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Expansion of the United States' only commercial uranium enrichment facility reaches 75% completion, as Urenco's New Mexico plant accelerates capacity upgrades

As the only commercial uranium enrichment facility on U.S. soil, the National Enrichment Facility in Eunice, New Mexico, has recently reached a key expansion milestone, with its phased capacity expansion target now 75% complete. Operator Urenco Group plans to raise the plant's uranium enrichment capacity to 7 million Separative Work Units (SWU) per year over the next decade, in order to strengthen the United States' domestic nuclear fuel supply security. Strong global demand for zero-carbon electricity is currently driving a revival of the nuclear energy industry. Although the United States is at the forefront of research and development in next-generation reactor technologies...

2026-10-14

Fermi America's Project Matador Receives NRC Draft Environmental Assessment, Plans Four AP1000 Reactors to Power AI

Recently, Fermi America's advanced energy and intelligence campus, Project Matador, located in Carson County, Texas, has made significant progress. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published a Federal Register notice releasing the draft environmental assessment for the four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors planned for the campus. NRC staff have preliminarily recommended approval of the project's combined license, subject to completion of the necessary safety review. It is understood that Project Matador plans 17 gigawatts of private energy infrastructure, with nuclear power generation as a key component...

2026-10-13

South Korea's Gaon Cable to Build Nuclear Power Plant Dedicated Cable Production Line in the United States

South Korean LS Group's cable manufacturing subsidiary Gaon Cable (Korean: 가온전선, English: Gaon Cable Co., Ltd.) announced on Monday that it will build a nuclear power plant dedicated cable production line at its production base in North Carolina, United States, to seize the incremental market opportunities brought by the U.S. nuclear power expansion. Gaon Cable revealed that its U.S. subsidiary LS Cable & System U.S.A. will add related production equipment at its Tarboro, North Carolina factory. This strategic move aims to establish a localized supply system to respond to the future large-scale commercial nuclear power plants and small...

2026-10-12

US-based Terrestrial Energy Proposes Phased Construction Model to Accelerate Deployment of 390 MW Integrated Molten Salt Reactor

Fourth-generation advanced nuclear developer Terrestrial Energy has recently formally submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) a topical report for the Thermal and Electric Facility (TEF) of its Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) project. The document proposes a dual-track regulatory review model aimed at allowing key non-nuclear power components of the plant to proceed with construction and enter commercial operation before a full nuclear facility license is obtained. If this regulatory approach is approved by federal regulators, it will effectively break through the economic and approval obstacles that have long constrained the development of the nuclear power industry. In traditional nuclear power projects, because regulatory...

2026-10-12

U.S. Department of Energy Approves Last Energy Microreactor Safety Analysis Report: Texas A&M University PWR-5 Demonstration Reactor Enters Final Pre-Operational Review

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has formally approved the Documented Safety Analysis (DSA) submitted by nuclear startup Last Energy for its proposed test microreactor at the Texas A&M-RELLIS campus (Texas A&M-RELLIS). This approval marks the official transition of the microreactor demonstration project into the Operational Readiness Review phase, which is also the final key regulatory step before obtaining authorization for initial criticality and formally commencing operation. The Documented Safety Analysis is the most central and detailed final safety assessment document in the U.S. Department of Energy's approval framework, following the Preliminary Safety Analysis Document approved in May 2026...

2026-10-12

U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Visits Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant, Targeting Official Restart and Grid Connection in 2027

The Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently conducted an on-site inspection of Unit 1 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania. As the core platform for the plant's restart plan, the renamed Crane Clean Energy Center is currently pushing forward engineering preparations at full speed, with the goal of officially restarting and connecting to the grid in 2027. Facing rapidly rising baseload power demand in Pennsylvania and across the entire Mid-Atlantic region, the restart project has secured more than $1 billion in federal dedicated investment and policy-based financial support. Three Mile Island Unit 1 was retired early in 2019 due to insufficient market economics under the impact of natural gas power generation at the time...

2026-10-11

Oklo's Groves Isotope Test Reactor Achieves First Criticality, Fifth Reactor in U.S. Department of Energy Test Reactor Program Successfully Started

The Groves Isotope Test Reactor under Oklo, an advanced nuclear fission company in the United States, has officially achieved first criticality. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed that the reactor successfully reached criticality at 9:19 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday at the Groves site in Lockhart, Texas, becoming the fifth advanced test reactor to achieve criticality under the DOE's dedicated authorization and regulatory pathway. The Groves Isotope Test Reactor has a thermal power of 15 megawatts (MWt) and adopts an atmospheric-pressure water-cooled pool-type reactor design. It is led by Oklo Isotopes, a subsidiary of Oklo focused on medical and industrial isotope production...

2026-10-11

US MARVEL Microreactor Approved for Criticality Testing, Testing Expected to Begin by End of 2026

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho Operations Office has formally approved the final safety analysis report for the MARVEL microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This key regulatory approval authorizes the reactor to proceed with configuration preparations for dry criticality testing, marking a breakthrough for the project following the approval of the preliminary safety analysis report in March of this year. The MARVEL (Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation) project is a sodium-potassium alloy-cooled microreactor test platform with a design thermal power of 85 to 100 kilowatts and a net electrical power of approximately 20 kilowatts. The facility is designed to help private companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and GE Vernova test micro...

2026-10-10

US-based NuCube Launches High-Temperature Testing of 250 kW Pump-Free Microreactor in Utah

Advanced nuclear developer NuCube Energy is conducting a new round of non-nuclear testing in Utah, USA, on its factory-assembled microreactor technology. The company is collaborating with researchers from Brigham Young University to advance the project at the San Rafael Energy Research Laboratory. The partners are using electric heating technology to precisely simulate the operating conditions inside their planned NuSun micro fission system. The core focus of this round of testing is to verify whether small modular nuclear energy can provide clean, decarbonized energy support for high-energy-consumption manufacturing operations. Conventional commercial nuclear power plants typically rely on mechanical pumps and large pools to manage core temperature. Once mechanical components fail or...

2026-10-10

U.S. NRC Expedites Review of License Amendment for Palisades Nuclear Plant Fuel Loading Tilt Incident: Advancing Vanguard SMR Construction Permit Review in Parallel

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is reviewing an emergency operating license amendment request (LAR) submitted by Holtec International. The request was triggered by a nuclear fuel loading tilt incident at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant (Palisades NPP) in Covert, Michigan, during its restart process, which has resulted in the temporary suspension of some on-site restart recovery operations. According to the application documents publicly available in the NRC's public records system, fuel assembly number DD41 tilted after being released by the fuel handling machine. The lower nozzle of the assembly remains in the core grid position H-1, but the upper portion forms an approximately 30-degree tilt angle with the core plate...

2026-10-09

Global Major SMR Project Progress Review

As of now, global SMR competition has already formed several different tiers: Linglong One is advancing pre-operational testing, Darlington and Russia's land-based projects have entered the construction phase, Clinch River has just crossed the threshold for a U.S. commercial SMR construction permit, Long Mott is still under licensing review, and representative projects in the UK and South Korea are mainly advancing design and regulatory approval. In subsequent comparisons of these projects, the most valuable indicators will be first fuel load, first criticality, first grid connection, commercial operation, and whether construction can be replicated after the first-of-a-kind unit. Project progress: China's Linglong One is one of the more advanced projects among land-based SMR commercial demonstration projects. In December 2025, the project completed non-nuclear steam testing, verifying the functions of conventional island-related systems; public information in early 2026 shows that the project is still conducting pre-operational testing. The project adopts a 125 MWe pressurized water reactor design, mainly targeting applications such as power generation, heating, industrial steam, and seawater desalination.

2026-10-09

Controversy Over U.S. Nuclear Waste Repository Siting Draws Renewed Attention: Historical Decision Alleged to Have Relied Excessively on Cost Estimates

The issue of siting a U.S. nuclear waste repository has once again drawn attention. A reanalysis of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) 1986 candidate site evaluation report points out that the key factor determining the priority siting of a nuclear waste repository at that time was not fully verified differences in long-term safety performance among the sites, but mainly estimates of repository construction and operating costs and spent fuel transportation costs. This analysis argues that the relevant cost data had considerable uncertainty, yet played a decisive role in the final ranking, causing the technical evaluation to present a clearer ordering of advantages and disadvantages than the actual evidence supported. The debate over U.S. nuclear waste repository siting has lasted for decades. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy...

2026-10-09

"Power-Hungry Beast" Reshapes the Logic of Power Asset Revaluation: Can Tech Giants' 20-Year Long-Term Agreements Fundamentally Resolve the Nuclear Power Economics Dilemma?

On October 6, 2026, Constellation Energy (Nasdaq ticker CEG, the largest commercial nuclear reactor operator in the United States) and Google announced the signing of a 20-year strategic clean energy cooperation agreement. Following the announcement, Constellation Energy's stock price rose approximately 12% that day. The capital market's excitement is understandable. But an easily overlooked detail is that the true structure of this deal differs considerably from the "1 billion dollars" in media headlines. Bloomberg's initial report of "at least 1 billion dollars" was the figure at the time the deal first came to light, while the officially announced agreement amount is 4.3 billion dollars. The essence of the 4.3 billion dollars is Constellation Energy's capital investment to upgrade its 11 nuclear power units, with Google providing revenue certainty for this investment through a 20-year power purchase agreement.

2026-10-09

Amentum Establishes Global Nuclear Headquarters in Oak Ridge, Simultaneously Launches Nuclear Scholars Program

Recently, Amentum, a leading U.S. provider of engineering, project management, and innovative technology solutions, opened its global nuclear headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and established a Nuclear Center of Excellence, making it the centralized hub for the company's international nuclear business operations. The center is located at 151 Lafayette Drive in Oak Ridge and houses more than 150 experts across various fields, dedicated to delivering innovative engineering, technology solutions, and advanced energy capabilities. Amentum is already a major partner of the Oak Ridge Unified Cleanup Organization (UCOR), the primary environmental management contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at the Oak Ridge Reservation....

2026-10-09

NASA and U.S. Department of Energy Sign Memorandum of Understanding: Opening a New Era in Space Nuclear Energy Exploration

According to reports, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 8, 2026, at the Golden Age Summit held at the Donald J. Trump Institute for Peace in Washington, D.C., to advance new nuclear technologies for space exploration. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and Energy Secretary Chris Wright attended the signing ceremony. It is understood that the memorandum aims to strengthen the two agencies' cooperation in nuclear technology development...

2026-10-09