The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has awarded 19 experimental proposals access to Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) under the 2024 “third call” for Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) projects. In total, the awards are valued at about $1 million and were granted to 19 principal investigators from 11 institutions, including universities and industry researchers.

As part of its implementation of the ADVANCE Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on September 26 that it will periodically hold public meetings on the legislation, which was signed into law on July 9.

Information about these meetings can be found on the NRC website at least 10 days before each meeting.

Here is a recap of industry happenings from the recent past:

ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE

BWXT advanced nuclear reactor agreement signed

Burns & McDonnell, a family of construction and design companies, has entered into an agreement with BWX Technologies to further advance the design and development of the BWXT BANR microreactor, which has a “passively safe design” for powering remote facilities while providing a carbon-free source of heat and electricity. The two companies completed the first phase of their collaboration in early 2024 and intend to complete the second phase by the third quarter of 2025. Burns & McDonnell is helping BWXT develop the balance-of-plant systems for the BANR, generate the power plant layout, and perform preconstruction planning. Its scope of work also includes developing power cycle architecture, identifying critical components, integrating site design, and supporting steam and power distribution infrastructure and reactor building structures. The Wyoming Energy Authority is currently evaluating the feasibility of using the BANR in a state nuclear market for baseload heat and power deployed for remote industrial users, such as mining operations.

U.S. Reps. Mike Levin (D., Calif.) and August Pfluger (R., Texas) have introduced the bipartisan Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2024, which would establish an independent agency to manage the country’s nuclear waste.

In addition to establishing a new, single-purpose administration to manage the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, the bill would direct a consent-based siting process for nuclear waste facilities and ensure reliable funding for managing nuclear waste by providing access to the Nuclear Waste Fund. According to Pfluger and Levin, the bill’s provisions are in line with recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

The Department of Defense announced September 24 that it has broken ground on the site at Idaho National Laboratory’s Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex (CITRC) where Project Pele, a transportable 1–5 MWe microreactor, will be tested. The DOD’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) is in charge, on a mission to prove that a mobile microreactor can help meet the DOD’s increasing demand for resilient carbon-free energy for mission-critical operations in remote and austere environments.

Heinrich

Cruz

U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.) introduced a bill that would require the Department of Energy and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to create an independent committee of experts to study new technologies and opportunities for recycling the country’s inventory of spent nuclear fuel.

Introduced on September 24, the Advancing Research in Nuclear Fuel Recycling Act calls for a DOE-commissioned study evaluating the costs, benefits, and risks—including proliferation—of recycling U.S. spent nuclear fuel into usable fuels for commercial and advanced reactors, as well as for other nonreactor applications, including medical, space, industrial, and advanced battery applications.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has notified TerraPower that the company has delivered enough information on volcanic risk activity around its proposed small modular reactor project in Kemmemer, Wyo., to satisfy the federal review process.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced on September 24 four new GAIN vouchers. GAIN—the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear—selected four companies to receive vouchers to advance microreactor technologies, identify potential sites capable of hosting a nuclear-powered data center, and prevent corrosion in molten salt reactors.

Workers with the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and its contractor UCOR have finished installing the first of three large sludge-settling tanks for the Mercury Treatment Facility at the site’s Y-12 National Security Complex. The tanks, each of which will be 38 feet tall and 15 feet wide with a capacity of 36,000 gallons, provide a visible sign of ongoing progress on the facility where much of the construction has so far been below ground.

Hours before the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) opened a scheduled September 19 hearing on fusion energy technology development, CNN published an article titled “The US led on nuclear fusion for decades. Now China is in a position to win the race.” The article was entered into the hearing record, but senators had already gotten the message.

Walt Kirchner

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) is seeking qualified candidates for two open positions. The ACRS is the world’s oldest organization devoted to reactor safety and is statutorily mandated by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. Today, the ACRS reports directly to the NRC’s commission and provides an independent expert technical review of and advice on matters related to the safety of existing and proposed nuclear facilities and on the adequacy of proposed reactor safety standards. The ACRS also advises the commission on health physics, radiation protection, and nuclear waste disposal facility issues.

The ACRS is a part-time advisory group consisting of a maximum of 15 members who are well-recognized experts in technical areas that are key to nuclear safety and whose membership represents a diverse breadth of experience in all aspects of the nuclear enterprise: industry, universities, national laboratories, and government.

Kasparov

More than 80 percent of the territory that has been surveyed around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant “can be returned to agricultural production,” said Valery Kashparov, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology (UIAR) of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine.

Kashparov’s team of researchers reported in a recent article in New Scientist the results of its radiation surveys of areas around the site of the 1986 nuclear power plant accident. The group concluded that radiation measurements on much of the land are now below levels regarded as unsafe by Ukrainian regulators.

Decades of research: Kashparov, who has been with the UIAR since 1998, has spent the past 37 years conducting research related to Chernobyl, focusing on the physical-chemical and nuclear-physical properties of radioactive fallout in the area.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Romania’s National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (CNCAN) recently celebrated 15 years of collaboration in advancing radiological security.

Regardless of who is sitting in the Oval Office next year, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management needs to take a close look at itself and “launch a comprehensive review of all aspects of the EM program,” according to a new report from the Energy Communities Alliance, which represents communities adjacent to or near DOE nuclear cleanup sites.

The 18-page ECA transition paper, Ensuring Long-Term Success: Recommendations for the Next Administration on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Mission, calls on the next administration to “take a fundamental look” at DOE-EM’s entire cleanup effort, including both sites that are active and those where work has been completed. How DOE-EM integrates with other DOE programs, including the National Nuclear Security Administration and the offices of Nuclear Energy, Science, and Legacy Management, should also be examined, according to the paper.

Ontario Power Generation’s expansive refurbishment project on its four 878-MWe CANDU units at the Darlington nuclear power plant is proceeding faster than expected, OPG announced on September 17.

Westinghouse Electric Company has completed the front-end engineering and experiment design (FEEED) for a prototype microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory, the Department of Energy recently announced. The one-fifth scale version of eVinci, Westinghouse’s 5-MWe sodium-cooled heat pipe design, is one of three reactors that could be tested at the National Reactor Innovation Center’s (NRIC) DOME test bed “as early as 2026,” the DOE said.

Eleven countries have been newly elected to serve on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member Board of Governors for the 2024–2025 term. The election took place on September 19 at the plenary session of the 68th IAEA General Conference.

On July 28, 2023, the Department of Energy launched its Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, an effort to repurpose underutilized DOE-owned property—portions of which were previously used in the nation’s nuclear weapons program—into the sites of clean-energy generation.

Workers with the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management’s contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company recently demolished a former chemical storage area at the Reduction Oxidation Plant, one of five former plutonium production facilities at the Hanford Site.

Nuclear powerhouse Constellation announced today the signing of a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft that will pave the way for the restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1—under a new name to honor Chris Crane, former chief executive of Exelon when Constellation was part of the larger company.