Advanced Nuclear & SMRs

The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used its bank of high-powered lasers on Dec. 5 to ignite a fusion reaction that produced more energy from a small pellet than the lasers put into the pellet, the lab said. The long-hoped for achievement marked “a new chapter in NNSA’s [National Nuclear Security […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. For those of us still mourning the U.S.’s exit from the World Cup, we can pin our hopes to Morocco, which plays Portugal for a shot at the quarterfinals on Saturday. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian […]

Jacobs, the Dallas-based leader and member of various Department of Energy nuclear contractors, had a good fiscal 2022, with revenue and profit each rising for the year, the company reported Monday. In a call with investors shortly after the earnings report, Jacobs executives said they planned to ride a surge of interest in nuclear power, […]

Dallas-based Jacobs, long involved in both nuclear remediation and nuclear power, plans to tap into the market for new small reactors as a source of carbon-free electric generation, executives said Monday. “Nuclear most recently has been surging with regard to becoming a clean energy transition solution,” Jacobs’ Chair and CEO Steve Demetriou said during a […]

Advanced reactor developer NuScale Power Corp. is still losing money but is otherwise in excellent financial shape, with a $ 268.6 million war chest, short-term investments of $50 million and no debt, NuScale CEO John Hopkins and CFO Chris Colbert said in a teleconference with analysts.  In the third quarter of 2022 that ended Sept. […]

Nuclear waste management should not go overlooked as the U.S. weighs expanding its carbon-free energy market with more nuclear power, one of the newest members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said during an industry conference this week. “Progress on nuclear waste management must keep pace with our renewed efforts to bring more carbon free nuclear […]

Advanced reactor developer NuScale Power Corp. is still losing money but is otherwise in excellent financial shape, with a $ 268.6 million war chest, short-term investments of $50 million and no debt, NuScale CEO John Hopkins and CFO Chris Colbert said in a teleconference with analysts.  In the third quarter of 2022 that ended Sept. […]

Fluor executives said Nov. 4 they are pleased with progress being made on both the business and the regulatory front by small modular reactor developer NuScale, in which Texas-based Fluor remains a majority stakeholder. In September NuScale signed a deal to start development of the first small modular reactor (SMR) in Poland and next year […]

Fluor executives said Friday they are pleased with progress being made on both the business and the regulatory front by small modular reactor developer NuScale, in which Texas-based Fluor remains a majority stakeholder. In September NuScale signed a deal to start development of the first small modular reactor (SMR) in Poland and next year will […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers, happy nuclear science week, and happy Formula One U.S. Grand Prix weekend, for those who celebrate. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week from across the civilian nuclear power space. Industry and government figures this week celebrated Nuclear Science Week […]

An amendment to the Senate’s nearly $900 billion defense budget proposed for the 2023 fiscal year would, if made law, direct the Department of Energy to ensure that the U.S. civilian nuclear fleet can run on domestically-sourced fuel. Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.V.) proposed add to the Senate’s $847 billion version of the National Defense Authorization […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff was in Toronto this week at an international nuclear energy conference where she made the case for building […]

More than a year after President Joe Biden announced the effort, much of the Department of Energy’s weapons complex is struggling to understand the particulars of the Justice40 Initiative if comments Wednesday by nuclear cleanup advisory board chairs are any indication. In broad terms, Justice40 was set up by Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order 14008, […]

More than a year after President Joe Biden announced the effort, much of the Department of Energy’s weapons complex is struggling to understand the particulars of the Justice40 Initiative if comments Wednesday by nuclear cleanup advisory board chairs are any indication. In broad terms, Justice40 was set up by Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order 14008, […]

Holtec International is getting the ball rolling on a construction permit to build one of its proposed advanced nuclear reactors at the site of a former New Jersey nuclear power plant as it aims to be among the first companies to deploy advanced nuclear technologies, the company said Tuesday in a press release.  Holtec, which […]

NuScale Power Corp. is still losing money, but at a slightly lesser pace than last year, according to its latest filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. NuScale leaders’ discussed the latest financial figures with analysts at a Wednesday teleconference. NuScale went public on May 2. For the quarter ending June 30, 2022, NuScale  […]

Nuclear services company NuScale’s advanced reactor design should soon be certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be built in the United States, the agency said in a press release last week. The commission directed its staff to draw up a final rule approving NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) design, first proposed in 2016, according […]

Nuclear services company NuScale’s advanced reactor design should soon be certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be built in the United States, the agency said in a press release last week. The commission directed its staff to draw up a final rule approving NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) design, first proposed in 2016, according […]

The Department of Energy has formalized its plans to build an advanced reactor at one of its national laboratories, the agency said in a press release this week. In a record of decision document, DOE said it would aim to build its Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) at Idaho National Laboratory, the agency said. If Congress […]

The Department of Energy has formalized its plans to build an advanced reactor at one of its national laboratories, the agency said in a press release Wednesday. In a record of decision document, DOE said it would aim to build its Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) at Idaho National Laboratory, the agency said. If Congress appropriates […]

National utility Entergy is considering working with Holtec International to build advanced nuclear reactors at existing generation sites, the nuclear services company announced this week. Entergy and Holtec have entered into a memorandum of agreement under which the utility will “evaluate the feasibility” of deploying small modular reactors (SMRs) at one or more existing sites […]

National utility Entergy is considering working with Holtec International to build advanced nuclear reactors at existing generation sites, the nuclear services company announced Wednesday. Entergy and Holtec have entered into a memorandum of agreement under which the utility will “evaluate the feasibility” of deploying small modular reactors (SMRs) at one or more existing sites within […]

Two of the newest additions to Holtec International’s inventory of former nuclear power plant sites could be good candidates for a future advanced reactor facility, the company said last week. Among the viable proposals for repurposing Michigan’s Palisades and Big Rock Point plants is a plan to build SMR-160 small modular reactors (SMRs) at both […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we wrap up this short week, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Huff discusses DOE priorities at industry conference The Department of Energy’s nuclear power chief laid out her office’s plans for supporting the industry this week during a conference held […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Your RadWaste Monitor reporter took the red-eye back into D.C. last night and is looking forward to a much-needed weekend break — but before that, here are some other stories from this week across the civilian nuclear power space. BWXT secures Project Pele microreactor contract from DOD The Department of Defense’s Strategic […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — One of the biggest challenges facing researchers looking into the advanced nuclear fuel cycle at Idaho National Laboratory is bringing down spent fuel management costs, a lab official said here this week. “It is strategically very important to us to show that, on the advanced reactors program, we are able to close […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — One of the biggest challenges facing researchers looking into the advanced nuclear fuel cycle at Idaho National Laboratory is bringing down spent fuel management costs, a lab official said here this week. “It is strategically very important to us to show that, on the advanced reactors program, we are able to close […]

A small modular reactor developer recently unveiled its first public financial figures, which indicate the company will be in the red for quite a while as it presses ahead with its bid to reshape the nuclear power landscape.   After filing numerous reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in May and late April, NuScale […]

A university report published this week that raised concerns about waste streams from advanced reactors distracts from the larger issues facing nuclear waste management across the globe, a nuclear power expert told RadWaste Monitor this week. “The technical content of the study obfuscates from the fact that waste is predominantly a political rather than a […]

The company behind an advanced reactor design insisted Wednesday that its technology was misrepresented by a scathing university report published earlier this week. NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) design “does not create waste and material streams that are novel to the nuclear power industry,” a spokesperson for the company told Exchange Monitor in a statement […]