Advanced Nuclear & SMRs

A member of Hawaii’s House of Representatives last week introduced a bill that would create a state Nuclear Energy Commission, to include three experts on nuclear waste disposal who would be appointed by the governor. The bill, HB1516, was referred last week to the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee and the Consumer Protection and Commerce, […]

A member of Hawaii’s House of Representatives last week introduced a bill that would create a state Nuclear Energy Commission, to include three experts on nuclear waste disposal who would be appointed by the governor. The bill, HB1516, was referred last week to the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee and the Consumer Protection and […]

Transmutex, Vernier, Switzerland, on Monday said it received $23 million in venture capital funding to help develop the company’s thorium-burning nuclear energy system. Transmutex announced the milestone in a press release. New York-based investment companies Union Square Ventures and Steel Atlas led this round, along with other investors including: At One Ventures, San Francisco. HCVC, […]

Senior officials from the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission were scheduled to testify about nuclear power Thursday before a House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee. Headlining the list of three witnesses is Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy. Huff was scheduled to testify at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time alongside Daniel Dorman, the […]

Holtec International holds out hope that it will receive a major chunk of change from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to help restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan by 2025, a spokesperson said Thursday. The company expects DOE to make a decision in “late January/Early February at the earliest,” the […]

Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., and Ukraine’s national nuclear power company, Energoatom, announced this week that they signed an agreement in principle to build a factory in Ukraine that will make parts for the company’s SMR-300 small modular reactors.  The parties will create a “[j]oint Venture between Energoatom and Holtec for a Ukrainian manufacturing facility and […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Friday was set to sign a fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that jettisoned a package of nuclear energy reforms that would have affected the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Both chambers of Congress approved the legislation by overwhelming majorities this week. The final bill, unveiled last […]

Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker’s (D) on Friday signed a law that partially repealed a 36-year ban on new nuclear reactors. The law, HB2473, also removed spent nuclear fuel and waste created by extracting uranium from spent fuel from the state’s list of high level nuclear waste materials.  Under the new law, introduced in November […]

Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker’s (D) on Friday signed a law that partially repealed a 36-year ban on new nuclear reactors. The law, HB2473, also removed spent nuclear fuel and waste created by extracting uranium from spent fuel from the state’s list of high level nuclear waste materials.  Under the new law, introduced in November […]

Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.) on Friday urged Congress to pass her package of nuclear energy reforms, which were stripped this week from a must-pass defense bill as competing House reforms advanced. “If the United States wants to get serious about our long-term energy security and our environmental goals, nuclear energy is the clear answer. Passing […]

A House committee this week sent two nuclear energy bills to the floor, one with workplace reforms for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and another to encourage domestic production of uranium fuel. The first bill approved Tuesday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, rolls up a number of smaller legislative […]

Holtec International on Monday announced it plans to file construction permits in 2026 to build a pair of small modular reactors at the site of the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which the company hopes to restart in 2025. Notionally to be commissioned as soon as 2030, the two SMR-300 reactors are “likely to be […]

The U.S. and 21 other countries at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai on Saturday agreed to work together on “tripling nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050,” according to a Department of Energy press release. Among other things, including the continued development of new nuclear reactors and encouraging financial organizations to invest in […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has put $7 million in funding up for grabs for nuclear energy programs at U.S. universities, the agency announced this week.  The University Nuclear Research Infrastructure Revitalization grant will account for almost all of this round funding at a single $6-million award, DOE wrote in the release. The […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has put $7 million in funding up for grabs for nuclear energy programs at U.S. universities, the agency announced Wednesday.  The University Nuclear Research Infrastructure Revitalization grant will account for almost all of this round funding at a single $6-million award, DOE wrote in the release. The […]

A House committee on Tuesday sent two nuclear energy bills to the floor, one with workplace reforms for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and another to encourage domestic production of uranium fuel. The first bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, rolls up a number of smaller legislative proposals […]

Holtec International on Monday announced it plans to file construction permits in 2026 to build a pair of small modular reactors at the site of the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which the company hopes to restart in 2025. Notionally to be commissioned as soon as 2030, the two SMR-300 reactors are “likely to be […]

The U.S. and 21 other countries at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai on Saturday agreed to work together on “tripling nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050,” according to a Department of Energy press release. Among other things, including the continued development of new nuclear reactors and encouraging financial organizations to invest in […]

Members of the House and Senate this week kicked off formal negotiations for the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, but they will not consider a package of nuclear policy reforms along with the bill, media reported. A spokesperson for Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.), the author of the reforms, confirmed Friday that they will not be […]

In a hearing Thursday, Nevada’s senior U.S. Senator probed the director of the Idaho National Laboratory for ideas about nuclear waste policies for advanced reactors. In written testimony for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s hearing about commercializing advanced nuclear reactors, John Wagner, laboratory director for Idaho lab prime contractor Battelle Energy Alliance, wrote […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants improvement in emergency response preparation at tank waste pretreatment facility at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions went through a simulated tornado drill last month at the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s onsite […]

Nuclear policy reforms that hitched a ride on an annual must-past defense bill are in trouble in the House, the bill’s sponsor said this week at a meeting of nuclear professionals. “[W]e’ve really hit a stumbling block if not just a whole wall in the House,” Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.) said in a  Monday morning […]

Six small modular reactors that NuScale, Portland, Ore., planned to use in a canceled generation project in the southwestern U.S. could be diverted to another customer, the company’s CEO said Tuesday. “I want to be able to take those modules and move them over to our next customer,” John Hopkins, president and CEO of NuScale, […]

Six small modular reactors that NuScale, Portland, Ore., planned to use in a canceled generation project in the southwestern U.S. could be diverted to another customer, the company’s CEO said Tuesday.  “I want to be able to take those modules and move them over to our next customer,” John Hopkins, president and CEO of NuScale, […]

Nuclear policy reforms that hitched a ride on an annual must-past defense bill are in trouble in the House, the bill’s sponsor said Monday at a meeting of nuclear professionals. “[W]e’ve really hit a stumbling block if not just a whole wall in the House,” Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.) said in a morning speech to […]

The American Nuclear Society’s annual winter meeting began this week in Washington and includes scheduled appearances by U.S. lawmakers, senior federal officials and a NuScale executive who will appear following the cancellation of a small modular reactor project. The American Nuclear Society’s winter meeting was scheduled to run from Monday to Wednesday at the Washington […]

The Nuclear Regulaotory Commission’s inspector general last week issued its annual list of the commission’s biggest regulatory challenges; safe regulation of new and existing nuclear technology and decommissioning oversight topped the list. The top three challenges, in the Inspector General’s own words, are: “1. Ensuring safety and security through risk-informed regulation of established and new […]

The Illinois legislature this week approved legislation that would, if signed, allow for construction of small modular reactors in the state beginning in 2026. Also under the legislation, spent nuclear fuel and waste resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel would no longer be considered high level nuclear waste under Illinois law. The Illinois […]

The Illinois state Senate on Wednesday night approved legislation that would if signed allow for construction of small modular reactors in the state beginning in 2026. Also under the legislation, spent nuclear fuel and waste resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel would no longer be considered high level nuclear waste under Illinois law. […]

The vice president of Holtec’s small modular reactor business is excited about the prospect of developing such units at the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. “The details remain [to be worked out] as far as the exact timing and the financial conditions,” Tom Marcille, vice president and chief nuclear officer at Holtec International SMR, said […]