Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker issued a new executive order (EO) on February 18 directing both the Illinois Power Agency and the Illinois Commerce Commission to issue a notice of intent (NOI) to potential developers of new nuclear power plants.

The signing of that EO took place on the same day Pritzker delivered his 2026 State of the State address, in which he set a goal of building at least 2 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in the state.

The Roy G. Post Foundation has announced the awarding of 87 scholarships totaling more than $500,000 for graduate and undergraduate students demonstrating excellent academic achievements, leadership qualities, and positive impacts in their communities.

On February 13 at the African Union (AU) Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the AU, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, and the African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE) signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the support of nuclear science and technology development across Africa.

Westinghouse Electric Company’s plans to deploy its AP1000 reactor in Poland have taken an important step forward with a credit agreement between the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ). The agreement represents the first phase of financing to support the initial engineering and environmental site work needed before construction can begin on Poland’s first nuclear power plant, at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the Choczewo municipality of Pomerania.

At Idaho National Laboratory, researchers have built a bridge between computer models and the lab’s Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) microreactor.

Tony Crawford, an INL researcher and MARVEL’s reactivity control system lead, designed a phone booth–sized surrogate nuclear reactor called ViBRANT, or Visual Benign Reactor as Analog for Nuclear Testing, which uses light instead of neutrons to show a “nuclear” reaction.

Two start-ups working to commercialize fusion energy made headlines last week. Helion Energy announced that its Polaris prototype fusion energy machine recently demonstrated measurable deuterium-tritium fusion and achieved a plasma temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius (MºC). Newcomer Inertia Enterprises announced that it has raised $450 million in its Series A fundraising round.

Valar Atomics’ Ward250 microreactor is loaded onto the aircraft.

A public-private partnership between the Departments of Defense and Energy and Valar Atomics marked a milestone over the weekend when Valar’s Ward250 microreactor was transported (without fuel) from California to Utah using three C-17 aircraft. The reactor will now trek from Hill Air Force Base to the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (URSEL) for testing and evaluation.

The Nuclear Scaling Initiative, a collaborative effort launched in 2024 to spur new nuclear energy development, announced a new campaign promoting the direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel as the safest, most secure, and least expensive pathway for managing U.S. nuclear waste.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted X-energy subsidiary TRISO-X a special nuclear material license for high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel fabrication. The license applies to TRISO-X’s first two planned commercial facilities, known as TX-1 and TX-2, for an initial 40-year period. The facilities are set to be the first new nuclear fuel fabrication plants licensed by the NRC in more than 50 years.

The 2026 American Nuclear Society election is now open. Members can vote for the Society’s next vice president/president-elect as well as six board members (five U.S. directors and one non-U.S. director). Completed ballots must be submitted by 12:00 p.m. (CDT) on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.

All ANS members have been emailed a unique access key from third-party election vendor ElectionBuddy. Each member can use their access key to vote once, and each vote will remain anonymous. Visit secure.electionbuddy.com/ballot to vote.

Ontario Power Generation has signed a partnership agreement with the city of Port Hope focused on bringing “large-scale new nuclear generation” to the utility’s Wesleyville location, a 1,300-acre site on the shores of Lake Ontario that has been left undeveloped for four decades. The Ontario government believes that this site has the potential to generate as much as 10 GW of electricity and become “the world’s largest nuclear station,” in the words of Stephen Lecce, the province’s minister of energy and mines.

The state of New Mexico is fining the Department of Energy for nearly $16 million, claiming the department has failed to prioritize the removal legacy nuclear waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the DOE’s deep geologic repository for defense-related transuranic waste near Carlsbad, N.M.

As the energy sector faces mounting pressure to grow at an unprecedented pace while maintaining reliability and affordability, nuclear technology remains an essential component of the long-­term solution. Southern Company stands out among U.S. utilities for its proactive role in shaping these next-­generation systems—not just as a future customer, but as a hands-­on innovator.

The Department of Energy’s newly published Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges describes 26 challenges and corresponding AI solutions designed to advance the artificial intelligence–focused Genesis Mission, which was established by presidential executive order last November to develop an “integrated platform that connects the world’s supercomputers, experimental facilities, AI systems, and unique datasets across every major scientific domain to double the productivity and impact of American research and innovation within a decade.”

Next Wednesday, February 18, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. (CST), eight speakers from Texas A&M University involved in the upcoming ANS Student Conference 2026 will hold an online Q&A to discuss the upcoming event.

During this informal, drop-in session, students will be able to stop by and ask any questions they might have regarding what to expect at the conference.

Senators Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) and Tim Scott (R., S.C.) have reintroduced legislation aimed at leveraging the best available science and technology at U.S. national laboratories to support the cleanup of legacy nuclear waste.

The Combining Laboratory Expertise to Accelerate Novel Solutions for Minimizing Accumulated Radioactive Toxins (CLEAN SMART) Act, introduced on February 11, would authorize up to $58 million annually to develop, demonstrate, and deploy innovative technologies, targeting reduced costs and safer, faster remediation of sites from the Manhattan Project and Cold War.

Mirion Technologies has announced three senior leadership appointments designed to support its global nuclear and medical businesses while advancing a company-wide digital and AI strategy. The leadership changes come as Mirion seeks to advance innovation and maintain strong performance in nuclear energy, radiation safety, and medical applications.

The HALEU cascade at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. (Photo: Centrus Energy)

American Centrifuge Operating, a subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corp., has formed a multiyear strategic collaboration with Fluor Corporation in which Fluor will serve as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for Centrus’s expansion of its uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. Fluor will lead the engineering and design aspects of the American Centrifuge Plant’s expansion, manage the supply chain and procurement of key materials and services, oversee construction at the site, and support the commissioning of new capacity.

The world’s first nuclear-powered merchant ship, the NS Savannah, will have a public site visit in Baltimore, Md., on Saturday, February 21.

To register for the event and find up-to-date details on the event’s address, time, and more, click here.

Nuclear technology start-up Project Omega announced on February 11 that it has emerged from stealth mode with hopes of processing and recycling spent nuclear fuel into “long-duration, high-density power sources and critical materials for the nuclear industry.”