Hash Hashemian
president@ans.org

In November, I flew to Paris, France, to speak at the World Nuclear Exposition. This wasn’t my first time at WNE, but it’s safe to say that the 2025 Expo was markedly different from years past. Excitement was palpable, and attendance was high—there were more than 25,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors. This enthusiasm reflects the growing nuclear momentum across Europe.

My opening remarks at the expo spotlighted the similar nuclear momentum on this side of the Atlantic, focusing on the recent strides made by both U.S. industry and government. I also highlighted the key challenges we still face: namely, workforce development, supply chains, fuel, and financing.

Pfluger

Levin

Rep. Mike Levin (D., Calif.) and Rep. August Pfluger (R., Texas) are urging Energy Secretary Chris Wright to establish a safe, effective, and long-term management program for spent nuclear fuel. In a January 15 letter to Wright, the two U.S. representatives asked the DOE to “break the current impasse over nuclear waste and develop a workable solution that encourages state collaboration.”

The letter was sent ahead of the DOE’s anticipated release of a new report that will recommend an updated national policy on spent nuclear fuel, as directed in Executive Order 14302, “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base.”

The past few years have seen a concerted effort from many U.S. states to encourage nuclear development. The momentum behind nuclear-friendly policies has grown considerably, with many states repealing moratoriums, courting nuclear developers and suppliers, and in some cases creating advisory groups and road maps to push deployment of new nuclear reactors.

Nuclear power in space is back in the news for the second time this week as microreactor start-up Nano Nuclear has released a request for information to identify organizations that may support the company in the development of its Loki micro modular reactor. The company’s goal is eventual deployment of Loki on the lunar surface.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have developed a multiphysics simulation modeling tool to predict how feedwater heater (FWH) tubes in a nuclear power plant break down over time. The model, which has the potential to improve maintenance schedules and save operating costs at nuclear facilities, is described in a paper titled “Numerical Analysis with Experimental Validation of Tube Fatigue Failure in Feedwater Heaters,” published in a recent issue of Engineering Failure Analysis.

A uranium enrichment monitor developed by a team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will soon be undergoing testing for nonproliferation applications at the International Atomic Energy Agency Centre of Excellence for Safeguards and Non-Proliferation in the United Kingdom. A recent PNNL news article describes how the research team, led by nuclear physicist James Ely, who works within the lab’s National Security Directorate, developed the UF₆ gas enrichment sensor (UGES) prototype for treaty verification and other purposes.

Today, a bipartisan group of experts including energy consultant Lake Barrett and former NRC chair Allison Macfarlane have published a report titled The Path Forward for Nuclear Waste in the U.S.

The report recommends a new solution for managing domestic nuclear waste—one that centers around the foundation of an independent corporation led by reactor owners. Responsibility for waste management transport, storage, and disposal would be managed by this corporation rather than the Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the establishment of the Center for Used Fuel Research (CUFR), to be hosted at the Idaho National Laboratory and focused on spent nuclear fuel performance, canister aging, and the fostering of innovation and collaboration.

According to the DOE, the CUFR is designed to be a national and international hub for applied research that supports and maintains compliance and advances public confidence in the safe storage and transportation of both commercial and DOE-managed spent fuel.

In June of last year, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on the New York Power Authority—the state's public power utility—to add at least 1 GW of new capacity to the electrical grid through the construction of an advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York to support the state’s decarbonization goals.

It was good news for the nuclear community, to be sure, but in Hochul's State of the State address in Albany earlier this week, she made that objective sound almost unambitious.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported that, to date, 14 countries have made 14 transfers of disused radium to be recycled for use in advanced cancer treatments under the agency’s Global Radium-226 Management Initiative. Through this initiative, which was launched in 2021, legacy radium-226 from decades-old medical and industrial sources is used to produce actinium-225 radiopharmaceuticals, which have shown effectiveness in the treatment of patients with breast and prostate cancers and certain other cancers.