The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is developing a generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) for small-scale advanced reactor designs. Just how small a reactor must be to fit the parameters of the GEIS is one topic open for public comment, but the NRC staff anticipates including reactors generating up to 30 MWt. The public comment period is open until June 30
Modeling the change: Commissioner Wright leads by example as the NRC faces its future
There is a modern-day parable that NRC commissioner David Wright likes to reflect on from time to time, the story of a janitor on a mission. On a visit to NASA in the 1960s, or so the story...
Insights from the NRC’s Annie Caputo
In a one-on-one interview with the American Nuclear Society’s chief executive officer/executive director Craig Piercy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission commissioner Annie Caputo shared her...
Terrestrial Energy looks at EnergySolutions-owned sites for IMSR plants
Advanced reactor developer Terrestrial Energy and Utah-based waste management company EnergySolutions announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the siting and...
New work for old FLiBe? DOE considers reuse of molten salt reactor coolant
FLiBe—a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride—is not an off-the-shelf commodity. The Department of Energy suspects that researchers and reactor developers may have a use for...
Proposed rule for more flexible licensing under Part 53 is open for comment
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a proposed rule that has been almost five years in the making: Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors....
Insights from the DOME draft EA on EBR-II’s second life as a reactor test bed
On October 8, the Department of Energy’s Idaho Operations Office released the draft environmental assessment (EA) Demonstration of Microreactor Experiment (DOME) Test Bed Operations. The...
NRC seeks presentations for virtual workshop on advanced reactor SNF
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking for presentation proposals for a virtual workshop on the storage and transportation of TRISO and metal spent nuclear fuels for advanced reactor...
Remembering ANS President John Kelly
John Kelly, ANS past president (2018–19), passed away peacefully in his sleep on October 3, 2024, in Gilbert Ariz., at the age of 70. Kelly was born on March 9, 1954, and was the eldest of...
The DOE picks six HALEU deconverters. What have we learned?
The Department of Energy announced contracts yesterday for six companies to perform high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) deconversion and to transform enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to...
Liftoff report lifts the lid on cost and risk in push to nth-of-a-kind reactors
The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear report that was released in March 2023 by the Department of Energy called for five to 10 signed reactor contracts for at least one reactor...
