The State of Texas has not one but two ongoing federal court challenges to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that could, if successful, turn decades of NRC regulations, precedent, and case law on its head.

Here’s a look at some recent announcements from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Summer SLR: The NRC this month published its final environmental impact statement for Summer Unit 1’s subsequent license renewal application. Dubbed a supplemental EIS, the report is an important step in determining if Dominion Energy can continue operating its 966-MWe Westinghouse pressurized water reactor unit for an additional 20 years beyond August 6, 2042, the current end of its license.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted Dow’s construction permit application to build an X-energy small modular reactor in Seadrift, Texas.

Utah-based EnergySolutions announced that it is working with Milwaukee-based utilities company WEC Energy Group to explore new nuclear generation in Wisconsin and will begin efforts to pursue an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the closed Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin.

Recent testing of a monitoring well in Minnesota near the Mississippi River detected tritium levels just below the safety standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, Xcel Energy reported this week.

North Carolina State University has completed a feasibility study for its planned advanced research and test reactor. The $3 million study, which was undertaken by the university at the direction of the North Carolina General Assembly, is described in the full report and includes recommendations and projected costs and timelines.

Reactor type: NC State prefers the new reactor to be of “a multipurpose advanced sodium-cooled mixed/coupled spectrum design,” according to the report. Such a design would make the reactor “the only sodium-cooled fast research and test reactor in the country.”

Spirits were high last month when a ribbon cutting was held at the University of Missouri for a $20 million, three-story, 47,000-square-foot addition, dubbed MURR West, to the MURR research reactor facilities.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced that it will prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) to ensure National Environmental Policy Act compliance for the administration’s production of plutonium pits. The NNSA is inviting the public to participate in the PEIS process and to comment on the scope, environmental issues, and alternatives for consideration in drafting the document.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding an in-person open house on Thursday, May 15, to discuss the 2024 safety performance of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia.

Some people are born leaders, and some people make themselves leaders. Take Natalie Cannon, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has been driven to succeed since she was a teenager in Southern California, when she was inspired by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.