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.
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 30, 2026 Brookfield, NextEra to Develop $100B Data Center Campus at DOE's Paducah Site, Paired With 4.6 GW of Dedicated Generation A coalition led by Brookfield and NextEra Energy has unveiled plans to build a $100 billion, privately funded artificial intelligence […]
Advanced nuclear firm Aalo Atomics has formed a strategic partnership with energy-first AI infrastructure company Crusoe to develop a nuclear-powered “AI Factory” data center in a project that will combine Aalo’s advanced reactor development program at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) with Crusoe’s modular AI data center platform. The companies said on July 30 that under […]
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved the License Termination Plan (LTP) for the Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey, a regulatory milestone that clears the final phase of decommissioning and sets the stage for Holtec International to pursue construction of four SMR-300 small modular reactor units at the Lacey Township, New Jersey, […]
A coalition led by Brookfield and NextEra Energy has unveiled plans to build a $100 billion, privately funded artificial intelligence (AI) data center campus at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Paducah Site in Western Kentucky, paired with up to 4.6 GW of dedicated new power generation that will be built and paid for solely to serve […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho as initial contenders to host Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses—voluntary federal–state partnerships designed to co-locate fuel fabrication, enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing, and waste disposition within integrated, full‑cycle nuclear ecosystems. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed non-binding memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 23, 2026 AI Is Usually Cast as a Grid Burden. The Genesis Mission Is Betting It’s a Grid Tool. The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) computing is, for most utilities, a problem to be absorbed: gigawatts of new data-center demand arriving […]
Congress and the White House advanced parallel tracks this week to keep large data centers from shifting their grid costs onto electricity customers, reflecting a concern that has gathered momentum among state regulators, consumer advocates, and members of both parties. On July 21, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 52-0 to advance the Ratepayer Protection […]
A federal appeals court has upheld the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) use of a generic environmental analysis for nuclear plant license renewals, rejecting claims that the agency failed to adequately consider how aging components and climate change could affect the risk of severe reactor accidents. The July 21 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 16, 2026 Siemens Energy Will Shed the Siemens Name, Rebrand as Omterra The Siemens name is coming off one of the power industry’s largest equipment and service suppliers. Siemens Energy announced July 14 that it has begun preparing the transition to […]
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to file one or more new or modified mandatory reliability standards governing the integration of computational loads—a category defined broadly enough to cover generative-AI data centers, cryptocurrency mines, and other information-technology facilities—by Dec. 31, 2026. FERC’s order, issued on July […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 9, 2026 Aalo Atomics’ Test Reactor Reaches Criticality at INL, Fourth DOE-Authorized Advanced Reactor by July 4 Aalo Atomics’ Aalo-X Critical Test Reactor (CTR)—dubbed “Project First Light”—has reached criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), marking the fourth Department of Energy (DOE)–authorized […]
The U.S. Department of Energy has closed a loan of up to $3.26 billion to AEP Texas to finance a portfolio of nearly 100 transmission projects, the agency’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) said on July 8. The financing will fund the rebuilding, reconductoring, and new construction of roughly 2,800 miles of transmission lines across […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed a major rewrite of its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules, opening yet another front in the agency’s fast-moving campaign to modernize as directed by a series of recent executive orders, statutory NEPA amendments, and a Supreme Court precedent. The rule proposed on July 7, “Implementation of the […]
Aalo Atomics’ Aalo-X Critical Test Reactor (CTR)—dubbed “Project First Light”—has reached criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), marking the fourth Department of Energy (DOE)–authorized advanced reactor startup under the federal push to accelerate reactor testing and demonstration. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said July 6 that Aalo’s test reactor, which DOE referred to as […]
Warsaw-based small modular reactor (SMR) developer SGE has unveiled plans to deploy 14 GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) BWRX-300 units across three U.K. sites. The company says the 4.2-GW privately financed fleet could ultimately meet roughly 11% of UK power demand. The plan, announced by SGE on July 2, was submitted as an application under […]
Centrus Energy has finalized a $900 million task order with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that clears the way for the company to transition its pioneering high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) cascade in Piketon, Ohio, from a government-funded demonstration to private commercial operation. The Bethesda, Maryland-headquartered firm on July 1 announced that its wholly owned subsidiary American […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 2, 2026 Deployable Energy’s Unity Nuclear Reactor Achieves Criticality at INL, Third Under DOE Nuclear Push Deployable Energy’s Unity demonstration reactor has achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), making it the third Department of Energy (DOE)–authorized advanced reactor to reach […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed what may be its most consequential reactor-licensing overhaul in a generation, a 553-page rulemaking that seeks to rewrite core pieces of the regulatory framework governing how commercial nuclear plants are sited, licensed, built, modified, operated, renewed, fueled, and ultimately decommissioned. Issued July 1, the proposed rule, “Modernizing Reactor […]
Deployable Energy’s Unity demonstration reactor has achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), making it the third Department of Energy (DOE)–authorized advanced reactor to reach the milestone ahead of the July 4 deadline set under President Trump’s May 2025 nuclear executive order. The U.S. DOE on July 1 said Deployable Energy’s Unity reactor completed a […]
After decades of ambition and 14 years of construction, Ethiopia’s 5.15-GW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has become Africa’s largest hydropower project. The 13-unit plant gives Ethiopia a single
A decade after Dominion Energy secured a federal lease off Virginia Beach, the 2.6-GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project has cleared the full U.S. permitting stack, survived a federal stop-work
At a recent energy conference, power sector stakeholders agreed the looming fleet of hyperscale data centers will require vast amounts of clean, firm capacity. But while nuclear looks like the most plausible
X-energy Advances 6-GW Nuclear Partnership With UK’s Centrica. Advanced nuclear reactor developer X-energy on June 2 said it submitted an application for the UK’s Generic Design Assessment (GDA)—the
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed a materials-licensing rule that would revise several regulatory handoffs outside the reactor license, including pilot fuel lines, spent fuel reprocessing, dry storage cask approvals, advanced-fuel storage definitions, construction timing, and reporting requirements for fuel-cycle and materials facilities. The proposed rule, Modernizing Materials Licensing, released June 18, seeks to […]
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 18, 2026 A New Coal Plant in the U.S.? Once Unthinkable, Now a Strong Maybe A $350 million Department of Energy (DOE) coal-revival program has put $18.5 million toward the TerraSpark Energy Campus, a 1.6-GW greenfield project in West Virginia pairing […]
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 […]