NRC to discuss proposed fusion regulations

October 6, 2023, 9:30AMNuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on October 4 made available preliminary proposed rule language for the licensing and regulation fusion energy systems. The proposed rulemaking, which would amend parts 20, 30, and 51 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, would provide a limited-scope, technology-inclusive regulatory framework for a broad array of fusion systems currently under development.

2023 ANS Winter Conference and Expo coming to Washington, D.C.

October 6, 2023, 7:00AMANS News

The American Nuclear Society’s largest and most anticipated annual event, the Winter Conference and Expo, will take place November 12–15 at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.

This year’s theme is “Maintaining the Momentum,” which suits nuclear energy’s current moment in the spotlight. In the last few years, public investment in both new and existing nuclear technology has expanded alongside a rise in public support and acceptance. Now is the perfect time for the nuclear industry to seize this momentum by coming together to maintain current nuclear plants, expand the nuclear workforce, strengthen supply chains and infrastructure, increase public and private sector investments, and continue to advocate for the benefits of nuclear power.

SRS employees use novel training exercise to align waste mission

October 5, 2023, 3:02PMRadwaste Solutions
Ray Tran, an engineer for Savannah River tank farms, helps complete a timeline of SRS historical events as part of SRMC’s vision casting training initiative. (Photo: DOE)

More than 3,000 employees with Department of Energy contractor Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) participated in a vision casting initiative, learning more about the past, present, and future of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste mission.

Cavendish Nuclear announces its new board

October 5, 2023, 12:00PMNuclear News
From left, Rand Fisher, Cavendish Nuclear board member; Terry Michalske, board member; Rick Provencher, Cavendish Nuclear USA vice president; Bill Ostendorff, board chairman; and Michael Bond, board member. (Photo: Cavendish Nuclear USA)

Cavendish Nuclear (USA) Inc., a U.S.-incorporated, wholly owned subsidiary of Babcock International Group, has recently appointed its corporate board of directors and held its first board meeting at corporate headquarters in Arlington, Va.

With reactor gone, Halden project lives on in human factors research

October 5, 2023, 9:30AMNuclear NewsPaul Menser

When Norway’s Halden research reactor shut down in 2018, nuclear researchers around the world were forced to scramble. For 60 years, the Halden Reactor Project offered a 25-MWt boiling water reactor for research where scientists could expand their understanding of nuclear fuel reliability, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.

ANS congratulates Mehdi Sarram on 60 years of membership

October 4, 2023, 3:14PMANS News
ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy presented a certificate commemorating Sarram’s 60 years as an ANS member.

The American Nuclear Society is pleased to celebrate Mehdi Sarram on the 60th anniversary of his membership. He joined the Society in 1963 when he was an undergraduate in nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan and has since served the nuclear energy industry as a nuclear engineer, reactor operator, professor, and mentor. Over the years, Sarram has been active in several local ANS sections and has made remarkable contributions to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including bringing Iran’s first nuclear reactor to full power.

U.K. picks six to advance in SMR competition

October 4, 2023, 12:08PMNuclear News

The U.K. government has chosen six companies to participate in the next stage of its small modular reactor competition: EDF, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Holtec Britain Limited, NuScale Power, Rolls-Royce SMR (the only real home team), and Westinghouse Electric Company UK Limited. According to the government’s October 2 announcement, the advanced technologies offered by these firms are “the most able to deliver operational SMRs by the mid-2030s.”

DOE-EM lacks clear view of operating costs, GAO says

October 4, 2023, 9:51AMRadwaste Solutions

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for the cleanup of 15 nuclear sites across the country, lacks a clear understanding of its costs for work not directly related to site cleanup, hampering the department’s ability to prioritize competing funding needs, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

NCSU’s advanced research reactor study to be funded by state

October 4, 2023, 7:01AMNuclear News

North Carolina’s fiscal year 2024 budget for the state has allocated $3 million for North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, to conduct a study to assess the feasibility for the establishment of an advanced nuclear research reactor.

New TRIGA fuel delivered to a U.S. university reactor for the first time in a decade

October 3, 2023, 3:22PMNuclear News
The TRIGA shipment was received September 27. (Photo: Kate Myers/Penn State)

Penn State’s Radiation Science and Engineering Center (RSEC) has received the first new TRIGA fuel shipped to the United States since 2012, the university announced on September 28. The fuel reached University Park, Pa., on September 27 and is destined for RSEC’s Breazeale Reactor, the nation’s longest continuously operating university research reactor.

Texas kicks off effort to make state a leader in new nuclear

October 3, 2023, 12:04PMNuclear News
PUCT commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty leads the discussion at the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group’s first public meeting, on September 28. (Image: PUCT)

The Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group—formed recently by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott—hosted its first public meeting last Thursday to discuss the group’s organizational structure and outline a plan to turn Texas into a national leader in the use of advanced nuclear energy.

NRC okays license transfers for Energy Harbor plants

October 3, 2023, 7:00AMNuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the transfer of the operating licenses for four reactors and their associated spent fuel storage facilities from Energy Harbor Nuclear Corporation to Vistra Operations Company, the agency announced September 29.

Crews demolish second legacy Oak Ridge reactor lab

October 2, 2023, 3:00PMRadwaste Solutions
The Low Intensity Test Reactor structure is lifted from its housing and placed in a specialized carbon metal container for shipment for disposal. (Photo: DOE)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced it has completed a second of its 2023 priorities at Oak Ridge in as many months with the demolition of the Low Intensity Test Reactor, known as Building 3005, at the Tennessee site.

Watch a video of Building 3005 and its decommissioning here.

DOE-EM awards cleanup grants and cooperative agreements

October 2, 2023, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
Workers remove contaminated sediment from the SRS in South Carolina. A $19 million DOE grant will support state monitoring of the site. (Photo: DOE)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has awarded nearly $54 million in noncompetitive financial assistance grants and cooperative agreements to help support the office’s cleanup program. DOE-EM is responsible for environmental legacy cleanup of the effects of decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research.

Vogtle-2 okayed for ATF enriched to 6 percent

October 2, 2023, 7:01AMNuclear News

Southern Nuclear last Friday announced that its Vogtle Unit 2 reactor has become the first U.S. commercial reactor to be authorized by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to use accident tolerant fuel exceeding 5 percent uranium-235 enrichment.

National Museum of Nuclear Science and History explores “atomic” culture

September 29, 2023, 12:06PMNuclear News
Comic books and cartoon characters began to be used to provide information and propaganda about nuclear weapons and energy in the 1940s. Items in the exhibition include True Comics #47 (1946), Bert the Turtle Says Duck and Cover (1951), The Mighty Atom, Starring Reddy Kilowatt (1959), and The H-Bomb and You (1955). (Photo: National Museum of Nuclear Science and History)

For many of us, the toys of our childhood leave indelible marks on our consciousness, affecting our long-term perceptions and attitudes about certain things. Hot Wheels may inspire a lifelong fascination with fast, flashy automobiles, while Barbies might shape ideas about beauty and self-­image. For the generation who grew up during the Atomic Age—the post–World War II era from roughly the mid-1940s to the early 1960s—the toys, games, and entertainment of their childhoods might have included things like atomic pistols, atomic trains, rings with tiny amounts of radioactive elements, and comic books, puzzles, and music about nuclear weapons.

Canada commits to C$3 billion for CANDU project in Romania

September 29, 2023, 9:28AMNuclear News
Romania’s Cernavoda Units 1 and 2. (Photo: Nuclearelectrica)

Canada will provide C$3 billion (about $2.2 billion) in export financing to Romania’s nuclear operator, Nuclearelectrica, in support of Canadian participation in the project to complete Units 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda nuclear plant, Canadian minister of energy Jonathan Wilkinson announced last week.