As Nuclear News has done since 2022, we have compiled a review of the nuclear news that filled headlines and sparked conversations in the year just completed. Departing from the chronological format of years past, we open with the most impactful news of 2025: a survey of actions and orders of the Trump administration that are reshaping nuclear research, development, deployment, and commercialization. We then highlight some of the top news in nuclear restarts, new reactor testing programs, the fuel supply chain and broader fuel cycle, and more.

The U.S. nuclear industry is standing at its most volatile regulatory moment yet—one that will shape the trajectory and safety of the industry for decades to come. Recent judicial, legislative, and executive actions have converged to rewrite the rules governing the licensing and regulation of nuclear power reactors. Although these changes are intended to promote and accelerate the deployment of new nuclear energy technologies, the collision of multiple legal shifts—occurring simultaneously and intersecting with profound technological uncertainties—is overwhelming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and threatening to destabilize investor and industry expectations.

In early 1951, Los Alamos scientists Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam devised a breakthrough that would lead to the hydrogen bomb [1]. Their design gave the United States an initial advantage in the Cold War, though comparable progress was soon achieved independently in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy convened its first hearing of the year, “American Energy Dominance: Dawn of the New Nuclear Era,” on January 7, where lawmakers and industry leaders discussed how nuclear energy can help meet surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced manufacturing, and national security needs.

This week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order to form the Iowa Nuclear Energy Task Force, the purpose of which will be to “advise her, the General Assembly, and relevant state agencies on the development and advancement of nuclear energy technologies and infrastructure in the state.”

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a fusion firm headquartered in Devens, Mass., is collaborating with California-based computing infrastructure company NVIDIA and Germany-based technology conglomerate Siemens to develop a digital twin of its SPARC fusion machine. The cooperative work among the companies will focus on applying artificial intelligence and data- and project-management tools as the SPARC digital twin is developed.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has amended the operating licenses of the two boiling water reactors at Constellation Energy's Limerick nuclear power plant, giving the company the green light to replace the units' analog safety-related instrumentation and controls systems with a state-of-the-art digital system.

This week, the Department of Energy has finalized two new other transaction agreements (OTAs) with participating companies in its Reactor Pilot Program, which aims to get one or two fast-tracked reactors on line by July 4 of this year. Those companies are Terrestrial Energy and Oklo.

Analyst firm Trading Economics posted a uranium futures value of about $82.00 per pound on January 5—the highest futures value in more than two months.

In late October, it had listed a futures price of about $82.30/lb. By late November, the price had fallen to under $76.00/lb.

Canada has formally initiated the regulatory process of licensing its proposed deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel, with the country’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announcing that it has submitted an initial project description to the Canadian government.

According to the NWMO, the initial project description is a foundational document, detailing the repository’s purpose, need, and expected benefits and explaining how the project will be implemented. It also provides a preliminary assessment of potential impacts and describes measures to avoid or mitigate them. The NWMO is the not-for-profit organization responsible for managing Canada’s nuclear waste.