The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy turned its attention to nuclear permitting reform at a June 9 hearing—looking at a total of six proposals.

The Department of Energy has released what it is calling a “finalized” national strategy to accelerate the development and commercialization of fusion energy, with the goal of scaling up the private fusion sector by the mid-2030s.

Released on June 9, the Fusion Science and Technology (FS&T) Roadmap builds on an earlier road map document the DOE released in October 2025, which itself echoed plans issued by the DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences in 2023 and 2024.

According to the DOE, this finalized road map brings together fusion science, technology, infrastructure, workforce development, and commercialization priorities into a single national strategy, outlining how the DOE, industry, universities, and national laboratories will work together to accelerate the path toward U.S. commercial fusion energy.

The applications of nuclear energy extend beyond providing power to the electrical grid. Advanced nuclear technologies may soon have new applications in oil and gas facilities, in hospitals and clinics, on the open seas, and on the moon.

A June 1 executive session, “How Nuclear Technologies will Shape the Future Energy Economy,” at the American Nuclear Society’s Annual Conference allowed experts have an open discussion on the future of nuclear advancements in multiple sectors.

Leveraging more than $140 million in private capital fundraising, over 322,000 square feet of operational manufacturing space, and multifaceted partnerships with the Departments of Energy and Defense, reactor start-up Antares has become the first company involved in the Reactor Pilot Program to achieve zero-power fueled criticality—a full month ahead of the July 4 deadline set by President Trump’s Executive Order 14301.

This milestone, announced yesterday, was achieved with the company’s Mark-0, a forerunner to the R1, which is the company’s flagship design. The R1 is a sodium heat-pipe-cooled, TRISO-fueled microreactor. The Mark 0 is distinct from the R1 in that it is configured for zero-power criticality testing and as such is equipped with neither power conversion nor heat removal systems.

For Antares, this development represents a key validation of its reactor physics, control systems, and supply chain.

Two companies specializing in ultrasonic nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring are to advance to the final phase of a selection process to demonstrate acoustic emission technologies for the automated monitoring of spent nuclear fuel dry storage canisters.

Nuclear start-ups Oklo and Flibe Energy both announced this week that they have been selected by the Department of Energy for advanced negotiations under the department’s Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, which aims to make surplus U.S. plutonium available to the nuclear industry for advanced reactor fuels.

According to multiple reports, three other companies—Exodys Energy, Shine Technologies, and Standard Nuclear—have also been selected for advanced negotiations under the program, which is being led by the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. Former RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the April 24 meeting with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C and the overall importance of risk-informed, performance-based (RIPB) design principles.

This Saturday, May 23, will mark one year since President Trump issued four executive orders (EOs) that sought to implement sweeping changes across the U.S. nuclear industry. From regulatory reform at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to new authorization projects at the Departments of Energy and Defense, the orders sent ripples throughout the industry.

A report by the Government Accountability Office has shown that the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management continues to face significant staffing shortages since the GAO first reported on the problem in 2024. This includes a shortage in workers considered critical to carrying out the office’s mission of cleaning up radioactive waste from decades of nuclear weapons production and research.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced last week that it has transferred 1.7 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium from Japan to the United States.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted Radiant Industries’ 10 CFR Part 70 license application for its R-50 microreactor production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and will launch an expedited review that it is aiming to complete within eight months.

According to NRC documents, the agency expects to complete its review of the license application by December 18, 2026. The timeline is described as “accelerated” in the NRC announcement—about 55 percent faster than the typical 18 months for Part 70 application reviews.

Today, commercial microreactors are common in the marketplace of nuclear ideas. Dozens of companies are vying for their designs to reach scaled deployment to meet surging energy demand.

However, the term “microreactor” didn’t appear in Nuclear News until 2019, when the Department of Defense popularized it (in a nuclear context) in the early days of what would become Project Pele. Even before then, however, all the way back in 2005, Toshiba was developing the 4S (Super-Safe, Small, and Simple), a 30-MWt, pool-type reactor designed for remote locations with small grids. Once sealed and delivered, the reactor would run for 30 years with no refueling. If the word “microreactor” had been in use then, the 4S would certainly have been categorized as such.

The Department of Energy announced a 10-year project agreement with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) to advance research on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator.

“This agreement reflects our deep commitment to international partnerships that accelerate progress in fusion energy,” said Jean Paul Allain, director of the Office of Fusion at the DOE. “The collaboration between the United States and IPP on W7-X has been extraordinarily productive for more than 20 years already, and this agreement pushes us forward into the next decade and beyond.”

As the United States faces surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, and a push to bring manufacturing back home, Idaho National Laboratory is leading an effort to modernize and expand the nation’s nuclear power capabilities by revamping the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program.

Oklo announced a new partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Nvidia to perform AI-enabled research on nuclear infrastructure and fuel.

The partnership is focused on exploring plutonium-bearing fuels, including the development of science-based AI models to support fuel validation and materials science and fabrication research and development. The team will also be exploring the development of nuclear-powered AI computing centers at LANL.

Claiming the Department of Energy is backing away from commitments made in a 2023 settlement agreement with the state, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) is proposing revisions to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant operating permit. The revisions would prioritize the disposal of waste generated in New Mexico at WIPP, including legacy radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Reactor Innovation Center have announced their first selections for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad: three companies developing microreactors and one developing fuel supply.

The four companies—Deployable Energy, General Matter, NuCube Energy, and Radiant Industries—were selected from the initial pool of Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program applicants, the two precursor programs to the launch pad.

Three research groups are reporting fusion-related developments, including ongoing work toward spin-polarized fusion, a new plasma diagnostic tool heading to the National Ignition Facility, and a materials science project that could impact the design of inertial confinement fusion fuel targets.

Orano USA announced on April 22 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) outlining their cooperative relationship to support the construction of Project Ike, Orano’s planned $5 billion centrifuge uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The Department of Energy is asking for industry input on the United States’ readiness to produce “up to four space reactors within five years,” according to a request for information that opened on Tuesday.

With a quick turnaround—the deadline for responses is May 5—the RFI asks for an assessment of gaps or challenges related to reactor design, long-lead-time components, and fuel allocation or production.