Yesterday, the Department of Energy announced that three enrichment services companies have been awarded task orders worth $900 million each. Those task orders were given to American Centrifuge Operating (a Centrus Energy subsidiary) and General Matter, both of which will develop domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, along with Orano Federal Services, which will build domestic LEU enrichment capacity.

The DOE also announced that it has awarded Global Laser Enrichment an additional $28 million to continue advancing next generation enrichment technology.

The United States Embassy and Consulate in Kazakhstan announced in December that the two countries are expanding their partnership in civil nuclear energy with a new educational initiative about small modular reactors.

Sukesh Aghara

When I wrote “From Quad to Grid” last year (Nuclear News, August 2025, p. 10), I argued that universities could serve as honest brokers in bridging public trust and technical execution for nuclear energy. Since then, state-level interest has surged. Governors and legislatures are no longer debating whether nuclear belongs in the clean energy portfolio—they’re budgeting for it; staffing it; and tying it to jobs, industrial growth, and grid reliability.

This momentum isn’t a sudden change of heart. It’s the result of four timelines that have quietly converged over decades.

The Department of Energy has announced the successful transfer of the first Mark-18A target from the Savannah River Site to Savannah River National Laboratory, marking “the beginning of operations for a newly established radiochemical separation capability to recover valuable isotopes.” The agency stated that the Mark-18A Target Recovery Program—which involves the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration, the Office of Environmental Management, and the Office of Science—is demonstrating “how legacy materials previously destined for disposal can be recovered and transformed into valuable resources.”

In 2025, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was a vocal supporter of new nuclear development in the state. In October, she called on the New York Power Authority (NYPA)—the state’s public electric utility—to add 1 GW of new nuclear.

At the tail end of December, New York made more nuclear progress on three fronts. Hochul signed an agreement with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to collaborate on new nuclear development, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) signed a memorandum of understanding with the NYPA, and New York finalized its 2025 energy plan.

New York City–based Nano Nuclear Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, on behalf of the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, to collaborate on the development, construction, and operation of the company’s Kronos MMR (micro modular reactor) as an on-campus research reactor. The new MOU represents the latest aspect of Nano Nuclear’s partnership on the Kronos MMR project with the university, which includes state funding for a manufacturing and research center, to be located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook.

Douglas Weaver, nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by President Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, was sworn in on December 22 as a commissioner for a term ending June 30, 2026. The appointment brings the NRC to its full five members. Weaver fills a seat that had been vacant since the resignation of Annie Caputo in July 2025, and he is one of only a handful of former NRC staff members to serve on the commission.

Following up on an October announcement on plans to invest more heavily in nuclear power, Duke Energy closed out 2025 by submitting an early site permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This ESP application is for a site near the Belews Creek Steam Station, a coal and natural gas plant in Stokes County, N.C., where Duke has been pursuing a new nuclear project for two years.

’Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house

No electrons were flowing through even my mouse.

All devices were plugged by the chimney with care

With the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.

Southern Nuclear is leading the charge in artificial intelligence integration, with employee-developed applications driving efficiencies in maintenance, operations, safety, and performance.

The tools span all roles within the company, with thousands of documented uses throughout the fleet, including improved maintenance efficiency, risk awareness in maintenance activities, and better-informed decision-making. The data-intensive process of preparing for and executing maintenance operations is streamlined by leveraging AI to put the right information at the fingertips for maintenance leaders, planners, schedulers, engineers, and technicians.