Nuclear

Proxima Fusion, a Munich, Germany-based group that is considered among the leading European companies working on fusion energy, said it completed a €411 million ($468 million) funding round. Proxima on July 7 said investors included technology giant Google along with global energy company RWE.

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 […]

Advanced energy technology group AMPERA announced the company has completed production of what it called the first full-scale, 3D-printed nuclear reactor module.

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 […]

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 […]

Brian Kemp is a Republican. Katie Hobbs is a Democrat. The governor of Georgia campaigns on tax cuts and a growth agenda; the governor of Arizona calls herself a social worker who came to the job from a

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

For much of the past decade, the climate and energy debate has been fixated on how electricity is generated: which technologies are cheapest on paper, how renewables can scale fastest, which breakthrough is

For decades, the most radioactive category of low-level waste in the U.S. has had a disposal plan that exists only on paper: a deep geologic repository that was never built. Late last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) moved to replace that plan with one that can actually be licensed. The agency proposed a sweeping […]

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 […]

An independent developer of utility-scale nuclear power projects said it has an agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy for a nuclear power plant utilizing small modular reactors (SMRs). Elementl Power on June 18 said the facility, sited along the Ohio River about 100 miles southeast of Columbus, has a planned capacity of as much as 1.5 GW.

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 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 […]

Meeting the increasingly important but complex needs of the energy industry requires not only excellent design and engineering, but also advanced sensor capabilities that extend beyond the limits of current technology. A piece of the solution for enhanced technology will come from quantum sensors, which leverage quantum mechanics to deliver tools that will push past […]

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.

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 […]

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced the company has published five peer-reviewed physics basis papers detailing its work on the group’s ARC fusion power plant.

Colorado-headquartered Xcimer Energy has announced the start of operations for Phoenix, what the company calls the largest privately owned laser system in the world. Phoenix, named after the legendary bird from Greek and Egyptian mythology, is the company’s prototype for commercializing laser fusion.

Another U.S.-based energy company said its technology has achieved key performance metrics that advance its goal of commercial fusion by the mid 2030s. California-headquartered Pacific Fusion on June 2 said its core pulsed power technology is on track to achieve net facility gain by 2030. That’s the state where the “entire fusion machine produces more […]

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 […]

New Jersey-based Thea Energy, one of several U.S. companies working to commercialize fusion energy, said the company has raised $100 million in Series B funding. Thea is advancing stellarator technology to provide baseload fusion power. The company, which has several investors, is moving toward beginning construction of its Helios power plant (Figure 1) by the […]

Finnish energy group Steady Energy has signed a letter of intent with Alva-yhtiöt, the city of Jyväskylä’s water and energy group, to study the suitability of small-scale nuclear power as a source of district heating for the city.

A year after President Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14300 directing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to cut red tape and speed nuclear deployment, the agency is claiming a string of historic firsts, a backlog of rules in motion at unprecedented scale, and an internal reorganization due to take effect next month. In a news […]

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 […]

How industrial middleware unlocks the full value of operational data AI and why most AI programs fail without it   Power companies are being asked to deliver higher reliability while their operating environment becomes more dynamic. Conventional power generation: must run with greater flexibility, grid assets must absorb new load patterns, renewable portfolios must operate […]

Duke Energy’s 11-unit nuclear fleet finished 2025 with a capacity factor greater than 97%—its best result on record. For Steven Capps, Duke’s senior vice president and Chief Nuclear Officer, that number is the foundation everything else has to sit on. “2025 was the best year we have had in terms of overall capacity factor for […]

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 on the Natrium reactor in Wyoming. Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), told industry leaders in Washington, D.C., at the Nuclear Energy Policy Forum on […]

After decades of stagnation, nuclear power is firmly back in the energy discussion. Surging electricity demand, hyperscale data centers hunting for firm round-the-clock power, and growing pressure to decarbonize industrial heat have converged to revive interest in both new reactor construction and lifetime extensions of the existing fleet. The resurgence is broader than a single […]