The Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration has signed a first-of-a-kind memorandum of cooperation (MOC) with the Port of Long Beach, in southern California, to advance the development of small modular reactors for powering commercial vessels, ports, and other maritime assets. With the signing, Long Beach became the first U.S. seaport to form a partnership with MARAD on commercial nuclear-powered maritime vessels. The federal maritime agency had issued a request for information in May seeking industry input on the development of domestic, scalable, commercially viable reactors for U.S. marine transportation.

Sizewell B, on the Suffolk coast of England, has been granted a 20-year life extension. The nuclear power plant, which began operating in 1995, will now remain in operation until 2055. Sizewell B owner and operator EDF Energy agreed to make extra investments to maintain the facility, with additional investment funds coming from Centrica, which owns a 20 percent share in EDF’s U.K. reactors.

The ongoing work to restart Holtec’s Palisades nuclear power plant, which last operated in 2022, has transitioned out of large-scale projects and into smaller activities, plant owner and operator Holtec International announced last week. However, no firm start date for the Covert, Mich., facility has been announced.

In 2023, more than 20 countries at the World Climate Action Summit of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) set the goal of tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Now, a new report from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency describes the daunting challenges involved in trying to meet that goal.

According to Nuclear Energy Outlook: Global Installed Capacity to 2050 and Beyond, expanding nuclear energy capacity to meet the COP28 target will require substantial acceleration in the growth of the nuclear workforce, supply chains, and financing availability. The report outlines four possible scenarios for how nuclear capacity could evolve by and past 2050: a “low” scenario, a “current trends” scenario, an “ambitious” scenario, and a “transformative” scenario.

Synthos Green Energy, a development and investment company headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, has announced a proposal to deploy 14 GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 small modular reactors at three multiunit sites in the United Kingdom. SGE has established SGE SMR UK Limited as its dedicated vehicle for this U.K. project, which reportedly could see private capital investment of up to £35 billion (about $46 billion).

Terrestrial Energy has signed ground lease and research agreements with the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) to exclusively use about 77 acres of land at the Texas A&M–RELLIS campus, in Bryan, Texas, for development of the company’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). The agreements give Terrestrial Energy control of the site and provide support for completion of site characterization work, environmental evaluations, and testing and research activities related to the IMSR.

Nuclear project developer Elementl Power announced on June 18 its plans to build a nuclear power plant in southeast Ohio with a planned capacity of up to 1.5 GW.

Elementl already has a reactor design in mind, having reached an early works agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi to deploy the company's BWRX-300 small modular reactors. According to Elementl, construction on the first unit could begin in 2030—subject to a final investment decision and regulatory approvals—with an anticipated completion date of 2034.

Within the span of two weeks, three Swedish companies—Blykalla, Studsvik, and Nordic Baseload Power—submitted applications to their country’s government for state aid for their respective new nuclear builds. Applications are handled by Sweden’s Ministry of Finance.

In early June, SMR developer Blykalla submitted its application to the Swedish government, followed by engineering services firm Studsvik on June 12. And on June 16, energy company Nordic Baseload Power became the latest to apply for financial support. Overall, the Swedish government has received four applications for state aid since last year.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is set to prepare an environmental impact statement for its review of Holtec International’s application to site two Holtec SMR-300 reactors at the Palisades site in Covert, Mich. The two planned reactors would be known as Pioneer-1 and -2.

Operational nuclear power sites in China, May 2026. (Source: EIA, with additional data from World Bank, Global Energy Monitor, Global Nuclear Power Tracker, and the IAEA. Image: EIA)

China’s nuclear power capacity has increased from 31.4 gigawatts in 2016 to 58.7 GW in May—an 87 percent increase in the last 10 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The EIA’s analysis of China’s nuclear power growth was based on information gathered by the agency, as well as data from the World Bank, Global Energy Monitor, Global Nuclear Power Tracker, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. It was published on June 5.

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.

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.

The International Atomic Energy Agency intends to launch a new initiative at the IAEA ministerial in Washington, D.C. on August 26–27. The objective of the initiative, called Atomic Technologies Licensed for Applications at Sea (ATLAS), is to provide support for “the maritime industry’s exploration of small modular reactors (SMRs) to power civilian ships and to provide offshore energy.” The IAEA hopes that this initiative will help advance the maritime deployment of such reactors.

New developments in Sweden’s nuclear energy industry continue to make headlines. Last week, Swedish engineering services firm Studsvik submitted an application to build between 600 MWe and 1,400 MWe of new nuclear power capacity “at and around” its Nyköping Municipality headquarters. Separately, the Swedish government is looking to acquire a majority ownership stake in Videberg Kraft AB.

The dormant Blue Castle nuclear power plant project in Utah has resurfaced, only this time as a proposed small modular reactor facility.

Blue Castle Holdings and Fulcrum Point Holdings—founded by the owner of Hi Tech Solutions, a company behind a separate Utah nuclear project—announced last week a joint venture to advance the Blue Castle project in Green River, Utah, the origins of which trace back almost 20 years.

The Department of Transportation has announced an initiative to develop small modular reactors for commercial shipping. The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) has launched a request for information (RFI) seeking industry input on the development of “a U.S.-built scalable, repeatable, commercially viable, system-centric, small modular reactor and their deployment within the marine transportation system.”

GE Vernova has formed a strategic collaboration with nuclear project financing and manufacturing firm Blue Energy to “advance the world’s first gas-plus-nuclear power plant.” The companies say that they intend to design and develop a power plant using GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 small modular reactors and GE Vernova gas turbines to meet electricity demands related to AI and advanced manufacturing. Subject to a final investment decision in 2027, the first plant is to be located at a Blue Energy site in Texas and will power a nearby data center campus.

A newly signed contract between U.K.-based Rolls-Royce SMR and the ČEZ Group in the Czech Republic will allow for design work to begin on the planned small modular reactors at the Temelín nuclear power plant site in the Czech Republic. The companies, which hope to deploy as much as 3 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in the country, signed an early works contract that will see them begin preparing for consents, permitting, and licensing and continuing preliminary infrastructure activities as they develop a site application for the SMRs.

Nevada-based Eagle Nuclear Energy said it will conduct a 27,000-foot investigative drill program at its flagship Aurora Uranium Project along the Oregon–Nevada border beginning in July.

Ten months after Rolls-Royce SMR emerged as the United Kingdom’s preferred bidder to build the U.K.’s first small modular reactors, the company and the U.K. government’s Great British Energy–Nuclear (GBE-N) have signed a contract allowing work to begin at the site of the decommissioned Wylfa nuclear plant in North Wales.