Kärnfull Next submitted Sweden’s first small modular reactor (SMR) application this week under the country’s new legislation, Act of Government Approval of Nuclear Facilities.
The application, which was submitted by ReFirm Målma AB, covers a proposed SMR campus in Valdemarsvik in southern Sweden and was submitted to Johan Britz, Minister for Employment and acting Minister for Climate and the Environment, according to the company’s Monday press release.
Kärnfull Next said the Valdemarsvik SMR project is a part of Kärnfull Next’s ReFirm South program, a portfolio of locations being evaluated and developed for additional SMRs to be deployed across the southern region of Sweden.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) inquired about the possibility of the deployment of microreactors in Alaska amid growing energy demands for civil and military purposes at a Senate hearing last week.
During the March 19 Senate Energy and Natural Resources, Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish and Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner told the Alaska lawmaker that microreactors are being considered as a long-term solution for power at Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. Wagner said fuel fabrication capability will be pivotal to address for the initial demonstration microreactors.
“These are ideal solutions for Alaska,” Garrish told Murkowski. “What we need now are opportunities to demonstrate them there. For many remote communities, microreactors could be transformative – eliminating the need to transport diesel while providing reliable, long-term, and cost-effective power. That’s where we should be focused.”
The Department of Energy will relocate its Washington, D.C. headquarters from the James V. Forrestal Building to the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) building, which currently houses the Department of Education.
That is according to a Thursday announcement from DOE and the General Services Administration. The Education Department, which has undergone significant cuts under the Donald Trump administration, will be moving to small quarters, the Associated Press reported.
Relocation of DOE should save taxpayers $350 million, according to the Thursday release. All DOE Forrestal staff will be reassigned to LBJ, DOE Germantown Campus, Portals, or 950 L’Enfant. The release did not list a projected date for the relocation. In a memo to DOE staff, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said a “town hall” will soon be scheduled to discuss the issues with staff.
Deep Isolation has completed a Department of Energy-funded project for its nuclear waste disposal technology for high-level radioactive waste from advanced reactor fuel recycling.
In the Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS) project titled Enabling the Near Term Commercialization of an Electrorefining Facility to Close the Metal Fuel Cycle, Deep Isolation said the analysis “confirmed that nuclear waste streams partitioned through the Argonne-baseline electrorefining process are compatible with deep borehole disposal, demonstrating a safe and practical pathway for permanent isolation.”
This ONWARDS program was led by Oklo with Deep Isolation, Argonne and Idaho National Laboratories. ONWARDS is a project funded under DOE’s Advanced Research Agency–Energy.