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Amentum Establishes Global Nuclear Headquarters in Oak Ridge, Simultaneously Launches Nuclear Scholars Program

Recently, Amentum, a leading U.S. provider of engineering, project management, and innovative technology solutions, opened its global nuclear headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and established a Nuclear Center of Excellence, making it the centralized hub for the company's international nuclear business operations. The center is located at 151 Lafayette Drive in Oak Ridge and houses more than 150 experts across various fields, dedicated to delivering innovative engineering, technology solutions, and advanced energy capabilities. Amentum is already a major partner of the Oak Ridge Unified Cleanup Organization (UCOR), the primary environmental management contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at the Oak Ridge Reservation....

2026-10-09

Romania's Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant Reactors to Remain Shut Down Until at Least October 15

Cristian Bușoi, State Secretary of Romania's Ministry of Energy, stated to the media through public channels that Romania is experiencing its most difficult energy situation in recent decades. The low flow of the Danube River and low water levels near Cernavoda have severely affected the nuclear power plant. Currently, both reactors remain shut down, and the Danube's flow is expected to reach a historic low within the next ten days. At least until October 15, Units 1 and 2 of Cernavoda cannot be restarted. The extreme low water level of the Danube has not only caused an interruption in nuclear baseload power supply but has also simultaneously impacted the hydroelectric power output of the country's hydropower stations. Romani...

2026-10-08

Trillion-Dollar "Suns" Race: Who Is Shortening the Distance from Lab to Grid for Nuclear Fusion?

In July 2026, the Fusion Industry Association (FIA, the global industry association for the nuclear fusion sector) released the "2026 Global Fusion Industry Report." Fifty-six fusion companies raised a combined $4.48 billion over the past 12 months, setting the highest record since the survey began in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 69%. Cumulative global fusion funding has reached $14.242 billion, approximately RMB 96.388 billion, seven times that of 2021. Just half a month later, on July 30, leading U.S. fusion company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced the completion of $1 billion in new equity funding, bringing its cumulative funding...

2026-10-08

When the Water Runs Dry, the Reactors Stop: Behind Romania Losing One-Fifth of Its Electricity, Heavy-Industry Reactor Designs Are Suffering a Fatal "Cold Source Asphyxiation" — Examining the Physical Interrogation of High-Water-Consumption Baseload Plants by Extreme Drought Through the Prolonged Paralysis of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant

For a long time, nuclear power has been regarded as the unwavering backbone of round-the-clock baseload electricity, immune to weather conditions, cloud cover, or lulls in wind. However, the nearly two-month total shutdown of Romania's Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant is breaking this industry paradigm in an extreme and brutal manner. Because the Danube River has experienced a historically rare drought exceeding warning thresholds and a cliff-edge collapse in water levels, the country's only nuclear power plant—which safeguards one-fifth of its electricity supply—has been paralyzed by the loss of cooling water assurance, with no prospect of near-term restart. This extreme case not only tears open a massive gap in winter energy security for Romania and even Southeastern Europe, but also sounds an alarm for the global energy community: in the face of increasingly...

2026-10-08

China Becomes First to Achieve Operation of a Thorium-229 Nuclear Optical Clock, Bringing Quantum Precision Measurement into the Atomic Nucleus Scale

Recently, the team of Ding Shiqian, associate professor in the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University, published important results online in the international academic journal Nature, announcing the successful development of a thorium-229 nuclear optical clock and the achievement of its stable operation. This work was completed independently in the same period as that of a European team, making China the first internationally to achieve operation of a thorium-229 nuclear optical clock, marking the successful extension of the time measurement standard from electronic transitions to nuclear transitions. It is understood that a nuclear optical clock uses the internal transition of the thorium-229 atomic nucleus as a time-frequency reference. Ding Shiqian, one of the corresponding authors of the paper, introduced that the pendulum of an old-fashioned wall clock swings about once per second, whereas a nuclear optical clock uses the beat of the atomic nucleus as its "pendulum," with a beat frequency of up to about 2 quadrillion times per second. Because the size of the atomic nucleus is only a few tens of thousandths of the electron cloud outside the nucleus...

2026-10-08

CNNC Southern Geological Exploration Center Holds the 2026 Quality Experience Feedback Exchange Meeting

In order to further implement the Group's key work deployments, strengthen the quality awareness of all staff, and improve quality management standards, the CNNC Southern Geological Exploration Center recently held the 2026 Quality Experience Feedback Exchange Meeting. Various departments shared excellent quality work practices based on their actual work, and conducted exchange discussions on typical quality issues, transformation of experience and achievements, and other topics. The meeting pointed out that quality management is a systematic task that concerns the long-term development of the Southern Center and the vital interests of employees. All employees must firmly establish quality awareness, adhere to the principles of "quality first" and zero tolerance for quality issues, improve the management system, strengthen process control, prevent various quality risks from the source, and promote the common development of the Center and its employees through high-quality results...

2026-10-09

Unit 1 of Bangladesh's Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Approved to Initiate Nuclear Fission Reaction

Recently, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) issued a final license to Unit 1 of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (Rooppur NPP) located in Ishwardi, Pabna, allowing it to initiate a controlled nuclear fission reaction. This is a key step for the 1,200-megawatt reactor toward commissioning. Saikat Ahmed, project focal point of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, told New Age that the license will allow the reactor to reach the B2 stage and achieve first criticality. First criticality refers to the initiation of a controlled, self-sustaining...

2026-10-09

Germany Launches Fusion Milestone Program: Plans to Invest €2.5 Billion to Support Fusion Companies Toward Commercialization

On October 7, 2026, the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND), on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), officially launched the Fusion Milestone Program. The program is an important component of Germany's High-Tech Agenda (HTAD), aiming to promote fusion startups and young companies from technology R&D toward demonstration power plant construction through funding support linked to technological progress and commercialization outcomes, further shortening the distance from laboratory research to commercial application of nuclear fusion. According to the program arrangements, the German government will provide funding support through the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality (SVIK), with plans to invest...

2026-10-09

Construction Management Practice of Unbonded Prestressed Tendons in the Containment of the Reactor Building

As a landmark project of China-Russia nuclear energy cooperation, Units 7 and 8 of Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant were the first in China to apply unbonded prestressing technology to the inner containment of the reactor building. There was no domestic construction experience with unbonded prestressing in containments to draw upon, and the installation of large-diameter prestressing ducts, as well as the strand threading, grouting, and tensioning of greased and sheathed strands, presented considerable difficulty, exposing construction to significant risks and challenges. As a "first-of-a-kind new process," to complete this pioneering project to high quality and high standards, China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd., as the general contractor, worked in close coordination and collaboration with all participating units to carry out innovative work, guided by strategy, driven by technology...

2026-10-09

Concrete pouring for the turbine pedestal of the conventional island of Guangdong Taipingling Unit 3 completed successfully

From September 25 to 27, 2026, the Taipingling Nuclear Power Project construction team completed the mass concrete pouring for the turbine pedestal of the 3BMX conventional island of Unit 3. This construction involved a cumulative concrete pour of 2,946 cubic meters and the consumption of 550 tons of rebar, with the installation precision of embedded parts reaching the millimeter level, marking a phased breakthrough in the key construction path of the conventional island of Unit 3 and laying an important foundation for the subsequent civil construction handover for the turbine foundation and the advancement of the mainline conventional island works. To ensure the successful completion of the pouring milestone, the Taipingling Nuclear Power Project construction team adhered to the principle of planning ahead and coordinated deployment, quickly establishing a special task force to focus on key...

2026-10-09

Romania's National Nuclear Power Company Plans to Borrow EUR 800 Million from the European Investment Bank: Full Speed Ahead on the Refurbishment of Cernavodă NPP Unit 1

Romania's National Nuclear Power Company (Nuclearelectrica) recently submitted a disclosure to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), announcing plans to obtain a long-term loan totaling EUR 800 million from the European Investment Bank (BEI), earmarked to finance the Unit 1 Refurbishment and modernization project at the Cernavodă NPP. This major external financing plan has been placed on the agenda and will be formally submitted to shareholders for approval and deliberation at an extraordinary general meeting to be held from October 29 to 30, 2026. The European Investment Bank's Board of Directors had previously formally approved on July 15, 2026, an EUR 800 million credit facility for the project, which is...

2026-10-08

Large-Scale Nuclear Emergency Exercise Held at Russia's Beloyarsk NPP: Simulating Response to Concurrent Dual-Reactor Accident

The Beloyarsk NPP in Russia's Sverdlovsk Region launched a two-day comprehensive nuclear emergency exercise on October 6, 2026. The exercise is based on a hypothetical scenario of a natural disaster compounded by a reactor safety system failure, with a focus on emergency response and cross-departmental coordinated handling capabilities when two nuclear reactors experience severe accidents simultaneously. The exercise is being conducted simultaneously at the Beloyarsk NPP site and the neighboring city of Zarechny, and is the largest annual comprehensive nuclear emergency drill in the Russian nuclear industry system and the Ural Federal District. Beloy...

2026-10-08

U.S. Department of Energy Plans to Provide Vistra with $4.2 Billion Conditional Loan to Support Power Uprates and Life Extensions at Operating Nuclear Plants: Safeguarding Nearly 4 GW of Baseload Power to Meet Surging Electricity Demand from AI Data Centers

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $4.2 billion to Vistra Corp., an independent power producer headquartered in Irving, Texas. The funds will be dedicated to financing power uprates and equipment modernization projects at three of Vistra's nuclear power plants located in Pennsylvania and Ohio——Beaver Valley, Davis-Besse, and Perry——to meet the explosive growth in electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence and data centers. According to the project plan, this technical upgrade project is expected to add a cumulative 433 megawatts (MW) of nuclear generating capacity, and...

2026-10-08

Bulgarian Energy Minister: Kozloduy NPP Implements Preventive Power Reduction Due to Continuous Decline in Danube River Water Levels

Bulgarian Energy Minister Iva Petrova confirmed on October 7, 2026, at a meeting of the parliamentary energy committee that the recent unit output reduction at the Kozloduy NPP was a preventive technical measure to ensure nuclear safety. Due to the continuous decline in Danube River water levels, the nuclear power plant synchronized a power reduction operation on Tuesday for the two operating nuclear units to ensure the stability and safety of the secondary-side cooling water circulation system. Petrova stated that in response to the impact of the Danube River's dry season on the nuclear power plant's water intake structures, the government and the power sector are actively seeking fundamental engineering technical...

2026-10-08

Hinkley Point B Nuclear Power Station Formally Handed Over to Nuclear Restoration Services: Becomes England's First Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor Transferred by EDF for Decommissioning

On 1 October 2026, the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) formally approved the transfer of the nuclear site licence, and Hinkley Point B Nuclear Power Station was officially handed over from Électricité de France (EDF) to Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS), a subsidiary of the UK government. This marks Hinkley Point B as the first Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (AGR) nuclear power station in England to formally enter the national specialist decommissioning sequence, and the second AGR unit in the UK to complete such a transfer, following Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station in Scotland earlier this year. Hinkley Point B Nuclear Power Station is located in Somerset and was built between 196...

2026-10-08