Today, a bipartisan group of experts including energy consultant Lake Barrett and former NRC chair Allison Macfarlane have published a report titled The Path Forward for Nuclear Waste in the U.S.

The report recommends a new solution for managing domestic nuclear waste—one that centers around the foundation of an independent corporation led by reactor owners. Responsibility for waste management transport, storage, and disposal would be managed by this corporation rather than the Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the establishment of the Center for Used Fuel Research (CUFR), to be hosted at the Idaho National Laboratory and focused on spent nuclear fuel performance, canister aging, and the fostering of innovation and collaboration.

According to the DOE, the CUFR is designed to be a national and international hub for applied research that supports and maintains compliance and advances public confidence in the safe storage and transportation of both commercial and DOE-managed spent fuel.

In June of last year, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on the New York Power Authority—the state's public power utility—to add at least 1 GW of new capacity to the electrical grid through the construction of an advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York to support the state’s decarbonization goals.

It was good news for the nuclear community, to be sure, but in Hochul's State of the State address in Albany earlier this week, she made that objective sound almost unambitious.

Spring will be here before we know it, and with it will come the 2026 ANS Student Conference, which will take place April 16–18 in College Station, Texas, at Texas A&M University.

Registration for the conference is now open. Click here to learn more.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported that, to date, 14 countries have made 14 transfers of disused radium to be recycled for use in advanced cancer treatments under the agency’s Global Radium-226 Management Initiative. Through this initiative, which was launched in 2021, legacy radium-226 from decades-old medical and industrial sources is used to produce actinium-225 radiopharmaceuticals, which have shown effectiveness in the treatment of patients with breast and prostate cancers and certain other cancers.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

Recently, a colleague related to me a conversation overheard at an industry forum in which ANS was referred to as a group of “academics” who were of limited use in expanding the workforce needed to deliver a nuclear resurgence.

While not new, this criticism still gets me hypertensive when I hear it. Many still see ANS as a bunch of academics and “labbies” disconnected from the day-to-day commercial nuclear race.

Yet, I also understand the charge is not entirely without foundation. Pop your head into a technical session at an ANS national conference, and you’re bound to hear academics presenting research that, to nontechnical ears, sounds esoteric.

NASA and the Department of Energy have announced a “renewed commitment” to their mutual goal of supporting research and development for a nuclear fission reactor on the lunar surface to provide power for future missions. The agencies have signed a memorandum of understanding that “solidifies this collaboration and advances President Trump’s vision of American space superiority.”

On New Year’s Eve, Holtec International submitted Part 1 of a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking a limited work authorization (LWA) to begin construction of a two-unit SMR-300 plant at the company’s site in Covert, Mich.

Named Pioneer-1 and -2, the twin 340-MWe pressurized water reactors would join the 777-MWe Palisades PWR that began operating in 1971, shut down in 2022, and is expected to reconnect to the grid—slightly delayed—early this year. According to Holtec’s application documents, Part 2 of its construction permit will be filed no later than mid-2027.

Tech giant Meta is making big bets on TerraPower and Oklo. With the former, the hyperscaler could support the deployment of up to eight new reactors. With the latter, it could be as many as sixteen.

For both start-ups, Meta hopes its demand bolsters supply chains, the workforce, and the nuclear industry generally. For itself, the company is aiming to secure more generation to cleanly power its AI ambitions.

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition by antinuclear group Beyond Nuclear challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of Holtec International’s proposed consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico.

The denial of Beyond Nuclear’s writ of certiorari petition was part of a long list of orders released by the Supreme Court on Monday. The list also included a denial of Duke Energy’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling in an antimonopoly dispute.

Each year, the American Nuclear Society awards the Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship to two members. Those recipients then spend a year in Washington, D.C., contributing to the federal policymaking process by working in either a U.S. senator’s or representative’s personal office or with a congressional committee.

It has been nearly six months since the 2025 Congressional Fellows provided their midterm updates on their time on the Hill. Now, as their fellowships draw to their close, Jacob Christensen and Mike Woosley are looking back on what they accomplished, what they learned, and much more.

Applications are now open for the spring 2026 testing period for the American Nuclear Society’s Certified Nuclear Professional (CNP) exam. Applications are being accepted through March 3, and only three testing sessions are offered per year, so it is important to apply soon. The test will be administered from March 24 through April 22. To check eligibility and schedule your exam, click here.

With last Friday's announcement regarding its vision for nuclear energy, Meta has entered into 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) for more than 2,600 MW of electricity from a combination of three Vistra-owned nuclear plants to support the tech behemoth's planned operations in the PJM region.

Eight communities and 23 companies, including reactor developers, construction firms, and utilities, have expressed interest in participating in New York state’s plan to develop at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear power in the upstate area. The communities and companies are responding to solicitations from the New York Power Authority for developers and partners who want to support the agency’s advanced nuclear power projects and are able to provide viable project concepts, as well as for communities to host nuclear facilities and backers that could support such projects.

On January 9, tech giant Meta made waves by announcing three new agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo. These deals aim to see Meta supporting both uprates at existing nuclear power plants and the development of new advanced reactor projects, and in total could see the company financing up to 6.6 GW of new and existing energy by 2035. These projects will support the hyperscaler’s ever-growing data center– and AI-driven energy needs.

Nuclear energy is entering a new era—and policymakers are driving that shift. Governors, energy advisors, legislators, and regulators play a critical role in shaping state policies and regulations that can support the existing nuclear fleet and can accelerate the development, demonstration, and commercial deployment of next-­generation nuclear energy.

As Nuclear News has done since 2022, we have compiled a review of the nuclear news that filled headlines and sparked conversations in the year just completed. Departing from the chronological format of years past, we open with the most impactful news of 2025: a survey of actions and orders of the Trump administration that are reshaping nuclear research, development, deployment, and commercialization. We then highlight some of the top news in nuclear restarts, new reactor testing programs, the fuel supply chain and broader fuel cycle, and more.

Thursday was a busy news day for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with three significant announcements.

In the span of a few hours, the NRC released the news of Ho Nieh’s promotion to chair, the reversal of the plan to sunset its aircraft impact assessment provisions, and new guidance for interagency collaboration.

New power reactors of any size can be now be sited in the state of Illinois, thanks to legislation signed by Gov. J. B. Pritzker on January 8. The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA)—which Pritzker says is designed to lower energy costs for consumers, drive the development of new energy resources in the state, and strengthen the grid—lifts the moratorium on new, large nuclear reactors that Illinois enacted in the late 1980s.

The next opportunity to take part in the American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear 101 Certificate Course isn’t until the 2026 ANS Annual Conference at the end of May in Denver, Colo.

In the meantime, now is the perfect time for those looking to expand their knowledge of the nuclear sector to enroll in the Nuclear Licensing & Regulation Certificate Course.