Oklo announced this week it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power to collaborate for future advanced nuclear projects.
Under the MOU, the two companies plan to explore opportunities to jointly progress the standard design development and verification of Oklo’s planned Aurora Powerhouse, according to Oklo’s Tuesday press release.
The two companies also plan to work together on early-stage project development efforts, including manufacturing of significant equipment, developing a supply chain for balance plant systems and feasibility assessments, Oklo said.
Amentum and a joint venture partner have been awarded a contract by Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning to deliver safety case management for the nation’s nuclear cleanup program.
The contract awarded to Amentum and partner Multiconsult Norge AS is focused on delivering a new approach for safety cases for new design and existing legacy nuclear facilities, according to Amentum’s Tuesday press release.
The contract will cover the work at Norway’s national waste repository and two research sites. The value of the contract was not listed in the press release. The two companies have been working for the Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning, a government agency, to help develop a decommissioning strategy since 2022, Amentum said.
The Department of Energy and Idaho National Laboratory are seeking partners for its Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) project.
The goal of the MARVEL project is to build a 100 kilowatt fission reactor for researchers to to gain operational experience with a functional microreactor to advance technical maturity and prepare new microreactor applicants, said the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy.
Prospective partners are offered the opportunity to work with the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy and INL in leveraging its MARVEL microreactor project to evaluate microreactors, according to the System of Award Management (SAM) website.
NuScale has received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to increase its power module small reactor design to 77 megawatts.
The company applied in January 2023 to uprate its SMR design from 50 MWe per module to 77 MWe per module and it was accepted for NRC review in July 2023. NuScale said it is still on track for deployment by 2030.
NuScale’s design certification application for a plant that can hold up to 12 power modules was initially approved by the NRC in 2017, making it the first company to receive a design approval from the regulatory agency, according to the company’s Thursday press release.
