Search Results

South Korea's HD Hyundai Deepens Marine SMR Layout: Joint Industry-University-Research Initiative Establishes Demonstration Center to Accelerate Commercialization Validation of Marine SMRs

South Korean shipbuilding giant HD Hyundai is comprehensively accelerating the commercialization process of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). The company recently joined hands with South Korea's nuclear energy industry, academia, and authoritative classification societies to sign a multi-party cooperation agreement, announcing the formal establishment of the SMR Marine Technology Demonstration Center, aimed at deeply integrating the construction capabilities of shipbuilding engineering with the cutting-edge research strengths of the nuclear industry and universities, creating a core catalyst for the commercial deployment of marine nuclear power. The demonstration center brings together a total of 12 industry-university-research units, including the Korean Register (KR), key nuclear energy institutions, and multiple major South Korean universities....

2026-10-08

Tianwan Nuclear Power Unit 7 Successfully Connected to Grid for the First Time

On October 8, Tianwan Nuclear Power Unit 7, invested in and controlled by China National Nuclear Power under CNNC, was successfully connected to the grid for the first time, officially delivering its first kilowatt-hour of electricity to the grid and laying a solid foundation for the subsequent commercial operation of the unit. The first grid connection and power generation of Tianwan Nuclear Power Unit 7 is a vivid practice of CNNC joining hands with all parties to deeply study the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the groundbreaking ceremony of China-Russia nuclear energy cooperation projects, thoroughly implement the "four revolutions, one cooperation" new energy security strategy, and respond to national strategic deployments with concrete actions. On May 19, 2021, President Xi Jinping, via video link in Beijing, together with Russian President Putin, witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony of the two countries' nuclear energy cooperation projects — Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant Units 7 and 8 and Xudabao Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4. General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the earnest instructions of "adhering to safety first and setting a model for global nuclear energy cooperation," "adhering to innovation-driven development and deepening the connotation of nuclear energy science and technology cooperation," and "adhering to strategic collaboration and promoting the coordinated development of the global energy governance system." Over the past five years and more, under the guidance of higher-level ministries and commissions as well as local governments at all levels, all construction participants of Tianwan Nuclear Power Units 7 and 8 have fully implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest instructions at the project construction site, and in accordance with the requirements of the Party Group of the Group Company, advanced project construction, commissioning, and other work with high quality and high standards, building Tianwan Nuclear Power Units 7 and 8 into a demonstration project of China-Russia nuclear energy cooperation, a benchmark project for global nuclear power construction, and a livelihood project benefiting the local area. In particular, to ensure the smooth grid connection of Unit 7, Jiangsu Nuclear Power joined hands with all parties to uphold a rigorous and meticulous working attitude and collaboratively completed key operations such as reactor protection logic verification, reactor criticality, steam turbine rolling, and generator short-circuit tests. Subsequently, the unit will carry out a series of tests as planned to further verify unit performance and ensure that commercial operation conditions are met. It is understood that the Tianwan Nuclear Power Base plans to build 8 units. Units 1-6 have already generated more than 550 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity safely and stably, and Unit 7 is expected to enter commercial operation within the year. After all 8 units of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Base are put into operation, the total installed capacity will exceed 9 million kilowatts, with annual power generation exceeding 70 billion kilowatt-hours, and annual carbon dioxide emissions reduced by 57.4 million tons, injecting strong nuclear power into optimizing the energy structure of East China, ensuring regional energy security, helping achieve the national "dual carbon" goals, and promoting green, low-carbon, and high-quality development.

2026-10-08

Laser Fusion Startup Xcimer Receives Up to $30.5 Million in Milestone-Based Funding from U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. excimer laser inertial confinement fusion company Xcimer Energy recently announced that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive up to $30.5 million in funding support through the DOE's Milestone-based Fusion Development Program. The funds will be disbursed in installments based on the progress achieved toward predetermined R&D milestones. Previously, in June 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy formally approved the preliminary conceptual design and technology development roadmap milestones for Xcimer's fusion power plant architecture, Athena. The Athena architecture is specifically designed for continuous operation, industrial-scale capacity, and a self-sustaining fuel cycle...

2026-10-08

The neutral beam injection system prototype independently developed by Shuyan Juchuang has been officially completed and completed its first plasma discharge.

Recently, the neutral beam injection (NBI) system prototype independently developed by Shuyan Juchuang, a domestic upstream commercialization company in controlled nuclear fusion, was officially completed, and on September 30, 2026, it successfully completed the first neutral beam plasma discharge verification. This marks the landing of China's first neutral beam engineering verification prototype fully independently developed along the entire chain by an upstream fusion commercialization company, achieving a technical closed loop from system design to productization verification. It is expected that the relevant capabilities of the system will reach an engineering state ready for direct commercial procurement in December this year. With the smooth completion and successful discharge of this prototype, the company's 2026 annual strategic goals set at the beginning of the year have all...

2026-10-08

Urenco Officially Commissions Uranium Oxide Storage Facility at Gronau, Germany: Deepening Long-Term Safe Management of Depleted Uranium By-Products

Global nuclear fuel enrichment services giant Urenco recently announced the official commissioning of a specialized uranium oxide storage facility located at its Gronau enrichment plant site in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The formal commissioning of this facility marks the completion of a key piece in Urenco's layout for the full lifecycle harmless disposal of depleted uranium tails and strategic resource reserves. The construction permit for this storage facility originated from the expansion approval issued by the North Rhine-Westphalia nuclear regulatory authority to the Gronau enrichment plant in 2005, which authorized the plant's annual enrichment capacity ceiling to reach 4.5 million separative work units (SWU). As a precondition for environmental and nuclear safety regulatory approval, the state government explicitly...

2026-10-08

International Researchers Successfully Develop the First Autonomous Thorium-229 "Nuclear Clock": Featuring Ultra-Strong Interference Resistance and a Fully Autonomous Closed-Loop Stable Operation Mechanism

Recently, the press office of TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) announced that a team of scientists from Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic has successfully developed the world's first nuclear clock based on the thorium-229 (chemical symbol ²²⁹Th) atomic nucleus. This nuclear clock possesses extremely high interference resistance and is capable of operating in a fully autonomous mode without external stabilization. The research team stated that, compared with traditional atomic clocks that operate using entire atoms, timekeeping using atomic nuclei can theoretically achieve higher measurement precision. Two years ago, they successfully controlled the transition process of the thorium-229 atomic nucleus for the first time, but to achieve extremely high-precision timekeeping, it was still necessary to solve the nuclear clock...

2026-10-08

Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences Discovers a New Phase Transition in Cesium Plasma: Abrupt Conductivity Jump and a Rare Double Critical Point

A research team from the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT RAS / ОИВТ РАН) has achieved an important physics advance in the study of extreme high-temperature and high-pressure states: researchers have discovered a previously undescribed phase transition in cesium (Cesium) under dense plasma conditions, accompanied by a dramatic jump-like change in electrical conductivity. The study focuses on the microscopic physical behavior of matter at temperatures from 500 to 20,000 Kelvin (K) and pressures ranging from about 1 hectopascal (hPa) to several terapascals (TPa). Under such severe extreme conditions, interatomic distances are greatly compressed, matter undergoes multiple deep ionizations, and the traditional criteria for distinguishing solid, liquid, and gas states can no longer...

2026-10-08

Rosatom Completes Installation of Two Moisture Separator Reheaters for the Conventional Island of the BREST-OD-300 Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor

Rosatom announced on October 7, 2026 that at the construction site of the innovative BREST-OD-300 nuclear power unit in Seversk, Tomsk Oblast, a key milestone breakthrough has been achieved in the installation of core main equipment in the conventional island (turbine island) building, with two large moisture separator reheaters (MSR) successfully hoisted into their design-basis positions. The two moisture separator reheaters installed this time are core large heat exchange equipment of the conventional island of a dual-loop nuclear power plant, each with a height of 16 meters and a net weight of 95 tons. The core function of this equipment is to...

2026-10-08

IAEA Hosts Global Dosimetry Symposium in Vienna: Focusing on Frontiers of Precision Radiation Medicine and Metrological Quality Control

From 5 to 9 October 2026, the International Symposium on Standards, Applications and Quality Assurance (IDOS 2026), hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was held at IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. More than 500 medical physicists, radiation metrology experts and researchers from 120 countries around the world gathered to discuss precision measurement of radiation doses in radiotherapy, medical imaging and nuclear medicine. With the rapid evolution of radiotherapy technologies, radionuclide therapy and interventional radiology, ionizing radiation in the diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors and major diseases...

2026-10-08

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Opens a New Path to Controlled Fusion Ignition: Implementing a "Heat First, Fuel Later" Strategy to Substantially Lower the Energy Threshold

A research team at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has recently proposed an innovative fusion ignition control framework, charting an optimized path toward a self-sustaining burning plasma that requires the lowest external input energy. The study, jointly led by physicists Luis Delgado-Aparicio, Masayuki Ono, and Jonathan Menard, has been formally published in the top-tier physics academic journal Physical Review Letters (Phys...

2026-10-08

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Hosts International Workshop: Deepening Cross-Disciplinary Applications of Plasma in Semiconductor Manufacturing and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hosted the second Adopting Sustainable Partnerships for Innovative Research Ecosystem (ASPIRE) international workshop in the fall of 2026. The workshop was organized by the laboratory's Applied Materials and Sustainability Sciences Directorate and brought together scholars from the University of Osaka in Japan and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea, as well as researchers from PPPL, to focus on...

2026-10-08

South China Regulatory Station Strengthens Fusion Device Regulation to Empower New Technology Development

Recently, the South China Nuclear and Radiation Safety Regulatory Station of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (hereinafter referred to as the South China Regulatory Station) conducted a radiation safety regulatory inspection of the J-TEXT tokamak fusion experimental device at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. As the only large and medium-sized tokamak experimental device among Chinese universities, J-TEXT bears the important mission of fusion talent cultivation and frontier physics experiments. The South China Regulatory Station focused on key aspects including equipment operation, radiation protection, and authorization management, meticulously investigated safety hazards, verified the implementation of safety management systems, and urged Huazhong University of Science and Technology to promptly plug safety loopholes and standardize device operation procedures, effectively fortifying the defense line for the safe and stable operation of the fusion experimental device, thereby providing a solid safety guarantee for the orderly conduct of scientific research experiments...

2026-10-08

World Nuclear Industry Status Report: The Global "Nuclear Renaissance" Is in Fact "Single-Engine Driven by China," with Regions Outside China in "Substantial Stagnation"

Recently, the latest edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR), led by independent energy analyst Mycle Schneider, pointed out in its analysis: the so-called global nuclear renaissance is in essence a localized expansion driven by a single engine—China; if China's strong engineering momentum is stripped away, nuclear power in the rest of the world is in a state of structural substantial stagnation and slight contraction. The report notes: as the global nuclear industry remains mired in delays and cost overruns, a wave of retirements of aging units, and the paper-only commercialization of small reactors, China has become the unquestionable absolute driving force of the global nuclear power industry...

2026-10-07

Tennessee's Top Officials Push Hard to Bind Nuclear Energy with Data Centers: Tennessee's Computing Blueprint and the Clash with Reality

Against the backdrop of an increasingly white-hot global artificial intelligence arms race, competition in computing infrastructure has substantively evolved into competition in energy supply capacity. Recently, at the ImagineIF tech futurism conference held in Nashville, multiple Tennessee political figures collectively spoke out, outlining a strategic blueprint centered on Oak Ridge and relying on nuclear energy and small modular reactors (SMRs) to power hyperscale data centers across the United States. However, beneath the grand framework of a multi-trillion-dollar investment vision and the historical narrative of the Manhattan Project, this industrial concept is facing regulatory approval bottlenecks, lagging power grid interconnection, rising community resistance, and environmental equity...

2026-10-07

US PPPL Reconstructs 70-Year-Old Lawson Criterion, Proposes New Fusion Ignition Pathway of "Heat First, Fuel Later"

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), released its latest findings on October 5. Laboratory physicists have reconstructed the classic Lawson criterion that has been in use for over 70 years and published the results in Physical Review Letters. The research team integrated four real-world physics effects that were previously treated separately into a unified model, mapping out an entirely new fusion ignition topography. The study shows that adopting a pathway of first heating the plasma and then increasing fuel density can achieve the ignition conditions for self-sustaining burn with far less energy consumption than traditional pathways. For over 70 years, the nuclear fusion field has relied on...

2026-10-07