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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
DOE-NE’s newest fuel consortium includes defense from antitrust laws
The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is setting up a nuclear fuel Defense Production Act Consortium that will seek voluntary agreements with interested companies “to increase fuel availability, provide more access to reliable power, and end America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials needed to power the nation’s nuclear renaissance.” According to an August 22 DOE press release, the plan invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to give consortium members “defense from antitrust laws when certain criteria are met” and “allow industry consultation to develop plans of action.” DOE-NE is looking for interested companies to join the consortium ahead of its first meeting, scheduled for October 14.
Roger Lew (Univ of Idaho), Chris Poresky (Univ of California, Berkeley), Thomas A. Ulrich, Ronald L. Boring (INL)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 507-521
Several advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are in various stages of design and commercialization. These could be critical in ensuring future clean, reliable, and autonomous energy for buildings, transportation, and domestic water use in the United States. Generation trends are shifting with increased penetration of solar and wind. Fossil sources are still major contributors with coal slowly phasing out. Nuclear plants are aging and currently account for 20% of total electricity. Our future grid will be challenged with managing the dynamic production of renewables, electric vehicle penetration, and urbanization. This also creates market opportunities for SMRs. Operation and control of SMRs is potentially substantively different from current reactors. New advanced reactors incorporate more passive safety. and modern control systems increase susceptibility to cyber risks. SMRs will need to be cost competitive with competing technologies and optimizing operations and maintenance costs will be critical to adoption. Here we put forward strategies for the design, operation, and management of SMRs over their projected lifecycle. Advanced reactors being designed today may not become operational for another 10 to 20 years and would run for 40 or even 60 years. The specified control systems are at risk of obsolescence before the plants have a chance of going critical.