable Holos-Quad microreactor, developed by HolosGen, is shown housed within a standard 40-foot ISO container. (Image: HolosGen)

The University of Michigan’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS) has published a summary of a study on nuclear microreactors and machine learning (ML) that was conducted by researchers from NERS and Idaho National Laboratory. The full paper, “Nuclear Microreactor Transient and Load-Following Control with Deep Reinforcement Learning,” was featured in the July issue of Energy Conversion and Management: X.

Drones detect natural gamma radiation to measure agricultural soil health

July 8, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
A drone-borne GRS system assesses soil properties in an agricultural field. (Photo: M. Casling/IAEA)

The International Atomic Energy Agency has initiated a coordinated research project that will combine an “innovative, non-invasive, and scalable nuclear technique”—gamma-ray spectrometry (GRS)—with drones and satellite imagery to gather and analyze data that can reveal the quality of soil on agricultural lands around the world.

DOE issues new NEPA rule and procedures—and accelerates DOME reactor testing

July 1, 2025, 3:04PMNuclear News
A representation of the NRIC DOME microreactor test bed. (Image: NRIC)

Meeting a deadline set in President Trump’s May 23 executive order “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” the DOE on June 30 updated information on its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rulemaking and published an interim final rule rescinding existing regulations alongside new implementing procedures.

Experimenters get access to NSUF facilities for irradiation effects studies

July 1, 2025, 7:04AMNuclear News

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the recipients of “first call” 2025 Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) awards on June 26. The 23 proposals selected from industry, national laboratories, and universities will receive a total of about $1.4 million. While each project is led by a different principal investigator, some call the same organization home. A total of 17 companies, labs, and universities are represented.

Orano Med expands its Texas Pb-212 R&D center

June 27, 2025, 12:47PMNuclear News

Orano Group subsidiary Orano Med, a developer of targeted alpha therapies for oncology, inaugurated the expansion of its main research and development center located in Plano, Texas. The facility is used in the development of radiopharmaceuticals and for conducting preclinical research focused on targeted alpha therapies using lead-212, an alpha-emitting radioisotope that has shown promise in treating various types of cancer.