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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
Jericho W. Locke, Bhavya Lal
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 8 | August 2020 | Pages 1109-1119
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1680080
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Since the 1950s, the U.S. government has developed and launched a number of space-based nuclear systems based on both decay of radioisotopes and fission. While private entities have supported the development and launch of nuclear payloads as contractors, the federal government funded and drove the development and operation of such systems. In recent years, the private sector has developed interest in leading the development, launch, and use of nuclear technologies for space applications. This growth mirrors similar trends toward commercialization in the space sector as a whole. This paper investigates that private sector interest in space nuclear systems based on interviews with over a dozen companies in the space and nuclear industries. It presents a definition of commercial space activities, develops a model for the commercial use of space nuclear systems, and explores the status of commercial space nuclear activities in the United States. Our research finds that private sector capabilities in developing, testing, and operating space nuclear systems are growing but require the development of advanced nuclear technology, growth and diversification of the space economy, and government regulatory action.