2024: The Year in Nuclear—October through December
Another calendar year has passed. Before heading too far into 2025, let’s look back at what happened in 2024 in the nuclear community. In today's post, compiled from Nuclear News and Nuclear Newswire are what we feel are the top nuclear news stories from October through December 2024.
October
Google and Kairos Power partner on 500-MW project
Kairos Power and Google have announced a new power purchase agreement to provide the tech giant with 500 MW of clean energy by 2035. Under the October agreement, California-based Kairos Power will develop, construct, and operate a series of advanced reactor plants and sell energy, ancillary services, and environmental benefits to Google.
UMich leads Space Force institute on hybrid nuclear power and propulsion concept
Seeking spacecraft that can “maneuver without regret,” the U.S. Space Force has invested $35 million in a national research team led by the University of Michigan to develop a spacecraft with an onboard microreactor to produce electricity, with some of that electricity used for propulsion. But this spacecraft would not be solely dependent on nuclear electric propulsion—it would also feature a conventional chemical rocket to increase thrust when needed.
The H9 Hall thruster. (Photo: William Hurley/University of Michigan)
The Space Power and Propulsion for Agility, Responsiveness, and Resilience (SPAR) Institute brings eight universities and 14 industry partners—including Ultra Safe Nuclear as reactor developer—and advisors together for what UMich in October called “one of the nation’s largest efforts to advance space power and propulsion” in the service of national defense and space exploration.
Amazon investing in X-energy to deploy 5 GW by 2039
Tech giant Amazon is partnering with Dominion Energy and X-energy to develop and deploy 5 GW of nuclear energy to power needs across the country over the next 15 years. Together with billionaire Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel (one of the world’s leading alternative investment firms), the company announced it is backing a $500 million investment in X-energy’s high temperature gas reactor technology.
DOE to award $900 million for milestone-based SMR deployment projects
The DOE opened the application process for up to $900 million in cost-shared funding to support the initial domestic deployment of LWRs generating about 300 MWe that the DOE calls Gen III+ SMRs.
Texas SNF storage case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court
Concept art of ISP’s proposed interim storage facility in West Texas. (Image: ISP)
The U.S. Supreme Court on October 4 agreed to hear a case over whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the authority to license a spent nuclear fuel storage facility away from a nuclear reactor. The case involves a planned consolidated interim storage facility for commercial SNF in Andrews County, Texas, licensed by Interim Storage Partners, a joint venture of Waste Control Specialists and Orano USA. Following lawsuits by the state of Texas and oil and gas industry groups, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated ISP’s NRC-granted license for the facility in 2023, a decision that was upheld on appeal in March 2024. ISP and the NRC subsequently petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case. In granting the petition, the Supreme Court consolidated ISP’s and the NRC’s cases into one case, which is scheduled to be argued before the court on March 5.
U.S. Navy soliciting ideas for nuclear energy
The Department of the Navy, which comprises both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, issued a request for information this week on potential deployment of clean energy generation on underutilized military lands. While lacking in specifics and pitched as a general information request, the RFI says installation reliance is a top priority for the DON to achieve full resilience and operational continuity.
DOE hits milestones in pursuit of a commercial HALEU supply chain
Almost four years after the HALEU Availability Program was authorized, the DOE got important pieces of that program across the finish line in October, announcing six HALEU deconversion awardees and four enrichment awardees (two companies were picked for both enrichment and deconversion).
The DOE announced its deconversion contracts on October 8, naming six companies to transform enriched uranium hexafluoride to other chemical forms, including metal or oxide, for storage before it is fabricated into fuel for advanced reactors: Centrus Energy, Orano USA, BWX Technologies, Framatome, GE Vernova, and Westinghouse.
Nine days later, the DOE announced the awardees of four contracts for enrichment services with a potential future value of $2.7 billion: Centrus subsidiary American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, Orano Federal Services, and Urenco USA’s Louisiana Energy Services.
Both the deconversion and the enrichment contracts amount to an initial round of contracting, and the selected companies must compete for specific task orders.
November
U.S. unveils road map to triple nuclear capacity by 2050
As the United Nations’ COP29 climate summit kicked off, President Biden’s administration laid out plans to add 200 GW of nuclear power in the next 25 years through a combination of new reactor deployment, plant restarts, and upgrades at existing sites. The added capacity would triple the nation’s current nuclear capacity, which stands at around 100 GW.
The new U.S. road map—Safely and Responsibly Expanding U.S. Nuclear Energy: Deployment Targets and a Framework for Action—calls the deployment goals “ambitious but achievable,” including a short-term plan to jumpstart the domestic industry, adding 35 GW of nuclear capacity by 2035.
NRC okays construction permits for Hermes 2 test facility
Concept art of the Hermes 2 facility. (Image: Kairos Power)
The NRC announced on November 20 that it would issue construction permits to Kairos Power for the company’s proposed Hermes 2 nonpower test reactor facility, to be built at the Heritage Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The permits authorize Kairos to build a facility with two 35-MWt test reactors that would use molten salt to cool the reactor cores.
The NRC completed the permitting process in less than 18 months. The Hermes 2 facility would include a power generation system shared by two reactors.
Kairos Power marked the start of construction of its single-unit low-power demonstration reactor named Hermes on July 30, on a site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., that was formerly home to the K-33 Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
Site selected for Canada’s spent fuel repository
Ontario’s Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation indicated in November its willingness to host a geologic repository. (Photo: NWMO)
Concluding a nearly 15-year consent-based process, Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), the not-for-profit organization responsible for managing Canada’s nuclear waste, selected Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the township of Ignace in northwestern Ontario as the host communities for the Canada’s deep geologic repository to hold the country’s SNF. The NWMO made the site selection announcement on November 28. (Turn to Waste Management, page 78, for more.)
FERC rejects Talen-Amazon deal
FERC denied a request that would have allowed Talen Energy to supply additional on-site power to an Amazon Web Services’ data center campus from the neighboring Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. The regional PJM grid operator filed for an amended interconnection service agreement on behalf of the companies to facilitate expanded power sales—increasing from 300 MW to 480 MW—directly to AWS. Opponents of the plan argued that such a deal could threaten grid reliability and raise customer rates. In its 2-1 ruling, FERC said the parties did not make a strong enough case to prove why a special contract allowing for expanded “behind-the-meter” power sales should be allowed in this instance.
LANL’s Deimos—the first critical experiment with HALEU fuel in over 20 years
Assembly of the Deimos experiment. (Photo: LANL)
Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have performed a critical experiment using HALEU TRISO fuel—the nation’s first criticality safety experiment using HALEU fuel in more than 20 years. On November 21, LANL announced the work of its Deimos team, which earlier in the year carried out an experiment at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC), operated by LANL at the Nevada National Security Site.
LANL researchers described Deimos as a HALEU--fueled and graphite-moderated advanced reactor test bed. The Deimos experiment ties into a larger effort between the DOE and the NRC to gather new design- and safety-related data on the use, storage, and transportation of HALEU.
Serbia lifts nuclear moratorium after 35 years
Serbia’s National Assembly has approved legislation that overturns the nation’s decades-old moratorium on nuclear power plants as the nation looks to reduce pollution. Minister of mining and energy Dubravka Đedovic´ Handanovic´ posted on social media after the November 27 vote, “History has been written today. Many will inherit what has been done today!”
The ban was imposed in former Yugoslavia several years after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, but Serbia is now looking for cleaner energy solutions and to align with European Union standards.
December
Meta seeks nuclear power for AI, data center support
Technology giant Meta issued a request for proposals from nuclear developers to support its AI innovation and sustainability objectives. The company, parent of social media site Facebook, is targeting 1–4 GW of nuclear generation capacity in the United States.
The company, which is taking an open approach with its request to enable partnerships across the industry, hopes to partner with a nuclear developer who will ultimately permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate the power plants.
DOE names six enrichment companies for LEU contracts
The DOE announced on December 10 that it has selected six companies to supply low-enriched uranium from new domestic enrichment sources under future contracts for up to 10 years. The six companies are: Centrus Energy’s American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, Global Laser Enrichment, Laser Isotope Separation Technologies (LIS Technologies), Orano Federal Services, and Urenco USA’s Louisiana Energy Services. All contracts will last for up to 10 years with each awardee receiving a minimum contract of $2 million and a total cumulative contract ceiling of $3.4 billion, as described in a request for proposals released in June.
Matthew Marzano confirmed as newest NRC commissioner
Matthew Marzano, a former ANS Congressional Fellow, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 12 as a commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after being nominated in July. His confirmation restores the NRC to full capacity with five commissioners, including chair Christopher T. Hanson. See page 68 for more information.
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