Aiming to deploy the nation's first small modular reactor, TerraPower has announced contracts for the final long-lead items needed for its Natrium unit, currently under construction in Wyoming.

The North Carolina Collaboratory, a research funding agency established by the North Carolina General Assembly to partner with academic institutions and government entities, has awarded a grant to North Carolina State University and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) for research into small modular reactors. The funded research project, “Academic Boiling Water–Small Modular Reactor (BW-SMR) Simulator for Research, Development, and Educational Purposes,” focuses on the development of a digital-based simulator for GEH’s BWRX-300, a Gen III+ light water SMR.

The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) has installed the NuScale small modular reactor control room simulator at the Center for Advanced Small Modular and Micro Reactors (CASMR).

TEES performs collaborative research through universities, national laboratories, and state and federal agencies with the goal of finding solutions to global technical challenges.