US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Poised to Approve TVA's First BWRX-300 Reactor

According to reports, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is expected to approve on Tuesday the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) construction of the first 300-megawatt BWRX-300 reactor at the Clinch River site in Tennessee. TVA is considering deploying up to four units, and this license covers only the first unit. This license is a construction permit and does not yet mean the unit can enter commercial operation. It is understood that the BWRX-300 is a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) that uses Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) technology, with a single-unit electrical output...

2026-09-29

General Matter Submits HALEU License Application to U.S. NRC

Paducah, Kentucky, USA — General Matter submitted a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on September 28, 2026, for the construction and operation of a nuclear facility. The project aims to produce High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) to meet the growing domestic demand for advanced nuclear reactor fuel in the United States. General Matter plans to build a dedicated HALEU production...

2026-09-29

US Company DTE Advances 177 MW Power Uprate at Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant

DTE Electric, a subsidiary of Michigan utility giant DTE Energy, has formally submitted a 20-year long-term Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). In the clean power restructuring layout of the plan, DTE explicitly establishes nuclear power as an indispensable zero-carbon baseload hub, and plans to carry out a deep modernization and technical upgrade of the Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Monroe County in 2036, achieving an additional 177 megawatts (MW) of clean carbon-free power output. As Michigan's core operating nuclear power infrastructure, Fermi 2 is equipped with a single...

2026-09-28

U.S. Senate Holds Hearing to Review the NLIC Full Lifecycle Innovation Campus Plan

On September 23, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works (EPW) held a special hearing titled Updating America’s Nuclear Waste Management Policy, systematically examining the major engineering, legal, and political challenges facing the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses (NLIC) plan proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and thoroughly assessing the legislative urgency for Congress to amend the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). ...

2026-09-27

Bangladesh and the United States Sign Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation

Bangladesh and the United States formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on strategic civil nuclear cooperation in New York, aimed at deepening strategic collaboration between the two countries in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Rehan Asad, Science and Technology Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and Jacob Helberg, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides. The signing of this agreement comes at a time when Bangladesh is actively pursuing a strategic transition to expand and diversify its long-term energy supply structure. Currently, the country is relying on Russian technology to advance its first nuclear power plant—Rooppur...

2026-09-27

Main Building of X-energy's TRISO-X Nuclear Fuel Plant TX-1 Completed

TRISO-X, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. advanced nuclear developer X-energy, announced that the main building of its TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has been officially completed. The building covers an area of 214,000 square feet (approximately 20,000 square meters), marking that the first commercial-scale advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing project of its kind in the United States has fully transitioned into the phase of interior mechanical and electrical fit-out, installation and commissioning of specialized fuel fabrication process equipment, and related supporting infrastructure construction. According to capacity planning, once fully operational, the TX-1 plant will be capable of producing approximately 700,000 TRISO-X fuel pebbles per year, equivalent to an annual uranium equivalent output of about 5 tonnes, with the capability to...

2026-09-27

Purdue University Completes the First Remote Real-Time Autonomous Power Control Experiment on a Nuclear Reactor in the United States, Building a Cross-State Digital Twin Closed Loop

Purdue University, in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), has for the first time in the United States achieved remote, automatic, and real-time experimental regulation of nuclear reactor power. The demonstration validated a three-site control closed loop spanning Indiana, Idaho, and Virginia, providing a cutting-edge engineering paradigm for future centralized remote monitoring and automated scheduling of advanced reactors from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The experiment relied on Purdue University's 64-year-old Reactor Number One (Purdue University Reactor Num...

2026-09-24

US Senate Weighs $50 Billion Nuclear Energy Integrated Campus Plan, Aiming to Link Advanced Reactors, Waste Recycling, and AI Computing Centers

The Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works held a hearing on Wednesday to examine a federal plan totaling $50 billion. The plan proposes funding the construction of three regional future Nuclear innovation campuses, using abundant zero-carbon energy supply to attract heavy manufacturing and computing centers to cluster there, while also building radioactive waste storage and disposal facilities within the campuses in a coordinated manner. At the committee hearing, the American Nuclear Society Nuclear Waste Policy Task Force...

2026-09-24

Idaho National Laboratory Moran Test Bed Completes Deployment Preparation for Spent Fuel Decladding Skid

A mobile skid dedicated to processing and stripping spent nuclear fuel cladding has been officially declared ready for operation at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Moran Nuclear Fuels Test Facility. The fabrication of this skid system was funded by the Athena Initiative launched in 2022 under the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Nonproliferation Stewardship Program, aimed at providing critical research support for the United States' nonproliferation strategy.

2026-09-24

Argonne National Laboratory develops new monitoring system that can accurately diagnose hidden faults inside nuclear reactors

U.S. researchers have developed a new monitoring system that combines fiber-optic temperature sensors with artificial intelligence (AI) to identify hidden internal channel blockage risks before they cause costly reactor shutdowns. The technology was developed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and is specifically designed for key heat exchanger components in molten-salt-cooled reactors (MSCRs). Heat exchangers ser...

2026-09-24

U.S. Team Advances Offshore Engineering System for Uranium Extraction from Seawater, Accelerating Toward Industrial-Scale Application

Nuclear fuel startup SuperCritical Materials and the University of Michigan (U-M) have formally established a research collaboration to jointly design and test an offshore mechanical system for uranium-from-seawater extraction, aiming to advance this cutting-edge technology toward industrial-scale engineering application. SuperCritical Materials had previously obtained an exclusive commercial license for a patented adsorbent manufacturing process that captures dissolved uranium in seawater. This joint research and development effort shifts the focus to the field of engineering machinery, primarily developing the capability to support high-frequency deployment and long-duration...

2026-09-24

US Department of Energy Study Shows: Deep Borehole Disposal Option Can Significantly Reduce Nuclear Fuel Cycle Back-End Waste Disposal Costs

Results from a three-year US Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project show that Deep Boreholes technology can provide a safe and low-cost permanent disposal pathway for radioactive waste remaining after Nuclear Fuel Recycling. Deep Isolation Nuclear conducted a systematic assessment of multiple recycling waste disposal scenarios, and the results showed that the estimated costs for all tested scenarios were below the project's control target of "0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity generation." Long-term safety modeling also confirmed that under normal expected conditions, all options meet...

2026-09-24

Bechtel Exits TerraPower's Sodium-Cooled Reactor Project

U.S. engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and project management company Bechtel has decided to withdraw from TerraPower's Natrium nuclear reactor project. TerraPower stated that both parties have decided to develop independently and will re-tender the project's engineering, procurement and construction contract for building the first Natrium nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, USA.

2026-09-23

Framatome of France Secures First U.S. High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium Nuclear Fuel Contract

French nuclear company Framatome announced that it has signed a commercial contract to supply one operating nuclear reactor in the United States with the world's first nuclear fuel with uranium-235 concentration higher than the industry standard of 5%, for use in replacing reactor fuel. Under the agreement, as part of the Advanced Fuel Management (AFM) program, Framatome will use AFM technology to supply higher-concentration fuel in batches starting in early 2028. The agreement includes the supply of a range of fuels to support long-term use of AFM fuel in the reactor, and includes additional fuel supply options for the future. The company did not disclose the name of the reactor that will use the fuel. Uranium-235...

2026-09-23

Palisades Nuclear Power Plant Restart Suspended Due to Fuel Assembly Issue

The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert Township, Michigan, encountered a problem during fuel loading operations, causing its ongoing restart process to be suspended. The 50-year-old nuclear power plant, located along the shore of Lake Michigan, had previously been planned to become the first decommissioned nuclear power plant in the United States to be restarted. Holtec, the operator of the nuclear power plant, confirmed that while loading radioactive fuel rods into the reactor, a fuel assembly unexpectedly tilted after being released by the handling device and became stuck in a non-vertical position. Due to this situation, the reactor is currently...

2026-09-23

Kairos Power Secures $100 Million Investment from Samsung to Build Nuclear Reactors for Google

Recently, Kairos Power received a $100 million investment from Samsung C&T to build nuclear reactors for Google. Samsung C&T Engineering will participate in the construction of Kairos Power's 50-megawatt demonstration reactor, which is planned for completion by 2030. As part of the deal, Samsung C&T will make an equity investment in Kairos Power and provide in-kind engineering services, with the combined value reaching up to $100 million. Kairos Power stated that the equity investment will account for $70 million of the total investment. Samsung C&T has participated in or helped build approximately a dozen nuclear reactors worldwide, possessing extensive...

2026-09-23

Turkey's National Nuclear Energy Agency (TUNAS) and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Launch New Nuclear Energy Cooperation

Turkey and the United States will cooperate on a technical study aimed at assessing the potential application of U.S. small modular reactors (SMRs) and Generation IV nuclear technologies. This project, funded by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), is being implemented by Turkey's state-owned nuclear energy company (Turkiye Nuclear Energy, or TUNAS) in cooperation with the United States. During the United Nations General Assembly in New York, TUNAS and USTDA reached an agreement on the project. The study will evaluate SMR designs from four U.S. companies and five Generation IV reactor technologies from multiple perspectives, including technical, economic, legislative, and licensing aspects, to determine their potential application in Turkey...

2026-09-23

Israel's nT-TaO Signs Memorandum of Understanding with US-based Orion to Explore Deployment of Compact Fusion Systems for Data Center Power Supply

Israeli fusion company nT-TaO and US nuclear energy development company Orion Nuclear Energy Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on September 21, 2026, to explore the deployment of nT-TaO's Compact Fusion systems at data centers and industrial facilities in the United States. The move is seen as a collaborative step forward in the commercialization of fusion technology. According to the memorandum, the cooperation will center on the commercialization of nT-TaO's compact fusion system, with key focuses including: identifying potential customers, evaluating site selection, and developing specific commercial projects. The system is designed to provide up to 20 ...

2026-09-22

Nuclear energy startup Hylenr completes Phase 1 testing of lattice confinement fusion reactor validation study

Hylenr Inc., a nuclear energy startup based in Michigan, USA, recently completed Phase 1 testing of an independent validation study of its Lattice Confinement Fusion (LCF) reactor at Texas A&M University. Experimental results showed anomalous signals in areas including heat, gas, and materials, and Hylenr stated that the data indicate the technology warrants further in-depth investigation. Basic test information: In a strictly controlled laboratory environment, researchers conducted tests on Hylenr's BRT-NiUCS-2 reactor and multiple hydrogen-absorbing nickel-palladium catalyst samples, focusing on monitoring post-test heat, radiation, residual gases, and...

2026-09-22

Southern Company Partners with Google to Upgrade Nuclear Plants to Meet Power Demand

Recently, Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, reached an agreement with Google aimed at supporting upgrades to its two nuclear power plants, expected to add approximately 96 megawatts of power supply capacity. This collaboration comes amid surging power demand from data centers and other large users, driving the expansion of existing nuclear plants in pursuit of an around-the-clock, carbon-free power source. The agreement, which still requires approval from the Georgia Public Service Commission, provides funding for power upgrades to Georgia Power's share of the Vogtle and Hatch nuclear plants. Google's subscription will bring customers approximately $900 million in...

2026-09-22

US Delivers Cold War-Era Reactor Molten Salt Coolant to Texas Nuclear Innovation Project

The U.S. nuclear energy sector has recently seen a landmark cross-generational collaboration. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has formally delivered over 2 metric tons of FLiBe molten salt to Natura Resources, a nuclear startup headquartered in Abilene, Texas. This batch of molten salt once served as the coolant for the historic Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) during the Cold War, and after decades in storage, it has been reactivated to support the research, development, and deployment of fourth-generation nuclear reactor technology. The delivered FLiBe molten salt is a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride, and its distinctive feature is that the lithium-7 (Li-7) isotope abundance within it reaches as high as 99.99%...

2026-09-20