Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.

Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.

SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.

A new council within the president’s executive circle aims to advise Trump on strategies to “achieve energy dominance,” ultimately by boosting domestic energy production.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is looking for feedback on its proposed rule for fees for fiscal year 2025. The proposal was published in the February 19 Federal Register. The federal government's fiscal year is the 12-month period from October 1 to September 30.

The proposed rule includes instructions on how to submit written comments to the NRC. Comments will be accepted through March 21, 2025.

After 50 years of operation, Unit 1 at Belgium’s Doel nuclear power plant has been permanently shut down.

Just weeks ago, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever talked about trying to keep Doel-1, which was retired on February 14, in operation. He faced an uphill battle, however, given the decades the nation has spent arguing about nuclear energy. In 2003, Belgium enacted a law banning construction of new nuclear reactors and calling for eventual decommissioning of existing reactors, Belga News Agency reported.

A team with the Department of Energy’s Idaho Cleanup Project successfully tested robotic equipment being developed to retrieve radioactive calcine, a granular solid waste, at the Idaho National Laboratory Site, the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management has announced.

U.K.-based Core Power has announced that it intends to develop a maritime civil nuclear program anchored in the United States with the goal of bringing floating nuclear power to market by the mid-2030s. The program, called Liberty, is to encompass the modular construction of advanced reactor technology and create the regulatory and supply chain frameworks needed to begin the mass production of floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) on a global scale.

Pronuclear coalition Nuclear Matters is asking people to help preserve nuclear power and support new technology by writing to members of Congress.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with President Trump last week and agreed to a new initiative to drive “transformative change across key pillars of cooperation” between the two countries.

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.

Social media this past weekend streamed with reactionary posts following a drone strike last Friday at the site of the destroyed reactor from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. The drone—armed with a warhead—ripped a hole in the New Safe Confinement (NSC), a large structure built to prevent any radioactive release from the damaged reactor unit 4 and to protect it from any external hazard. The drone strike caused a fire that was still smoldering in places as of Monday morning, and left a hole larger than 500 square feet. Efforts continue to mitigate the consequences of the fire and extinguish isolated smouldering areas of the NSC's insulation material.

Due to damage to the external and internal cladding of the NSC's arch and main crane system equipment, the safety boundaries and operational conditions of the NSC complex have been compromised, according to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Facebook page.