Members of the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy leadership team detailed the DOE's fiscal year 2025 congressional budget request in a webinar hosted last week by the American Nuclear Society. The DOE’s FY 2025 budget request includes nearly $1.6 billion for the Office of Nuclear Energy. The webinar was sponsored by Paragon Energy Solutions; ANS members can view the recording online.

The United States has an ambitious goal: to establish a high-assay low enriched-uranium advanced nuclear fuel supply chain, revive the once thriving nuclear fuel market for low-enriched uranium in the nation, and “reestablish U.S. leadership in nuclear energy more broadly.” Making a success of that could have impacts beyond the nuclear sector. According to the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, “Expanding domestic LEU and HALEU enrichment production will be essential for fueling the clean energy required to bring down emissions in all sectors of the economy—including in hard-to-abate sectors such as manufacturing and industrial—while delivering high paying jobs to communities across the country.”

An International Atomic Energy Agency task force has confirmed that the discharge of treated water from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is progressing in accordance with the plan approved by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking input on its draft environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant impact for Kairos Power’s application to build the Hermes 2 test reactor facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Unit 4 at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle has entered commercial operation, the company announced today. The new unit can produce enough electricity to power an estimated 500,000 homes and businesses, according to the company.

An official groundbreaking last week at Framatome’s Mill Ridge Road facility, in Lynchburg, Va., marks the start of a $50 million expansion and an eventual addition of 500 employees, according to the nuclear company.

In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a not-for-profit organization responsible for the long-term management of the country’s intermediate- and high-level radioactive waste, is set to select a site for a deep geologic repository by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, the first digital control system was put in place at Linglong One, a small modular reactor demonstration project being built at the Changjiang nuclear power plant in Hainan Province. This is the world’s first land-based commercial SMR and is controlled by China National Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

We welcome ANS members who have careered in the community to submit their own Nuclear Legacy stories, so that the personal history of nuclear power can be captured. For information on submitting your stories, contact nucnews@ans.org.

As an undergraduate I studied physics at the University of Athens. I entered the university in 1955 after successfully passing a national exam (came up fourth in a field of about 700 candidates). Upon graduation and finishing my mandatory two-year military service, the plan was to teach physics either in a public high school or as a tutor for a private for-profit institution, preparing high school students for the national exam.

A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.

Zap Energy announced April 23 that it has reached 1-3 keV plasma electron temperatures—roughly the equivalent of 11 to 37 million degrees Celsius—using its sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch approach to fusion. Reaching temperatures above that of the sun’s core (which is 10 million degrees Celsius temperature) is just one hurdle required before any fusion confinement concept can realistically pursue net gain and fusion energy.

Project management firm Bechtel started site geological surveys for Poland’s first nuclear power plant project, the company announced on Wednesday.

Bechtel will conduct in-depth geological surveys at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the Pomeranian municipality of Choczewo, in northern Poland. This is a key milestone for the country’s entry into nuclear power production, as the surveys will inform the suitability of the planned site.

Harrison Western Shaft Sinkers (HWSS), the company drilling a new utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, has retained a safety culture expert following a near-miss accident in the shaft late last year. The safety expert will conduct monthly facilitated discussions with crews working on the shaft to reinforce expectations for identifying concerns regarding unsafe circumstances, according to a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).

Advanced reactor company X-energy has been awarded $148.5 million in tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act for construction of its TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have partnered with Washington state–based Energy Northwest to look at alternative ways to cool nuclear reactors as climate change impacts relied-upon water sources.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it will issue a rule aimed at limiting public exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The final rule will designate two widely used PFAS chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund.

According to the EPA, both PFOA and PFOS meet the statutory criteria for designation as hazardous substances.

The International Atomic Energy Agency launched a collaboration with the Group of 20 this week to highlight the key role that nuclear energy can play in achieving energy security and climate-change goals.

The aim of this first-of-its-kind partnership with G20—the world’s largest economic group—is to build momentum for nuclear power. This is the first time the IAEA has presented to G20 on issues relating to nuclear power.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is issuing a proposed generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) for use in reviewing applications for new nuclear reactors.

In an April 17 memo, NRC secretary Carrie Safford wrote that the commission approved NRC staff’s recommendation to publish in the Federal Register a proposed rule amending 10 CFR Part 51, “Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions.”

For American Nuclear Society members and Nuclear News subscribers, the 2024 Buyers Guide is now available in the ANS Digital Nuclear Library. The print version will be mailed along with the May “Capacity Factors/Nuclear Security” issue of Nuclear News magazine.

The corresponding ANS online Buyers Guide database is available year-round to all readers—updated with the latest products, services, and suppliers contact information for more than 600 nuclear-related companies.