The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has denied plans for Talen Energy to supply additional on-site power to an Amazon Web Services’ data center campus from the neighboring Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

As you may have heard, the American Nuclear Society recently entered into a 50/50 joint venture with the Nuclear Energy Institute to host an annual industrywide meeting in late summer, which will replace ANS’s Utility Working Conference and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly. Simply put, we are taking the best of both events to create the ultimate nuclear power meeting of the year. If you are a longtime UWC attendee, you will feel right at home in the aisles of the exhibit hall, or in the working sessions designed to tackle the shared practical challenges operators face. NEI will bring the nuclear C-suite presence along with the freshest insights on industrywide issues.

The U.S. nuclear industry is growing, and we need to get even bigger if we are going to make good on the promise of a resurgence. The auto industry has SEMA, the tech industry has CES. It’s time the U.S. nuclear industry had its top event of the year.

Fatigue has been identified as a major risk factor in industrial accidents. According to the National Safety Council, 13 percent of workplace injuries can be attributed to fatigue.¹ Other research indicates that working 12 hours per day is associated with a staggering 37 percent increase in risk of injury.² Considering fatigue was a contributing factor to major nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, it makes sense that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission imposes hefty fines to ensure strict adherence to its fatigue management regulations—particularly, Code of Federal Regulations Title 10, Part 26, “Fitness for Duty Programs.”

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

October 11, 2024, marked the 70th anniversary of the American Nuclear Society. Taking a long view, we have not looked back and instead have tackled challenges and moved forward with lessons learned. Whether we pull examples from energy or nonenergy aspects of our nuclear enterprise, our planet has benefited from nuclear science and technology, and ANS has been there every step of the way.

As the Society reflects on its own history, let us remember:

• The first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the 1950s.
• Nuclear energy now provides about 9 percent of the world’s electricity from about 440 power reactors.
• Nuclear provides about 25 percent of the world’s low-carbon electricity.
• Nuclear is the world’s second-largest source of low-carbon power.
• More than 50 countries utilize nuclear energy in about 220 research reactors. In addition to research, these reactors are used for training and for the production of medical and industrial isotopes.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a proposed rule that has been almost five years in the making: Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors. The rule, which by law must take its final form before the end of 2027, would establish risk-informed, performance-based techniques the NRC can use to review and license any nuclear power reactor. This is a departure from the two licensing options with light water reactor–specific regulatory requirements that applicants can already choose.

TerraPower announced today that it has signed a term sheet with ASP Isotopes Inc. as the first step of a planned investment in the construction of a high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment facility and the eventual purchase of HALEU produced at the facility to fuel its Natrium fast reactors.

Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear (USNC), developer of a high-temperature, gas-cooled microreactor design that has drawn interest from potential customers and research and development funding from the Department of Energy, announced yesterday that it has filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to facilitate its sale to Standard Nuclear Inc. The filing, made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., includes USNC and its subsidiaries, Ultra Safe Nuclear-Technologies, USNC-Power, and Global First Power.

With more than 40 fusion development companies announcing plans and funding, it’s hard for a newcomer to stand out, but Pacific Fusion is giving it a try. The company, based in Fremont, Calif., was founded in summer 2023 and emerged from “stealth mode” last Friday with $900 million in committed funding from investors, a team that includes people directly involved in the successful ignition experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), and a technical paper that makes a case for a pulsed magnetic fusion approach to fusion energy.

Commercial nuclear power is illegal in Australia, and it has been since the 1990s. This past June, however, the country’s main opposition party announced plans to build seven commercial nuclear reactors in the 2030s and 2040s on sites presently occupied by aging coal-fired plants—should the party’s Liberal–National Coalition win power in federal elections next year. This statement has reignited a public debate regarding the potential role of nuclear energy in Australia.

In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on the outskirts of Fort Collins, Colo.—home to Colorado State University—work began this month on a new laser facility funded by a public-private partnership. The private portion is $150 million from Marvel Fusion, announced in August 2023, while $12.5 million—the latest funding for CSU from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)—will support the new facility as part of LaserNetUS, a laser research network operated by DOE-FES to provide access to laser facilities for multidisciplinary researchers from the United States and abroad.