First Light Fusion's Low-Cost Fusion Compression Technology Achieves Experimental Validation, Driving Source Cost Expected to Drop by an Order of Magnitude

UK commercial fusion innovator First Light Fusion has announced that its independently developed pulse power facility M3 (M3 pulse power facility) has successfully completed a series of proof-of-principle experiments, formally validating the core fuel compression physics mechanism of its proprietary fusion pathway FLARE (Fusion via Low-power Assembly and Rapid Excitation). The experiments confirmed that, relying on a precisely designed Multi-layered liner, fusion fuel can be effectively compressed to a high-density state using a driver with a more streamlined configuration and lower peak power. The core design logic of the FLARE technology pathway...

2026-09-24

Purdue University Completes the First Remote Real-Time Autonomous Power Control Experiment on a Nuclear Reactor in the United States, Building a Cross-State Digital Twin Closed Loop

Purdue University, in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), has for the first time in the United States achieved remote, automatic, and real-time experimental regulation of nuclear reactor power. The demonstration validated a three-site control closed loop spanning Indiana, Idaho, and Virginia, providing a cutting-edge engineering paradigm for future centralized remote monitoring and automated scheduling of advanced reactors from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The experiment relied on Purdue University's 64-year-old Reactor Number One (Purdue University Reactor Num...

2026-09-24

US Senate Weighs $50 Billion Nuclear Energy Integrated Campus Plan, Aiming to Link Advanced Reactors, Waste Recycling, and AI Computing Centers

The Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works held a hearing on Wednesday to examine a federal plan totaling $50 billion. The plan proposes funding the construction of three regional future Nuclear innovation campuses, using abundant zero-carbon energy supply to attract heavy manufacturing and computing centers to cluster there, while also building radioactive waste storage and disposal facilities within the campuses in a coordinated manner. At the committee hearing, the American Nuclear Society Nuclear Waste Policy Task Force...

2026-09-24

Idaho National Laboratory Moran Test Bed Completes Deployment Preparation for Spent Fuel Decladding Skid

A mobile skid dedicated to processing and stripping spent nuclear fuel cladding has been officially declared ready for operation at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Moran Nuclear Fuels Test Facility. The fabrication of this skid system was funded by the Athena Initiative launched in 2022 under the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Nonproliferation Stewardship Program, aimed at providing critical research support for the United States' nonproliferation strategy.

2026-09-24

Poland's SGE Advances Plan to Build 14 BWRX-300 SMRs in the UK

Polish energy development company SGE (formerly Synthos Green Energy) is advancing a project to deploy a reactor fleet consisting of 14 BWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMRs) in the UK. The project joint team stated that it has full confidence in the commercial economic model and the complete supply chain delivery capability of the plan. SGE formally submitted its project application in July under the UK's Advanced Nuclear Framework. The fleet's total planned installed capacity reaches 4.2 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to 11% of the UK's current total electricity demand. SGE has formed an engineering and technology alliance that includes Samsung C&T (Samsung C&T)...

2026-09-24

Škoda JS of the Czech Republic to Supply Control Rod Drive Mechanisms for Rolls-Royce SMR

Czech nuclear engineering equipment manufacturer Škoda JS has signed a binding strategic cooperation agreement with Rolls-Royce SMR, confirming that it will serve as a core supplier to manufacture and supply Control Rod Drive Mechanisms (CRDMs) for the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) designed and developed by Rolls-Royce. The control rod drive mechanism is the central nervous system and a key safety-class component that ensures the safe operation of a nuclear reactor, directly responsible for regulating reactor power output and rapidly inserting control rods under abnormal or accident conditions to achieve safe shutdown...

2026-09-24

Polish Nuclear Power Company and U.S. Consortium Reach Agreement on Key Commercial Terms for EPC Contract of First Commercial Nuclear Power Plant

Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), the Polish state-owned nuclear power engineering company responsible for the construction and operation of Poland's first nuclear power plant, announced that it has reached agreement with the nuclear power consortium (Bechtel-Westinghouse Consortium) formed by Westinghouse Electric Company and Bechtel on the core commercial and legal terms of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for Poland's first commercial nuclear power plant. Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe stated that the core terms finalized by both parties cover the key commercial rules and legal...

2026-09-24

Italian Parliament Votes to Approve Meloni Government's Nuclear Power Restart Plan

Italy's upper parliamentary chamber, the Senate (Senato della Repubblica), formally voted on Wednesday to approve the government's statutory plan to restart nuclear power generation, marking a substantive step back toward the nuclear energy camp nearly four decades after the country shut down all nuclear reactors within its borders in 1987 following an anti-nuclear referendum (Referendum) triggered by the Chernobyl accident. The government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is vigorously promoting the deployment of Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs), aiming to break the historical ban through technological upgrades and a substantial increase in safety margins, provide stable clean energy for deep decarbonization of energy-intensive industries, and at the same time...

2026-09-24

Argonne National Laboratory develops new monitoring system that can accurately diagnose hidden faults inside nuclear reactors

U.S. researchers have developed a new monitoring system that combines fiber-optic temperature sensors with artificial intelligence (AI) to identify hidden internal channel blockage risks before they cause costly reactor shutdowns. The technology was developed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and is specifically designed for key heat exchanger components in molten-salt-cooled reactors (MSCRs). Heat exchangers ser...

2026-09-24

U.S. Team Advances Offshore Engineering System for Uranium Extraction from Seawater, Accelerating Toward Industrial-Scale Application

Nuclear fuel startup SuperCritical Materials and the University of Michigan (U-M) have formally established a research collaboration to jointly design and test an offshore mechanical system for uranium-from-seawater extraction, aiming to advance this cutting-edge technology toward industrial-scale engineering application. SuperCritical Materials had previously obtained an exclusive commercial license for a patented adsorbent manufacturing process that captures dissolved uranium in seawater. This joint research and development effort shifts the focus to the field of engineering machinery, primarily developing the capability to support high-frequency deployment and long-duration...

2026-09-24

US Department of Energy Study Shows: Deep Borehole Disposal Option Can Significantly Reduce Nuclear Fuel Cycle Back-End Waste Disposal Costs

Results from a three-year US Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project show that Deep Boreholes technology can provide a safe and low-cost permanent disposal pathway for radioactive waste remaining after Nuclear Fuel Recycling. Deep Isolation Nuclear conducted a systematic assessment of multiple recycling waste disposal scenarios, and the results showed that the estimated costs for all tested scenarios were below the project's control target of "0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity generation." Long-term safety modeling also confirmed that under normal expected conditions, all options meet...

2026-09-24

Ethiopia Plans to Join Forces with Russia to Accelerate the Construction of Its Nuclear Power Project

Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation (Госкорпорация «Росатом» / Rosatom), stated that Ethiopia (Эфиопия / Ethiopia) is actively seeking to accelerate the development of its nuclear power industry. Likhachev noted that the two sides had previously reached a preliminary cooperation agreement, but before formally launching the construction of the nuclear power plant project, multiple statutory and technical preparatory procedures in the early preparation stage still need to be completed. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali (Абий Ах...

2026-09-24

Afrikantov Experimental Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering Completes Manufacture and Delivery of MBIR Fast Reactor Primary Coolant Circulation Pumps

The machine-building division of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation (Госкорпорация «Росатом» / Rosatom), Afrikantov Experimental Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (АО «ОКБМ Африкантов» / OKBM Afrikantov), has completed the manufacture and delivery of the primary coolant circulation pumps (Главные циркуляционные насосы, ГЦН) for the multi-purpose fast neutron research reactor (МБИР / MBIR). As core equipment of the reactor facility, these circulation pumps will be responsible for driving the coolant to circulate within the reactor core...

2026-09-24

Unit 2 of Leningrad NPP-2 with a VVER-1200 reactor has been taken out of service as planned for a mid-term major overhaul

At 00:30 Moscow time on September 21, 2026, Unit 2 of Leningrad NPP-2 (Ленинградская АЭС-2 / Leningrad NPP-2) with a VVER-1200 (ВВЭР-1200) reactor was formally disconnected from the grid and entered a planned mid-term major overhaul (Плановый средний ремонт) in accordance with established approval procedures and the maintenance schedule of the Russian Power and Energy Group's Rosenergoatom Concern (АО «Концерн Росэнергоатом» / Rosenergoatom). The overhaul program covers hundreds of individual works, with a focus on the reactor and...

2026-09-24

Rosatom's Podolsk Machine-Building Plant Completes Manufacture of the Second RITM-200S Reactor for the First PEB-106 Floating Nuclear Power Plant

The Moscow Region enterprise Podolsk Machine-Building Plant (PAO ZiO-Podolsk), part of the mechanical engineering division of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (Госкорпорация «Росатом» / Rosatom), has successfully manufactured the second RITM-200S (РИТМ-200С) reactor unit. This reactor will be installed on the PEB-106 (ПЭБ-106) floating nuclear power unit, designed specifically to ensure power supply for the large copper mining industrial cluster in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Чукотский автономный округ / Chukotka Autonomous Okrug). The equipment has successfully passed hydraulic tests (Гидравлические испытания) confirming its structural strength, and a full-scale trial assembly (Контрольная сборка) verified absolute conformity of components with the design drawings.

2026-09-24

Balakovo NPP in Russia Conducts Steam Generator O&M Experience Exchange and Technical Support

Recently, at the Balakovo NPP in Saratov Oblast, Russia, a peer support mission focused on steam generator (Steam Generators / Парогенераторы) O&M technology and experience was successfully held. This event was a routine technical exchange organized by the WANO Moscow Centre (WANO-MC / ВАО АЭС-МЦ), aimed at bringing together industry expertise from multiple parties to further enhance the safety and reliability of nuclear power unit operation. The team participating in this support mission was composed of technical backbone personnel from multiple industry organizations and nuclear power plants, including the World Association of Nuclear...

2026-09-24

Rwanda Plans to Achieve Its First 110 MW Nuclear Power Generation Target by 2033

Rwanda's Minister of Infrastructure, Damien Murwanashyaka, disclosed this on Tuesday, September 22, while attending a meeting of the Senate Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs to discuss the government's initiatives to increase electricity access. Committee Chairperson Fulgence Nsengiyumva said the committee inspected electricity consumers and project sites to assess government planning, power capacity, efforts to promote off-grid energy, and the role of the private sector in increasing electricity access. Murwanashyaka said Rwanda is advancing the various procedures needed to build nuclear power facilities, including obtaining international certification and identifying suitable sites. As the Rwandan government works to expand national power generation capacity, Rwanda is expected to begin using nuclear energy to generate 110 megawatts of electricity between 2030 and 2033.

2026-09-23

AtkinsRéalis Joint Venture Wins $1.7 Billion Nuclear Power Plant Refurbishment Contract

The joint venture formed by Candu Energy, a subsidiary of AtkinsRéalis, and Aecon Group has signed a three-year, $1.7 billion contract with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to officially launch the refurbishment of Unit 5 at the Pickering CANDU nuclear power plant. The scope of work includes retubing, feeder replacement, and steam generator replacement (RFBR). It is understood that the project is part of Ontario's larger nuclear expansion and life extension program. The program also includes the Bruce and Darlington nuclear...

2026-09-23

Bechtel Exits TerraPower's Sodium-Cooled Reactor Project

U.S. engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and project management company Bechtel has decided to withdraw from TerraPower's Natrium nuclear reactor project. TerraPower stated that both parties have decided to develop independently and will re-tender the project's engineering, procurement and construction contract for building the first Natrium nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, USA.

2026-09-23

Mochovce Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4 Officially Connected to the Grid

According to the operator Slovenské elektrárne, Unit 4 of the Mochovce Nuclear Power Plant in Slovakia officially began generating electricity at 15:33 on Monday. This marks the last major stage before the unit enters commercial operation. The unit reached criticality and minimum controlled power in early August. Before approving entry into the latest stage of trial operation, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of the Slovak Republic conducted a comprehensive inspection and assessed the relevant documents. The transition from physical startup to energy startup means that the heat generated by the reactor will be used to heat water and produce steam, thereby driving the turbine to generate electricity. Next, the reactor's output power will be gradually increased in stages—5%, 20%, 35%, 55%, 75% and 90%—with inspections and tests at each power level before further increases. When power reaches 20%, the unit will be officially connected to the Slovak power system. The final test will be continuous operation at 100% full power for 144 hours. Branislav Strýček, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Slovenské elektrárne, said: "With the successful completion of this stage, Slovakia will gain a new stable source of electricity. In the coming decades, it will make an important contribution to the country's energy security and the achievement of climate goals." Martin Mráz, Director of the Mochovce Completion Project, said: "We have successfully completed the fuel loading and physical startup stages... The achievement of this milestone is a recognition of the high level of professionalism of the Slovenské elektrárne project team and the quality of work of all those involved in the completion."

2026-09-23

Framatome of France Secures First U.S. High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium Nuclear Fuel Contract

French nuclear company Framatome announced that it has signed a commercial contract to supply one operating nuclear reactor in the United States with the world's first nuclear fuel with uranium-235 concentration higher than the industry standard of 5%, for use in replacing reactor fuel. Under the agreement, as part of the Advanced Fuel Management (AFM) program, Framatome will use AFM technology to supply higher-concentration fuel in batches starting in early 2028. The agreement includes the supply of a range of fuels to support long-term use of AFM fuel in the reactor, and includes additional fuel supply options for the future. The company did not disclose the name of the reactor that will use the fuel. Uranium-235...

2026-09-23