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Extracting efficiency
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
May is a month when we pause—briefly—to recognize something that too often goes unsaid: the extraordinary performance of the existing U.S. nuclear fleet. Capacity factors remain above 90 percent (with a median of 91.29 for the three-year period 2023–2025—see Nuclear News, May 2026, p. 24), an impressive figure delivered at a scale unmatched anywhere else on the globe. That level of sustained output is not an accident of design; it is a daily achievement. It reflects the discipline, professionalism, and pride of the men and women who operate and maintain these facilities, often without fanfare.
In this issue, you will also read about the important work researchers at our national laboratories are doing to extract even greater efficiency from the plants we already have. That effort deserves more attention, because it points to a fundamental truth: the fastest, most reliable way to expand nuclear generation in the United States is not solely through new builds—it is by maximizing the assets already on the grid.
Spotlight on National Labs
April 30, 2020|12:00–1:30PM (1:00–2:30PM EDT)
Available to All Users
Learn about Argonne’s storied history and how the lab is supporting key nuclear energy and other initiatives of national and international significance.
From the start, Argonne has been at the forefront of research and innovation. In 1946, as an outgrowth of the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, Argonne was established as a nuclear engineering, chemistry, and materials laboratory to develop peaceful uses for a revolutionary new source of energy: nuclear power. Today, nearly every commercial reactor in existence owes its development to seminal research conducted at Argonne.
Building on this heritage, Argonne continues its work to advance the safe and sustainable use of nuclear energy and to apply its nuclear technology expertise to current and emerging programs. Argonne supports key U.S. Department of Energy nuclear energy initiatives, including leading the nation’s program for development and demonstration of fast reactor and fuel recycle technologies that promise to improve the affordability of nuclear power, enhancing the assurance of safety and security and minimizing the quantity of radioactive waste.
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