Sonal Patel is a national award-winning multimedia journalist and senior editor at POWER magazine with nearly two decades of experience delivering technically rigorous reporting across power generation, transmission, distribution, policy, and infrastructure worldwide.
Valar Atomics has achieved self-sustaining criticality and completed zero-power testing at Ward 250, its Gen IV tri-structural isotropic (TRISO)-fueled modular high-temperature gas reactor (HTGR), at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab in Emery County. The project is the second advanced reactor to go critical under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program and the first DOE-authorized […]
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has voted unanimously to issue tailored show-cause orders under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act to each of the six regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) under its jurisdiction, directing them to either defend or reform tariff rules governing how data centers, manufacturing facilities, and […]
The steam turbine and generator package for Oklo’s first Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory (INL)—a pioneering application of a commercially established industrial turbine platform at the heart of a first-of-a-kind advanced reactor’s conventional island—is in active production at Siemens Energy’s facilities in Görlitz and Erfurt, Germany. In details provided to POWER, both companies confirmed the […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store June 11, 2026 DOE Approves Xcimer Energy Fusion Power Plant Design A Colorado-based fusion energy company said the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has approved the company's preconceptual technical design for its commercial fusion power plant. Sponsored Content Weather uncertainty with Bolder […]
System planners and grid operators are treating extreme heat as an assumed operating condition given new pressures, including drought, demand growth, and fuel concerns. Will it be enough? For decades, the U.S. power system treated extreme heat as a tail risk, managed through seasonal readiness—something for which to prepare. But hotter conditions are now arriving […]
From EOP-012-3 to Order 587-AB, from Cold Weather Critical Component inventories to dual-fuel conversions, the bulk power system has spent five years rewiring how it prepares for extreme cold. Winter Storm Fern, the latest test, showed the system ran “very close to the edge.” The last five winters have given the North American power sector […]
Antares Nuclear Inc.’s Mark-0—a sodium heat-pipe-cooled microreactor fueled by high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel compacts—has achieved zero-power criticality at Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) Reactor and Critical Experiment (RACE) facility, becoming the first advanced reactor to reach that milestone under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program. The development, announced on June […]
Google and Intersect, a clean energy developer Google acquired in March 2026, have launched construction on the Meitner Energy Center, a co-located data center and generation complex in the Texas Panhandle that will integrate more than 1 GW of wind, solar, and battery storage with on-site gas-fired generation for reliability firming. The project is located […]
Urenco USA, operator of the only U.S. commercial-scale uranium enrichment facility, will expand low-enriched uranium (LEU) capacity at its National Enrichment Facility (NEF) in Eunice, New Mexico, by nearly 50% through a privately funded, multibillion-dollar investment that includes construction of a new enrichment plant. The project will add 2.1 million separative work units (SWU) of […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store May 28, 2026 DigitalBridge Acquiring ArcLight in $1-Billion Power Infrastructure Deal DigitalBridge Group said it has a definitive agreement to acquire ArcLight Capital Partners as part of a $1.05-billion deal. Sponsored Content Turn pressure into progress with Bolder Vision Power needs are […]
Sweden’s nuclear reversal marked three major developments this past week, as advanced modular reactor developer Blykalla and long-established nuclear services firm Studsvik filed separate applications for up to 1.7 GW of new reactors at two sites, while the government formalized an unprecedented financial commitment to another flagship project. The filings, among the first in Sweden’s […]
Google will invest $15 billion in Missouri infrastructure, including a new data center in New Florence, Montgomery County, in a project that pairs its expanding data center footprint with new generation commitments, a large-load cost-allocation framework, and Ameren Missouri rate structures designed to protect existing customers from infrastructure costs tied to large energy users. “When […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its environmental assessment (EA) of the proposed 320-MW Long Mott Generating Station at Dow’s Seadrift site in Texas, issuing a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the four-reactor X-energy project. According to X-energy, the NRC completed the environmental review in under a year, marking the first time […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store May 14, 2026 State of the Nuclear Industry 2026: Korsnick Says the Real Test Is Now Scale Within a single week last month, Kairos Power broke ground on its Hermes 2 reactor in Tennessee, and days later TerraPower and Bechtel began construction […]
U.S. natural gas supply is expected to reach a record 117 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) this summer, including 111.7 Bcf/d of dry gas production, but growing demand from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, data center load, industrial activity, and power generation is absorbing much of that growth, leaving less gas available for storage […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store May 7, 2026 Ontario Advances Bruce C Nuclear Project with $300M Pre-Development Agreement Ontario took its most decisive step yet toward building Canada’s first large-scale nuclear station in more than three decades, directing the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to enter a […]
Operators are trying to coax more output from aging fleets, with fewer experienced people, under increasingly unforgiving reliability expectations. In that environment, preventive maintenance has become an
A Houston-based nuclear technology startup is advancing a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) design that targets outlet temperatures of 950C (1,742F)—well beyond the range of most advanced reactor
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store April 30, 2026 PJM’s First Reformed Queue Cycle Draws 811 Projects, 220 GW PJM Interconnection’s first interconnection “cycle” under its revamped, clustered review process has attracted 811 new generation projects representing roughly 220 GW of nameplate capacity. The effort now moves to […]
PJM Interconnection’s first interconnection “cycle” under its revamped, clustered review process has attracted 811 new generation projects representing roughly 220 GW of nameplate capacity. The effort now moves to a validation phase, under which the grid operator will confirm that applicants have met baseline technical and financial requirements—including site control and readiness commitments—before advancing qualified […]
Two days after naming its first four participants, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) on April 29 issued a request for applications (RFA) for its Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, formally opening the program to a broader pool of advanced nuclear developers and setting a July 8, 2026, deadline for initial […]
The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) have announced the first four developers selected for the freshly launched Nuclear Energy Launch Pad—a restructured deployment-support initiative that succeeds the DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program and broadens federal assistance to cover the full nuclear […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store April 23, 2026 Duke Energy’s Robinson Nuclear Plant Gets NRC Approval to Operate Until 2050 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved a subsequent license renewal (SLR) for Duke Energy’s Robinson Nuclear Plant, clearing the 54-year-old reactor to continue generating electricity in […]
TerraPower’s Natrium reactor at Kemmerer, Wyoming, reached official construction start on April 23, 2026. Here’s a full timeline from ARDP selection to construction start. TerraPower on April 23, 2026, officially started construction on Kemmerer Unit 1, its flagship Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming—a milestone that marks the most consequential step yet in […]
The Air Force’s ANPI program has tapped Radiant, Antares, and Westinghouse to develop first‑of‑a‑kind nuclear microreactors at Buckley, Malmstrom, and Joint Base San Antonio, with initial deployments targeted as early as 2028. The Department of the Air Force (DAF) has named three microreactor vendors—Radiant Industries, Westinghouse Government Services, and Antares Nuclear—to develop and operate contractor-owned […]
A catastrophic boiler explosion at Vedanta Limited’s Chhattisgarh Thermal Power Plant (VLCTPP) in east‑central India has left scores of workers dead and injured, prompting questions over boiler safety enforcement and operator oversight at privately owned coal plants in the country. The explosion, which occurred on April 14, has triggered parallel criminal, technical, and administrative investigations […]
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has set a June 2026 deadline to act in a high-stakes rulemaking that could redefine how massive new power users—including AI-driven data centers—connect to the U.S. interstate transmission system. In an April 16 order in its “Interconnection of Large Loads to the Interstate Transmission System” docket (RM26-4-000), the commission […]
The White House has launched a coordinated federal initiative to deploy nuclear reactors in space, directing NASA and the Department of War (DOW) to run parallel design competitions for fission systems that could power lunar bases and in-space missions by the end of the decade, and tasking the Department of Energy (DOE) to support fuel […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store April 16, 2026 FERC Sets June Deadline to Rewrite Large-Load Grid Rules for AI-Era Power Demand The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has set a June 2026 deadline to act in a high-stakes rulemaking that could redefine how massive new power users—including […]
BWX Technologies (BWXT) has formally notified the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of its intent to seek a uranium enrichment license for a new production facility in Erwin, Tennessee, as a concrete step toward restoring a domestic supply of highly enriched uranium (HEU) for naval nuclear propulsion. The Erwin facility will be a centerpiece of […]