The drive to Kairos Power’s reactor demonstration site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is not only scenic—it’s historic. Nearly 85 years ago, roughly 30,000 construction workers transformed orchards and farmland into a key Manhattan Project site. Depending on your route, you may pass by one of the three gatehouses that were once military checkpoints controlling access to Atomic Energy Commission production facilities.

On Thursday, Oklo announced that the Department of Energy’s Idaho Operations Office had approved the preliminary documented safety analysis (PDSA) for the company’s first deployment of its Aurora Powerhouse, which is currently under construction at Idaho National Laboratory.

It is the most recent in a long series of announcements from the 10 companies participating in the Reactor Pilot Program, which has a fast-approaching criticality deadline of July 4.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating licenses of Hatch-1 and-2 in under 12 months, the agency announced Friday.

Southern Nuclear’s application was accepted by the NRC in June 2025. The Baxley, Ga., facility’s two boiling water reactors are the second and third units to receive subsequent license renewals under the NRC’s new, streamlined process for renewing operating licenses in 12 months or less. Previously completed SLR proceedings took, on average, about two-and-a-half years.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is to prepare an environmental impact statement in its review of Orano Enrichment’s license application to build and operate a new uranium enrichment facility near Oak Ridge, Tenn., and is asking the public for comments on the scope of its environmental review.

The digital publication Politico held its Energy Summit on Wednesday, gathering several prominent speakers to discuss the U.S. energy agenda, including nuclear power’s role. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Ho Nieh was among those who took the stage.

While he had only about 20 minutes to speak at the gathering, which was also broadcast virtually, Nieh broached several topics with Politico reporter Kelsey Tamborrino, including small modular reactors, licensing, the agency’s recruitment and retention efforts, and the NRC’s status and operations as an independent regulator.

On June 9, Tennessee became the first U.S. state to implement its own regulatory framework for nuclear fusion machines. It’s a notable step in the rapidly developing field of fusion regulation, and will help Tennessee prepare to regulate Type One Energy’s proposed commercial fusion power plant near Oak Ridge.

Hash Hashemian

The 2026 ANS Annual Conference, “Net Out and Power Up,” brought the nuclear community together in Denver at the end of May. Over four days at the Sheraton Denver, we heard from exceptional speakers on the most consequential questions facing our field; how fusion and fission can complement each other, how to meet surging electricity demand, and what it takes to sustain American nuclear leadership. The embedded topicals on nuclear fuels and materials and on fusion energy added real technical depth. It was exactly the kind of gathering that reminds us why this community is so remarkable.

That energy and commitment is precisely what I want to channel as I close out my term as president of the American Nuclear Society. Because sustaining it year after year, conference after conference, requires more than enthusiasm. It requires investment.

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.

Last week at the American Nuclear Society’s Annual Conference in Denver, Colo., the ANS Board of Directors approved the creation of six new ANS student sections and one new local section. Including these new additions, the Society now boasts 37 local sections and 70 student sections, which together represent ANS members across every region of the United States.

The Department of Energy has approved Xcimer Energy's Athena fusion power plant preconceptual technical design. With this milestone achieved, the Denver, Colo.-based company is now moving forward with its plans to develop economical laser inertial confinement fusion using two beamlines, gas laser technology, and a molten salt fusion chamber.

The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated net energy gain from inertial confinement fusion in 2022 using solid-state glass lasers and 192 beamlines.

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.

Mandatory hearings conducted as part of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission reactor licensing review will be held much sooner in the process, the agency announced Tuesday.

A provision states that uncontested hearings must be held at some point after 30 days of an application being docketed. Historically, the NRC has conducted these toward the end of its review of applications for construction permits, early site permits, and combined licenses. The change announced this week would have hearings be held sooner, about 30 days after an application is docketed.

On June 3, Brandon Williams, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, was at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to break ground on the Advanced Testbed and Operations Learning Laboratory (ATOLL).

The planned 21,000-square-foot facility, which is scheduled to be completed in mid-2028, will play an important role in the development of workforce expertise and capabilities aimed at monitoring foreign weapons-grade uranium production activities.

Maritime classification and certification organization the American Bureau of Shipping has granted its approval in principle (AIP) for the integration of a nuclear reactor into a cargo vessel propulsion system, as developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Maritime Consortium. This is the first AIP to be granted to a technology developed through the consortium, which includes founding members MIT, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, and Capital Maritime Group.

The final executive session of the American Nuclear Society’s 2026 Annual Conference was titled “With Great Processing Power Comes Great Responsibility: Ethics and Opportunities for AI and Tomorrow’s Workforce.”

On June 1, the planned restart of Crane nuclear power plant (formerly Three Mile Island-1) received a boost when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Constellation’s waiver request to transfer certain rights to the Middletown, Pa., plant.

Twice per year, the American Nuclear Society confers Presidential Citations on individuals who have demonstrated outstanding efforts benefiting ANS or the broader nuclear community.

Last week at the opening plenary of the 2026 ANS Annual Conference in Denver, Colo., immediate past president of ANS Hash Hashemian named this season’s recipients of the award.

Japan will need to replace as many as 14 of its nuclear reactors by the 2050s in order to meet its future energy demands, a recently released draft policy proposal states.

Officials with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management discussed spent nuclear fuel recycling and conditioning with counterparts from Japan during the 13th U.S.-Japan Technical Meeting of the Civil Nuclear Energy Research and Development Working Group, held recently in Santa Fe, N.M.

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.