Due to the days lost to the government shutdown, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the public comment period for a draft environmental impact statement for the TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility being built in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Small modular reactor developer X-energy and its subsidiary TRISO-X announced yesterday the start of aboveground construction for its TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.  The first-in-the-nation facility will be the first of two Oak Ridge facilities built to manufacture the company’s TRISO fuel for use in its Xe-100 SMR.

Wald

Matt Wald, an independent energy analyst and a writer who contributes to the Breakthrough Institute and has written feature articles for Nuclear News, recently shared his nuclear perspectives in a Zoom talk with Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering ORNL’s scientific goals.

Missed opportunity: Wald, a former reporter for The New York Times and a former policy analyst for the Nuclear Energy Institute, feels that the nuclear industry and community “have committed industrial sin. Nuclear suffered through a long drought, and now it sees terrific demand for its product, and it’s not ready to deliver the needed electricity.”

Here is a recap of recent industry happenings:

ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE

New international partnership to speed Xe-100 SMR deployment

X-energy, Amazon, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, and Doosan Enerbility have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate the deployment of X-energy’s Xe-100 small modular reactors and TRISO fuel in the United States to meet the power demands from data centers and AI. The partners will collaborate in reactor engineering design, supply-chain development, construction planning, investment strategies, long-term operations, and global opportunities for joint AI-nuclear deployment. The companies also plan to jointly mobilize as much as $50 billion in public and private investment to support advanced nuclear energy in the U.S.

Nuclear waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation is asking that the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) consider how spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste will be managed under its strategy for developing advanced nuclear power projects in participating states.

The nuclear regulators of Belgium, Italy, and Romania signed on this week to the first “prelicensing” project under the IAEA’s Nuclear Harmonization and Standardization Initiative (NHSI) during the opening day of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 69th General Conference, pledging to work with the EAGLES Consortium to clarify regulatory requirements for a lead-cooled reactor ahead of formal licensing.

The Nuclear Company, which in April opened its primary engineering and construction office in Columbia, S.C., announced a partnership with the University of South Carolina’s Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing, whereby the company will invest up to $5 million in the college over five years. USC is to match the private investment with funds from federal grants, industry partners, and other donors.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy will hold a webinar on August 27 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EDT) to discuss commercial-scale facility and transportation criticality analyses for the high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel cycle.

Those interested in attending the workshop can register using this link.

Here is a recap of industry happenings from the recent past:

ADVANCED REACTORS MARKETPLACE

SMR service center targeted for Ontario

GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy has announced plans to invest as much as $50 million to establish a Canadian BWRX-300 Engineering and Service Center near Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington New Nuclear Project site. The Ontario government had previously approved the construction of the first of four BWRX-300 small modular reactors at the site. The center will provide engineering and technical services for the long-term operation and maintenance of the future fleet of SMRs in Ontario. It will also serve as a hub for innovation and training, knowledge sharing, supply chain engagement, and workforce development.

BWX Technologies (BWXT) has achieved a key milestone in its project to additively manufacture advanced forms of TRISO fuel for Generation IV advanced nuclear reactors. The Lynchburg Technology Center of subsidiary company BWXT Advanced Technologies, located in Lynchburg, Va., has successfully installed and tested a chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) furnace that solidifies pre-forms that are then filled with TRISO particles, a fuel consisting of carbon and silicon layers surrounding a uranium kernel.

The Department of Energy has announced a program to accelerate nuclear fuel fabrication for new test reactors. The Fuel Line Pilot Program would see the DOE approve facilities developed by U.S. companies to produce the fuel needed for test reactors the DOE expects to authorize under the Reactor Pilot Program announced in June. Like the reactors they’re meant to fuel, the fabrication facilities would be built on sites outside the DOE’s national laboratories but authorized by the DOE under “a fast-tracked approach to enable future commercial licensing activities for potential applicants.”

Burlison

Rep. Eric Burlison (R., Mo.), the chairman of the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, has announced a hearing on “The New Atomic Age: Advancing America’s Energy Future.”

The hearing will take place on Tuesday, July 22, at 1:00 pm (ET). Witnesses include Alex Epstein, president and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, and Joshua Smith, energy policy lead at the Abundance Institute.

Details: According to the chairman’s office, the hearing will explore recent developments in nuclear energy technology, the commercial viability of advanced reactors, supply chain challenges, and policy pathways for Congress to strengthen nuclear power in the United States.

The Idaho National Laboratory has announced that it will collaborate with Microsoft on the use of artificial intelligence technologies to streamline the nuclear permitting and licensing application process. Using Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, INL will generate the engineering and safety analysis reports that are required to be submitted for construction permits and operating licenses for nuclear power plants.

Details of the plan to test new reactor concepts under the Department of Energy’s authority but outside national laboratory boundaries—first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released on May 23—were just released in a request for applications issued by the DOE.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is providing the opportunity to request a hearing on Dow Chemical Company’s application to construct a 320-MWe nuclear power plant at the company’s Seadrift site in Calhoun, Texas. Long Mott Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical, submitted its construction permit application to the NRC in March. It was accepted for review by the agency on May 12.

At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.

The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.^1–3

The Trump administration issued four executive orders on Friday aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment ahead of significant growth in projected energy demand in the coming decades. These orders aim to reclaim leadership in nuclear technology crucial for national security and competitive AI advancements.