Nuclear News

Published since 1959, Nuclear News is recognized worldwide as the flagship trade publication for the nuclear community. News reports cover plant operations, maintenance and security; policy and legislation; international developments; waste management and fuel; and business and contract award news.


Seth Kofi Debrah: Ghana’s nuclear plans

March 8, 2024, 3:11PMNuclear News

The continent of Africa and the 54 countries that share the land are an emerging force that will hold growing influence in the world’s economy by the end of this century. Throughout history, the world’s leading economies have been driven by large working-age populations, but the shift in demographics over the next 50 years will bring drastic changes to the global economy. As reported last year by the New York Times, most of the youngest countries in the world are in Africa (south/southeastern Asia and the Middle East being the other regions with young populations). This means that by 2050 and beyond, the countries with the largest working-age populations will be very different from the top economies today. The African Union understands these changes are coming and is working toward its Agenda 2063, the “master plan for transforming Africa into a global powerhouse of the future.”

The IAEA celebrates International Women's Day

March 8, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News

March 8 is International Women’s Day, and this year the International Atomic Energy Agency is marking the occasion by bringing more than 400 women together for a two-day event on March 7 and 8: For More Women in Nuclear: IAEA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship and the Lise Meitner Programs.

NRC to issue proposed rule for advanced reactor licensing

March 8, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to publish a proposed rule and draft guidance surrounding licenses for advanced reactors—the first regulatory framework developed uniquely for advanced technologies and designs.

NRC staff has been instructed to establish a licensing process for commercial nuclear power plants that is risk-informed, performance-based, and technology-inclusive.

Grossi, Putin meet to discuss Ukraine nuclear plant concerns

March 6, 2024, 3:03PMNuclear News
Vladimir Putin (left), Rafael Mariano Grossi (right), with Alexey Likhachev (Image: Kremlin.ru)

International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Russia this week to discuss the “future operational status” of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

IAEA: released Fukushima water below operational limits

March 6, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News
An IAEA task force visited Fukushima in October 2023 to review the safety of TEPCO’s discharge of ALPS-treated water. (Photo: TEPCO)

International Atomic Energy Agency experts have confirmed that the tritium concentration in the fourth batch of treated water released from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is far below the country’s operational limit.

UAE’s Barakah-4 unit reaches start-up

March 6, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News
Unit 4 at the Barakah nuclear power plant. (Photo: Nawah)

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation announced last week start-up at its fourth nuclear unit at the Barakah plant in the UAE.

The plant is run by ENEC’s operating and maintenance subsidiary Nawah Energy Company. In the coming weeks, Unit 4 will be linked to the national electricity grid and undergo testing as power production is gradually increased to full capacity.

Bipartisan support launches pronuclear bill from Congress

March 6, 2024, 8:29AMNuclear News

A bipartisan group of lawmakers passed legislation from the U.S. House of Representatives this week in support of nuclear energy production.

H. R. 6544 emerged from the chamber following a 365–36 vote. The legislation would speed up environmental reviews for new nuclear projects and reduce fees for advanced nuclear reactor licenses. It would also update the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the industry’s legal liability for nuclear accidents, by extending it for 40 years as well as increasing the indemnity coverage—changes advocated for by the American Nuclear Society in recent position statement updates.

Federal appropriations bills include $212 million hike in nuclear funding

March 5, 2024, 12:03PMNuclear News

New appropriations bills currently under review in the U.S. Congress include a significant funding boost for nuclear energy.

This week, ranking members of both the U.S. House and Senate released six fiscal year 2024 appropriations, including the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies bill that has nuclear energy funding for FY 2024.

NEDHO diversity panels inspire and raise awareness

March 5, 2024, 7:03AMNuclear News

The NEDHO Diversity Panel featured, from left, University of Michigan professor John Foster; Jeffrey Harper, then a vice president at X-energy; William D. Magwood, director general of the NEA; and Londrea Garrett, a Ph.D. student at UM. (Photo: Aditi Verma/University of Michigan)

The Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization (NEDHO) has been sponsoring Diversity Panels since October 2022, when the inaugural meeting was hosted by the University of Tennessee Department of Nuclear Engineering. The panels were established as a distinguished speaker series by a working group led by Wes Hines, head of the UT Department of Nuclear Engineering, and Todd Allen, a former NEDHO chair and the current chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS) at the University of Michigan.

Allen explained that the panels are meant to be “a first step toward improving the diversity of the talent entering the nuclear science and engineering fields.” The idea came from a presentation by Andreas Enqvist, director of the nuclear engineering program at the University of Florida, at the November 2021 NEDHO meeting. According to Allen, Enqvist described “ASEE [American Society for Engineering Education] data on how poorly the nuclear engineering field was doing at getting black students to study nuclear at the B.S. level and, even worse, how few moved from B.S. to graduate programs.”

AI can predict and prevent fusion plasma instabilities in milliseconds

March 4, 2024, 2:59PMNuclear News
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. (Photo: PPPL)

A team of engineers, physicists, and data scientists from Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict—and then avoid—the formation of a specific type of plasma instability in magnetic confinement fusion tokamaks. The researchers built and trained a model using past experimental data from operations at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego, Calif., before proving through real-time experiments that their model could forecast so-called tearing mode instabilities up to 300 milliseconds in advance—enough time for an AI controller to adjust operating parameters and avoid a tear in the plasma that could potentially end the fusion reaction.

Vogtle-4 plant in home stretch, connects to grid

March 4, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News
Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle-4. (Photo: Georgia Power)

Vogtle Unit 4 synchronized and successfully connected to the electric grid on March 1, just two weeks after reaching initial criticality.

This milestone is one of the final steps to completing Southern Nuclear’s long-awaited Vogtle project, adding the second of two large-scale reactors to the United States’ fleet in as many years—the first such additions to that fleet in more than three decades.

Engineering scholarship established by L&A at WSU Tri-Cities

March 4, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News
The Washington State University Tri-Cities campus. (Photo: WSU)

A new engineering scholarship at Washington State University (WSU) Tri-Cities has been established by Longenecker & Associates for students interested in careers that support Department of Energy missions.

Bruce Power expansion plans get federal funding infusion

March 1, 2024, 12:03PMNuclear News
Ontario energy minister Todd Smith (center) and Bruce Power president and CEO Mike Rencheck (right) applaud as Jonathan Wilkinson, Canadian minister of energy and natural resources, announces funding to support Bruce Power’s predevelopment work for expansion. (Photo: Bruce Power)

The Canadian government has announced up to C$50 million ($36.8 million) in funding for predevelopment work to study the feasibility of building 4,800 megawatts of new generating capacity at the Bruce nuclear power plant in Ontario.

Commercial HALEU supply chain draft EIS now open for comment

March 1, 2024, 9:32AMNuclear News
HALEU reguli fabricated from downblended high-enriched uranium recovered from legacy EBR-II fuel at Idaho National Laboratory. (Image: DOE)

The Department of Energy yesterday announced a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on HALEU Availability Program plans to purchase high-assay low-enriched uranium under 10-year contracts to seed the development of a sustainable commercial HALEU supply chain.

What is involved in radiation protection at accelerator facilities?

February 29, 2024, 3:03PMNuclear NewsIrina Popova

Irina Popova

Particle accelerators have evolved from exotic machines probing hadron interactions to understand the fundamentals of our world to widely used instruments in research and for medical and industrial use. For research purposes, high-power machines are employed, often producing secondary particle beams through primary beam interaction with a target material involving many meters of shielding. The charged beam interacts with the surrounding structures, producing both prompt radiation and secondary radiation from activated materials. After beam termination, some parts of the facility remain radioactive and potentially can become radiation hazards over time. Radiation protection for accelerator facilities involves a range of actions for operation within safe boundaries (an accelerator safety envelope). Each facility establishes fundamental safety principles, requirements, and measures to control radiation exposure to people and the release of radioactive material in the environment.

NRC hearing gives information on X-energy, Dow project

February 29, 2024, 9:31AMNuclear News
A digital rendering of the Dow/X-energy Xe-100 plant in Texas. (Image: X-energy)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission hosted a public meeting earlier this month for community members to learn more about X-energy’s plans to build small modular reactors at a Dow Chemical plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

The reality of radiation

February 28, 2024, 3:24PMNuclear NewsReps. Byron Donalds and Brandon Williams

Rep. Brandon Williams

Rep. Byron Donalds

For many Americans, the word “radiation” is often associated with fear of the unknown, yet the medical and scientific reality is that radiation is ever present in nature and is beneficial to human life. The truth behind radiation historically has been distorted and stigmatized—even the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recognizes that “radiation is naturally present in our environment, as it has been since before the birth of this planet.”

To embrace a responsible, low-carbon energy future, the American public should be aware of the beneficial applications of radiation instead of fearing it due to unsubstantiated hysteria generated by opponents of responsible nuclear energy.

Kentucky lawmakers OK bill to explore nuclear

February 28, 2024, 12:02PMNuclear News

Kentucky’s Senate voted unanimously this week to create a state agency that would study opportunities to bring nuclear energy projects to the state, where coal production has long dominated the power sector.

Senate Bill 198 would establish the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority, attached to the University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research and governed by an advisory board with members representing various stakeholder groups.