The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received an application from Westinghouse this week that seeks to update and renew its AP1000 reactor design certification to support fleet-scale deployment.
The Westinghouse application incorporates lessons learned from the construction of Vogtle 3 and 4 units into the design control documentation and uses Vogtle Unit 4 as its standard AP1000 reference point, according to NRC’s Monday press release. Vogtle Unit 3 and 4 were completed in 2023 and 2024.
NRC said the application looks to establish a streamlined licensing process for AP1000 reactors for future applicants to use, which could lead to accelerated licensing approvals, lower costs and more reactors built. The agency is evaluating the application to determine if it is complete and acceptable for review.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing has issued a conditional loan for up to $263 million to help fund construction of SHINE Chrysalis’s medical isotope facility in Janesville, Wis.
DOE said in a Thursday press release the SHINE Chrysalis facility will use nuclear fission and fusion technology to establish a domestic commercial supply of molybdenum-99. This medical isotope is used for diagnostic imaging. Its decay product of technetium-99m is used for over 40,000 medical procedures domestically each day, DOE said.
“The SHINE Chrysalis project is vital to improving the nuclear supply chain and contributing to a strong next-generation nuclear workforce while on-shoring this critical production and improving national security,” DOE Office of Energy Dominance Financing Director Gregory Beard said. “Using EDF’s loan authority to further commercialize a project long supported by DOE is Trump’s policy at work: ensuring a reliable and secure domestic supply chain while lowering costs.”
The Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) said Wednesday it picked Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana as potential locations for nuclear microreactors.
The decision comes under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program (ANPI), a partnership between the Air Force and DIU to deploy “advanced, contractor-owned and operated nuclear microreactors” on Air Force installations, specifically to partner with commercial reactor companies and have them “site, license, construct, operate and decommission” microreactors.
Malmstrom Air Force Base is also one of three bases that siloes Boeing’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the land-based leg of the nation’s nuclear triad. Construction of the site to prepare the silos for Northrop Grumman’s Sentinel ICBM, which will replace Minuteman III, is set to begin this summer.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) signed legislation to repeal the state’s 40-year ban on constructing nuclear reactors this week.
The law, S3870/A4528, also enables the launch of New Jersey’s nuclear task force, created through an executive action from Sherrill in January. The state’s nuclear moratorium was originally put in place due to the United States failing to license a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel.
“New Jersey is well-positioned to be a leader in next-generation nuclear energy to help bring that supply, and we are open for business,” Sherrill said in a Wednesday press release. “By lifting outdated barriers and bringing together leaders across government, industry, and labor, we’re setting the stage for our state to pursue new advanced nuclear power.”
Former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff has been named chair of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, the university said Monday.
Huff will succeed Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering Paul Wilson as the department chair starting July 1, the university said in a press release.
Huff led DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy from 2022 to 2024 during the Joe Biden administration. The former DOE Office of Nuclear Energy official currently works as an associate professor of nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering at the University of Illinois. She will return to University of Wisconsin-Madison after earning her PhD in nuclear engineering at the university in 2013.