BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT) will build the first advanced nuclear microreactor in the United States under a contract awarded by the US Department of Defense (DoD) Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO). The Project Pele full-scale transportable microreactor prototype will be completed and delivered in 2024 for testing at the Idaho National... Read more →

Westinghouse Electric Company and Bloom Energy Corporation have entered into a Letter of Intent to pursue clean hydrogen production in the commercial nuclear power market. The companies are teaming to identify and implement clean hydrogen projects across the nuclear industry. Westinghouse and Bloom Energy will jointly develop an optimized and... Read more →

Futaba Town, Namie Town, AEON TOHOKU Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) are partnering to establish a mobile retail business that uses a fuel cell vehicle in specified reconstruction and revitalization bases. Futaba and Namie are both in Fukushima Prefecture, and were evacuated following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power... Read more →

Researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed an innovative method of pre-enriching uranium in seawater by membrane filtration. Uranium is the vital source for nuclear power generation. There are about 4.5 billion tons of uranium existing in seawater—1000 times more... Read more →

Newly released polling shows strong local support for extending the operations of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, California’s largest source of carbon free energy generation. Statewide support for extending operations of the plant was also strong, according to the poll conducted by FM3 Research. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced... Read more →

Currently, hydrogen is used in industrial processes ranging from producing synthetic fuels and petrochemicals to manufacturing semiconductors and powering fuel cell electric vehicles. In order to decrease the environmental impact of the annual production of over 70 million tonnes of hydrogen, some countries are looking to renewables such as solar... Read more →

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), a national research and development agency, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), have been contracted by Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), to conduct a Hydrogen Production Demonstration Project Utilizing Very High Temperature,... Read more →

Purdue University and Duke Energy plan to explore the feasibility of using advanced nuclear energy to meet the campus community’s long-term energy needs. With interest rising worldwide in new technologies that are reliable and carbon-free, Purdue and Duke Energy intend to study power produced through Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), a... Read more →

The Nikkei reports that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI)is moving ahead with its plans to develop and commercialize nuclear microreactors—reactors small enough to be delivered on trucks—by the end of the next decade. At 3 meters tall and 4 meters wide, the microreactors will weigh less than 40 tons. The reactor... Read more →

In 2021, for the second consecutive year, US nuclear electricity generation declined, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Output from US nuclear power plants totaled 778 million megawatthours in 2021—1.5% less than the previous year. Nuclear’s share of US electricity generation across all sectors in 2021 was similar... Read more →

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Seaborg signed a partnership agreement to develop floating nuclear power plants based on Seaborg’s inherently safe Compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR). The floating nuclear power plant comes as a turn-key product, ready to be moored at an industrial harbor. In the harbor, a transmission cable... Read more →

In the new environment of energy insecurity intensified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting response from the West, the UK government has released a new British Energy Security Strategy that sets out how Great Britain will accelerate the deployment of wind, new nuclear, solar and hydrogen, while supporting... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $48 million in funding for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program—Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy (CURIE)—that will support the deployment of Advanced Nuclear Reactor (AR) technology by providing safe and sustainable domestic fuel stocks. (DE-FOA-0002691) The US has accumulated... Read more →

Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) recently acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Uranium One Americas (U1A), Inc. for a total purchase price of $112 million in cash together with an additional $2.9 million in estimated working capital (primarily pre-paid insurance and land payments) and the assumption of $19... Read more →

Rolls-Royce Group has reached agreement with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, to invest £85 million (US$112 million) in Rolls-Royce SMR Limited (Rolls-Royce SMR). Rolls-Royce SMR is building a new technology solution for small modular reactors to deliver affordable, low-carbon, nuclear power. A... Read more →

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) will work together with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) to deploy a Small Modular Reactor (SMR)—the BWRX-300—at the Darlington new nuclear site, the only site in Canada currently licensed for a new nuclear build. OPG and GE Hitachi will collaborate on the SMR engineering, design, planning,... Read more →

The UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and DNV are partnering to explore the potential of nuclear-derived hydrogen to support the conversion of UK gas networks to hydrogen. The ‘Nuclear Derived Hydrogen to Gas Networks’ collaboration is set to provide deeper evidence to support key up-coming government policy decisions on the... Read more →

Rolls-Royce announced that following a successful equity raise, it has established the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) business to bring forward and deliver at scale the next generation of low-cost, low-carbon nuclear power technology. (Earlier post.) Rolls-Royce Group, BNF Resources UK Limited and Exelon Generation Limited will invest £195 million... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $20 million in funding to a project to demonstrate technology that will produce clean hydrogen energy from nuclear power. This approach will allow clean hydrogen to serve as a source for zero-carbon electricity and represent an important economic product for nuclear plants... Read more →

Nel Hydrogen US, a subsidiary of Nel ASA, has received a contract for a 1.25 megawatt (MW) containerized PEM electrolyzer from a leading utility in the US. The client will be installing an MC250 electrolyzer at a nuclear power plant for self-supply of hydrogen to meet turbine cooling and chemistry... Read more →

Four first-of-a-kind 3D-printed fuel assembly brackets, produced at the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have been installed and are now under routine operating conditions at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 2 in Athens, Alabama. The components were developed in collaboration... Read more →

Rolls-Royce and Cavendish Nuclear have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities to deepen the relationship between the parties through cooperation on the Rolls-Royce SMR program. Under this agreement Rolls-Royce and Cavendish Nuclear commit to working together to develop the roles that Cavendish Nuclear can perform in the... Read more →

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) is making a full-scale effort to develop offshore nuclear power plant technology. SHI has signed a Molten-Salt Reactor (MSR) development and joint research agreement with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Korea’s only comprehensive nuclear research and development institute. Through this agreement, SHI plans to... Read more →

TerraPower and PacifiCorp announced efforts to advance a Natrium reactor demonstration project at a retiring coal plant in Wyoming. The companies are evaluating several potential locations in the state. The Natrium technology has a 345MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt-based integrated energy storage system that will provide... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $40 million in funding for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program that will limit the amount of waste produced from advanced nuclear reactors, protecting the land and air and increasing the deployment and use of nuclear power as a... Read more →

Bloom Energy announced an agreement with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to test the use of nuclear energy to produce clean hydrogen through Bloom Energy’s solid-oxide, high-temperature electrolyzer. This carbon-free hydrogen is obtained through electrolysis that is powered by nuclear generation. When the electric grid has ample power, rather than ramping... Read more →

NuScale Power and Prodigy Clean Energy, a Canadian company that designs and develops marine nuclear plants, announced a second Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support business development opportunities for a marine-deployed nuclear generating station powered by the NuScale Small Modular Reactor (SMR). NuScale Power and Prodigy Clean Energy have been... Read more →

DARPA recently awarded contracts for the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program. The goal of the DRACO program is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system above low Earth orbit in 2025. The three prime contractors are General Atomics, Blue Origin, and Lockheed... Read more →

NuScale Power has finalized an investment and strategic partnership agreement with JGC Holdings Corporation (JGC HD), a holding company of the world’s leading EPC contractor group companies headquartered in Japan. As part of a commercial relationship with Fluor Corporation—NuScale’s majority investor and EPC partner in the United States—JGC HD will... Read more →

Rolls-Royce and Fermi Energia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to study the potential for the deployment of affordable, compact nuclear power stations, known as small modular reactors (SMR) in Estonia. The study will cover all aspects of deployment including grid suitability, cooling, emergency planning, human resources, licensing feasibility, economics... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) and Nuclear Energy (NE) Office are joining forces to advance technologies that can efficiently integrate nuclear power and hydrogen. Up to $20 million in total funds will be available through DOE’s US Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear... Read more →

Unit 5 of China’s Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant, the first project to adopt China’s indigenous Generation III nuclear power technology Hualong One (HPR 1000), has been put into commercial operation, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced. The success marks a milestone for the development of China’s nuclear power, making China... Read more →

Shearwater Energy Ltd., a United Kingdom-based hybrid clean energy company, is developing a wind-SMR (Small Modular Reactor) and hydrogen production hybrid energy project in North Wales. The project would provide 3 GWe of zero-carbon energy and is also expected to produce more than 3 million kilograms of green hydrogen per... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $30 million in initial funding to five teams for projects under one of three programs—Risk Reduction for Future Demonstration—in the new Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The awards are cost-shared partnerships with industry, and companies were chosen through a funding opportunity announcement... Read more →

Canada Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan, released a national SMR Action Plan, which responds to the 53 recommendations identified in Canada’s SMR Roadmap that was launched in November 2018. Canada’s SMR Action Plan seeks to advance the safe and responsible development and deployment of SMRs through a pan-Canadian approach... Read more →

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy will work with Idaho National Laboratory to demonstrate a system that uses a nuclear plant’s steam and electricity to split water. (Earlier post.) The resulting hydrogen will initially be used at the power plant, but it could eventually be sold to other industries. The new project is... Read more →

NuScale Power announced that through further value engineering efforts, using advanced testing and modeling tools, NuScale analyzed and concluded that the NuScale Power Module (NPM) can generate an additional 25% more power per module for a total of 77 MWe per module (gross), resulting in about 924 MWe for the... Read more →

Canada investing $20M in Terrestrial Energy to support development of Integral Molten Salt SMR Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Hon. Navdeep Bains, announced a $20 million investment in Terrestrial Energy to accelerate development of the company’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) power plant. This is the first such... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) approved a multi-year cost share award to a new special purpose entity named Carbon Free Power Project, LLC, (CFPP) an entity wholly owned by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), that could provide up to $1.4 billion to help demonstrate and deploy a 12-module,... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected two US-based teams to receive $160 million in initial funding under the new Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). ARDP, announced in May, is designed to help domestic private industry demonstrate advanced nuclear reactors in the United States. DOE is awarding TerraPower LLC... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced funding for three domestic projects that will accelerate advanced nuclear technology development. These projects, valued at $26.9 million including industry cost-share contributions, will allow industry-led teams to advance the state of domestic commercial nuclear capability. Two awards will advance flexible operation of light-water... Read more →

Nuclear generation reached a near-record high in 2019, with output reaching 2657 TWh, enough to meet more than 10% of the world’s electricity demand, according to the recently published World Nuclear Association Performance Report 2020. Source: World Nuclear Association and IAEA Power Reactor Information Service (PRIS) In 2019, nuclear electricity... Read more →

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed the Phase 6 review—the last and final phase—of the Design Certification Application (DCA) for NuScale Power’s small modular reactor (SMR) and issued the Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER). The FSER represents completion of the technical review and approval of the NuScale SMR design.... Read more →

Toroidal (doughnut-shaped) tokamaks are prone to intense bursts of heat and particles, called edge localized modes (ELMs). These ELMs can damage the reactor walls and must be controlled to develop reliable fusion power. Scientists have learned to tame these ELMs by applying spiraling rippled magnetic fields to the surface of... Read more →

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a novel way to prevent magnetic bubbles, or islands, in plasma from interfering with fusion reactions—delivering a potential way to improve the performance of fusion energy devices. The novel method modifies the standard technique of... Read more →

Chevron Corporation made a Series A investment in Zap Energy Inc., a Seattle-based start-up company developing a next-generation modular nuclear reactor with an innovative approach to advancing cost-effective, flexible, and commercially scalable fusion. Zap Energy will use the funds raised in this round to continue technology development and grow its... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $5.1 million to the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI) to develop modular-in-chamber electron beam welding capability for a future domestic advanced reactor demonstration project. This project has a total value of approximately $6.5 million of which DOE will provide approximately $5.1... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $65 million in nuclear energy research, cross-cutting technology development, facility access, and infrastructure awards for 93 advanced nuclear technology projects in 28 states. The awards fall under DOE’s nuclear energy programs called the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), the Nuclear Energy... Read more →

ITER, the world’s largest international scientific collaboration, is beginning assembly of the fusion reactor tokamak that will include 12 different essential hardware systems provided by US ITER, which is managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The soup-bowl-shaped base of the ITER cryostat was gradually lifted from its frame, carried across... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) within the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). ARDP is designed to help domestic private industry demonstrate advanced nuclear reactors in the United States. For the Fiscal Year 2020 budget, Congress appropriated $230 million to start a... Read more →