France’s ASN begins review of the Cigéo repository

June 28, 2023, 7:00AMRadwaste Solutions
Diagram of the Cigéo repository in France. (Image: Andra)

Having deemed the application admissible, France’s nuclear safety authority, Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN), will undertake a technical appraisal of Andra’s application to construct the Cigéo deep geological disposal facility for radioactive waste.

SHINE to open North America’s largest Lu-177 production facility

June 27, 2023, 3:00PMNuclear News
SHINE Technologies founder and CEO Greg Piefer shows the hot cell banks that will be used to produce Lu-177. (Image: SHINE)

Fusion tech company SHINE Technologies announced that it is opening the largest facility in North America dedicated to the production of non-carrier-added lutetium-177, a medical isotope used in targeted cancer therapies.

Seven companies get GAIN vouchers in this year’s third award round

June 27, 2023, 12:00PMNuclear News

The Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) announced June 26 the companies that have received GAIN Nuclear Energy Vouchers, which allow private companies to access the expertise and research capabilities of Department of Energy national laboratories to advance their projects toward commercial deployment. This is the third round of GAIN vouchers awarded for fiscal year 2023; the first round was announced in December 2022 and the second in March.

Serva Energy teams with research reactor to produce cancer-fighting Ac-225

June 27, 2023, 7:00AMNuclear News

Serva Energy has developed a research reactor–based method of actinium-225 production, the company announced on June 22, saying it “marks the first time a commercial entity has employed a conventional nuclear reactor to produce the lifesaving isotope—allowing for dozens of existing research reactors around the world to collaborate with Serva on increasing production of Actinium-225 without huge capital investments or delays for construction.”

Neuroscience meets nuclear science at Beaver Valley

June 26, 2023, 3:06PMNuclear News
The Beaver Valley/Energy Harbor training management team poses in Beaver Valley’s Unit 1 simulator room. Left to right are: Phil Norgaard (fleet training manager), Jerry Manning (maintenance and technical training supervisor), Shari Cook (fleet training superintendent), Annaliese Piraino (instructional technologist), Mike Brasile (training manager), and Greg Pelka (operations training superintendent). (Photo: Energy Harbor)

The education and training of the nuclear power plant workforce is advancing in ways that are increasingly based on scientific knowledge about how the brain works. At the Beaver Valley nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pa., instructional technologist and certified nuclear instructor Annaliese B. Piraino is applying the principles of educational psychology and neuroscience to the instructional practices.

The plant, which Texas-based Vistra Corporation acquired recently from Energy Harbor, consists of two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, each with a production capacity just over 930 MWe. The operators along with the maintenance and technical staff at Beaver Valley are beginning to show the benefits of the new neuroscience-based instructional approaches to training that are being implemented by Piraino and the Beaver Valley training department.

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ERCOT employs new system when Comanche Peak shuts down

June 26, 2023, 12:00PMANS Nuclear Cafe
Comanche Peak nuclear power plant. (Photo: Meranda Cohn/Vistra)

When a technical problem with a feedwater pump at Unit 1 of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant caused the unit to shut down temporarily on June 16, a new backup system was employed by grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to make up for the electricity loss.

DOE-NE invests more than $6 million in university nuclear research infrastructure

June 26, 2023, 7:00AMNuclear News

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy on June 21 announced just over $6.3 million in funding for 18 projects at 15 universities in 14 states. The funding builds up scientific infrastructure and upgrades research reactors at universities to expand the nation’s scientific capabilities and train the next generation of nuclear energy scientists and engineers.

ANS Annual Meeting: Promoting the common defense and security

June 23, 2023, 3:01PMNuclear News
ANS immediate past president Steven Arndt, Jeffrey Merrifield, and John Kotek on stage at the ANS annual meeting President's Plenary.

At the 2023 ANS Annual Meeting, Steven Arndt (as of the close of the meeting, ANS immediate past president) led a president’s session on the mission of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—a not particularly surprising topic, given that he spent over 30 years at the agency in various roles.

Coalition urges Senate to oppose renomination of NRC commissioner Baran

June 23, 2023, 12:00PMNuclear News

Baran (Photo: NRC)

A coalition of environmental organizations supporting regulatory and legislative change to accelerate the licensing and deployment of new advanced nuclear reactors in the United States spoke out on June 20 against the renomination of Jeff Baran to serve another five-year term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The groups—Build Nuclear Now, the Breakthrough Institute, Generation Atomic, Nuclear New York, and Green Nuclear Deal—pointed to Baran’s pattern of actions that the groups say contradict his claimed support for bipartisan solutions to modernize the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure.

The groups noted that despite those repeated claims before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee conducted as part of his 2018 and 2023 confirmations to the NRC, Baran’s record shows his vote consistently being the sole vote against reasonable steps to improve the efficiency of the NRC’s regulations, hindering the deployment of new nuclear.

USNC closes deal to build a microreactor factory in Alabama, delivers TRISO fuel

June 23, 2023, 9:30AMNuclear News
Concept art of the planned Gadsden, Ala., MMR assembly plant. (Image: Ultra Safe Nuclear)

Ultra Safe Nuclear (USNC) announced on June 21 that it has selected the city of Gadsden, Ala., to host a $232 million MMR assembly plant. Modules for the company’s high-temperature, gas-cooled and TRISO-fueled microreactor, dubbed the Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR), would be manufactured, assembled, and tested at the “highly automated facility once it is in operation.

The Society’s vision of the future of scholarly publishing

June 23, 2023, 7:01AMANS NewsSteven Arndt

Like many researchers, I long ago recognized the significance of debates about open access (OA) publishing. However, I did not become too deeply involved, knowing that I alone could not directly influence any outcomes.

Recently, two things changed

The first was the memo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)—commonly referred to as the Nelson memo—issued in August last year. In it, grant recipients are guided to provide immediate public access to research papers and data resulting from federally funded research. The second was my election as president of the American Nuclear Society. During my term from June 16, 2022, through June 15, 2023, I faced very concrete decisions that led to the recent launch of ANS's latest publishing venture, Nuclear Science and Technology Open Research (NSTOR).

ANS Annual Meeting: The State of Nuclear

June 22, 2023, 3:00PMNuclear News
Craig Piercy (left) discusses “The State of Nuclear” with panelists (sitting left to right) Brad Williams, Todd Abrajano, and John Kotek, as well as Amy Roma and Jackie Siebens, who participated via video feed.

The “The State of Nuclear” panel discussion on June 13 at the 2023 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting focused on how geopolitical issues are affecting federal, state, and international laws, regulations, and funding regarding nuclear technology. The discussion was chaired by ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy.

EnergySolutions sets its sights on nuclear new build

June 22, 2023, 12:00PMNuclear News
EnergySolutions is to explore options for building new nuclear facilities at company-owned sites, such as Wisconsin’s Kewaunee site, currently being decommissioned.

Utah-based decommissioning company EnergySolutions has entered the early phases of exploring the possible use of former nuclear sites acquired by the company, such as the closed Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin, as potential locations for future new nuclear generation sites.

RFK Jr. , Elon Musk talk nuclear energy

June 22, 2023, 9:37AMANS Nuclear Cafe

Kennedy

Environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 69-year-old son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, has launched a campaign for the 2024 Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and he has been voicing his views on a wide range of issues in numerous interviews and podcasts.

Kennedy spoke with tech mogul Elon Musk in one recent online discussion, a roughly two-hour livestreamed event hosted by Musk on the Twitter Spaces platform on June 5 (and later posted on YouTube). Titled “Reclaiming Democracy,” the event, which was moderated by tech investor and Musk’s friend David Sacks, garnered 2.6 million listeners, according to the tally on the recording posted on Kennedy’s Twitter page.

ANS Diversity and Inclusion Committee to host webinar on policy impacts on nuclear workforce

June 22, 2023, 7:01AMANS Nuclear Cafe

The American Nuclear Society Diversity and Inclusion in ANS Committee (DIA) is offering a webinar open to both members and nonmembers on the subject of “The Impact of National, State, and Local Policies on the Nuclear Workforce.” This roundtable discussion, to be held June 29, will explore the impact that national and state policies have on recruiting and retaining a strong nuclear workforce. Although national policy and the advancement of nuclear technology have always gone hand-in-hand regarding regulatory concerns for novel reactor designs or waste form and repository policy, the evolution of state and local policies is affecting the workforce in different ways with a younger and growing workforce.

Registration is required for the webinar. Click here for details or to sign up.

Focused Energy and Xcimer Energy: DOE’s inertial fusion pilot picks

June 21, 2023, 12:00PMNuclear News

Focused Energy and Xcimer Energy are two of the eight fusion developers the Department of Energy selected in late May for funding under the public-private Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, and the only developers using an inertial confinement concept. The Milestone program, announced in September 2022, was open to any fusion developer willing to undergo a competitive merit-review process, regardless of fusion confinement concept. But the prospects for inertial fusion concepts might have gotten a boost from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s December 2022 achievement of scientific breakeven at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which was announced shortly before the application window for the Milestone program closed.