Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have collaborated with A.J. Tuck Company to develop a new manufacturing approach for use with the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) technique. The hybrid approach combines 3D printing and electroforming to produce so-called HIP cans used to form metal parts from powder materials, aiming to simplify the production of critical reactor components.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has issued Type One Energy the first license to operate a commercial fusion machine in the state. The state license is also the first to be issued after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a proposed rule on an augmented byproduct material framework earlier this year. The NRC proposed in February that the framework be expanded “to accommodate the wide variety of anticipated fusion machine designs across the National Materials Program.”

The American Nuclear Society recently hosted a Supplier Showcase webinar, “Advancing DVR for MUR: Lessons from First-of-a-Kind Projects,” featuring Greg Kanuckel, director of thermal performance at GSE Solutions, who shared his insights on data validation and reconciliation (DVR) and its impact on conducting measurement uncertainty recapture (MUR) uprates in nuclear power plants.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have conducted experimental tests on how particles from paved surfaces become suspended from activities such as walking, driving, and vacuuming, aiming to improve modeling of radiological and other contamination scenarios where emergency operations may kick up hazardous dust.

The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) recently held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. Former RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the meeting with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C and the value of risk-informed, performance-based (RIPB) techniques in contrast to the shortcomings of conventional, deterministic approaches for the development of nuclear technology.

Holtec has announced it is advancing with component fabrication for a testing facility at Idaho National Laboratory that it will use to quantify performance margins of its SMR-300 pressurized water reactor. The facility, dubbed HI-TEST, will use test loops to replicate accident scenarios and steam generator behavior, aiming also to support future power uprating for SMR-300 units.

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the amount of uranium concentrate produced in the United States in 2025 was more than three times greater than that produced the year before, and amounted to about 2.1 million pounds of U₃O₈, compared with the 657,000 pounds generated in 2024. It’s the largest amount produced in the United States since 2017.

The nuclear industry is entering a new chapter.

Existing plants are extending operating lives beyond their original design expectations. New reactor technologies are moving from concept to construction. Investment in domestic manufacturing and fuel production is accelerating, and utilities are strengthening supply chains to support decades of future operation.

At the same time, another transition is taking place.

The Palisades nuclear power plant has drawn closer to restart, as plant staff began the process of loading fuel into the reactor vessel on Sunday morning.

The commencement of fuel loading places the Covert, Mich., facility in Mode 6—or the refueling stage—under the plant’s technical specifications, plant owner and operator Holtec International said in a news release. The Palisades reactor core consists of 204 fuel assemblies that include new fuel and partially used fuel from the plant’s most recent operating cycles. According to Holtec, the fuel loading is being conducted in accordance with plant procedures and technical specifications.

Just days after the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the Port of Corpus Christi announced a partnership to explore the development of small modular reactors in the U.S. seaport, multiple other maritime nuclear announcements were unveiled to the public, including another MARAD partnership.

Last week the Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva began drilling holes for final disposal at the Onkalo deep geological repository, near the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in western Finland. The company’s German-made Deposition Hole Boring Machine (DHBM) took about 10 hours to drill the first hole, with a depth of 8.4 meters and a diameter of 1.75 meters, into the 1.9-billion-year-old bedrock. This is the first deposition hole intended for an iron-copper canister containing spent nuclear fuel—though test holes have been drilled at the site since 2022.

The Onkalo repository received a favorable safety assessment from the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland earlier in August.

Last week, the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute jointly hosted the second annual Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo in Dallas, Texas. NECX serves as both a combination and evolution of ANS’s Utility Working Conference and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly.

For the second year in a row, NECX brought together utilities, advanced reactor developers, suppliers, regulators, policymakers, investors, engineers, and innovators for a wide range of discussions pertaining to the present and future of the industry.

Between the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses and Nuclear Energy Launch Pad programs, August has already been a busy month for federal partnerships with the nuclear industry.

That trend continues: On Wednesday, the Department of the Army announced that it has selected five nuclear reactor developers—Antares Nuclear, BWXT Advanced Technologies, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Radiant Industries, and Westinghouse Government Services—each paired with a different military installation, for its Janus Program.

This week, the nuclear community descended on Dallas, Texas, for the second annual Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo, the premier industry-focused nuclear conference cohosted by the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute. Among the plenary panelists was Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy, and environment. Waksman has been closely involved in the development of the Janus Program, and the morning before the program’s new selections were unveiled, he provided insights on its ultimate goals at NECX 2026.

Based on attendee reactions at yesterday’s final plenary session of the Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX 2026) in Dallas, Texas, the response is mixed as to whether the United States can fulfill its ambitious plans to quadruple the country’s nuclear generating capacity by 2050. When asked whether the nation would reach that goal, a number of hands in the room went up. But when asked the opposite, several hands also went up.

Moderator Jon Colby told attendees to think positively about the long term.

A simulation from the study shows density (top) and temperature (bottom) just before the time when fusion reactions peak in an asymmetric implosion. The hottest point coincides with the densest point of fuel, illustrating the direct ignition of a dense jet of fuel driven by asymmetry. The image was recently selected for the cover of Physics of Plasmas. (Image: LLNL)

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used simulations to show that inertial fusion power plants could tolerate significant low-mode asymmetries, such as those caused by laser alignment being off-center, revealing a trade-off between robustness and yield that could impact how power plants are brought on line.

Mark Reidmeyer

It is the convergence of urgency, innovation, and modernization that is reshaping nuclear licensing and compliance today.

For decades, nuclear licensing operated in a relatively stable environment built around large light water reactors, predictable review cycles, and well-established regulatory pathways. Today, that model is evolving rapidly. Advanced reactors, AI-enabled tools, digital engineering platforms, grid reliability concerns, and aggressive decarbonization goals are all pushing the industry—and regulators—to move faster and think differently.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has formed a strategic partnership with Ampera to develop the company’s nuclear fuel concept through a project named THUNDER, for Thorium Unimodal Droplet Ejection for Reactors.

The focus of THUNDER is fabricating TRISO made with kernels of thorium rather than the usual uranium. LLNL and Ampera will evaluate and optimize liquid metal–jetting technology to produce highly uniform, spherical kernels of thorium-232 for later processing into TRISO fuel.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory have announced they will collaborate to help industry develop a process for wire arc 3D printing of industrial pressure vessels used for nuclear energy and chemical processing.

“By working with industry to demonstrate, validate, and qualify advanced manufacturing technologies, we can reduce risk, accelerate deployment, and strengthen the domestic supply chains essential to America’s energy future,” said Robert Wagner, ORNL associate laboratory director for energy science and technology.

Two new American Nuclear Society standards recently received approval from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The new standard ANSI/ANS-56.2-2026, Containment Isolation Provisions for Fluid Systems After a LOCA, is a revision of historic ANS-56.2-1984 (W1999). ANS-GS-30.1-2026, Integrating Risk and Performance Objectives into Standards for New Reactor Designs, is a new guidance standard.

Both standards are available for purchase in the ANS Online Store.

In an amendment to a 1998 record of decision, the Department of Energy is expanding the available space at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant deep geological repository for defense-related radioactive waste, and is also now planning to accept waste at the facility for 50 more years than previously planned. The amended decision, which was signed on August 18 by Tim Walsh, assistant secretary for Environmental Management, commits the DOE to a WIPP operating horizon extending to about 2083.