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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Mariia Iakovleva, Jeremy Rayner, Ken Coates
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 9 | September 2021 | Pages 1351-1365
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1855947
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) are currently framed as a clean energy innovation with a vital role to play in decarbonizing power production. We review two popular sustainability transitions frameworks—strategic niche management and technological innovation systems— for case studies of analogous clean technology innovations. We focus on those that include policy-relevant recommendations that could be applied to the challenges posed by successfully scaling up SMRs from prototypes to commercial production. Particular attention is paid to how each approach understands the linkages between technology and the broader social and economic context. Innovative features of this paper include a systematic review of the lessons from renewable energy case studies for engagement with policy practitioners; reflections on the challenges of applying Euro-centric approaches in the sustainability transitions literature to non-European environments, including remote, northern, and indigenous communities; and some preliminary lessons for policy development that reflect the current situation with SMRs and support evidence-informed decision making in communities currently considering SMRs as part of a future clean energy mix.