advanced nuclear

AI-driven load growth is putting significant strain on the grid, intensifying pressure on utilities and developers to secure firm capacity and meet increasingly compressed delivery timelines. While tools such as transmission optimization can deliver incremental gains, they do not address the core issue: the pace of AI data center expansion is forcing a shift from […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

After the encouraging developments from last year and the news from fusion startups receiving funding, a familiar pattern is emerging across energy policy discussions in emerging and developing economies

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 […]

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 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 4 authorized staff to issue a construction permit for TerraPower’s Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 in Kemmerer, Wyoming—the first commercial reactor the agency has approved for construction in nearly a decade, and the first approval for a commercial non–light water reactor design in more than 40 years. The […]

While the bulk of focus on advanced nuclear technology has honed in tightly on the U.S., from enrichment and conversion to advanced fuels, reprocessing strategies, and fast-spectrum systems, several other

Romania’s state nuclear utility Nuclearelectrica has approved a final investment decision (FID) for a 462‑MWe six-module NuScale module small modular reactor (SMR) project at the former Doicești coal plant. The decision by Nuclearelectrica’s shareholders on Feb. 12 to approve the FID effectively opens a pathway for the Doicești project—Europe’s most advanced SMR deployment—from an “analysis […]

In a milestone for the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Feb. 13 issued its first approval of a commercial Category II nuclear fuel fabrication facility, granting a license to TRISO-X, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-energy, which allows the company to fabricate commercial tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel using high-assay low-enriched […]

Small modular reactor (SMR) developer X-energy has secured a binding reservation agreement with South Korean power-generation equipment giant Doosan Enerbility to manufacture main power system steel components for 16 Xe-100 SMRs. As part of the decisive move to industrialize the supply chain for advanced nuclear energy, Doosan has also committed to building a new dedicated SMR […]

Three advanced nuclear developers—Radiant, Last Energy, and ARC Clean Technology—announced the closing of major private funding rounds in mid-December 2025, signaling renewed investor momentum behind microreactors and small modular reactors (SMRs) as the companies move from design and licensing into pilot deployment and early commercialization. The announcements—which span a new $300-million-plus round at Radiant, an […]

China’s Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) in November reported it had achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion inside an operating molten salt reactor (MSR). The milestone provides the first

The UK has confirmed that Wylfa on the island of Anglesey, North Wales, will host three Rolls-Royce small modular reactors (SMRs) that could deliver first power in the mid-2030s—launching a state-backed, fleet-based nuclear deployment through publicly owned entity Great British Energy–Nuclear (GBE-N). The UK government has framed the SMR project, which is underpinned by more […]

I’m lucky to learn firsthand about some of the world’s most cutting-edge technologies. I’ve seen artificial intelligence ace an AP biology test, long before AI became an everyday tool. I’ve seen genetically modified mosquitoes that stop malaria in its tracks. I’ve seen geothermal wells that go 15,000 feet below the surface of the earth.   But […]

Nuclear innovation firm TerraPower has teamed with the Utah Office of Energy Development (OED) and Flagship Companies, a Salt Lake City-based land development firm, to explore siting a Natrium advanced nuclear reactor in Utah. The effort, which could mark the next phase of TerraPower’s expansion beyond its much-watched reactor demonstration project in Wyoming, has the […]

Constellation Energy is evaluating specific regulatory pathways to enable potential deployment of advanced nuclear reactors at its Clinton Clean Energy Center. The measure could mark the first concrete steps toward next-generation nuclear development at the Illinois site now that the competitive generator has finalized a landmark 20-year agreement with Meta. Constellation disclosed on Tuesday that […]

Advanced nuclear firm Aalo Atomics has secured new capital and regulatory backing to complete construction of its 10-MWe Aalo-X reactor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The project, recently selected under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) new Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, will demonstrate cold criticality by July 2026 in an unusually aggressive federal milestone for advanced […]

Advanced nuclear technology company Oklo entered into two separate high-profile collaborative agreements this week that seek to supply integrated energy solutions to data centers and large load industrial operations. The alliances—one with Liberty Energy, an energy services and technologies firm, and another with critical digital infrastructure provider Vertiv—mark the newest notch in the growing market […]

Nuclear microreactors developed separately by Westinghouse and Radiant are poised to become the first fueled designs tested at the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility—the world’s first dedicated microreactor test bed slated to open at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in early 2026. The first fueled experiment is expected to begin as early as spring 2026. […]

In a new pilot program, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued an ambitious challenge: bring at least three advanced nuclear test reactors to criticality by July 4, 2026. Announced in June, the program sidesteps traditional Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing, seeking instead to authorize full-scale reactors on private sites through DOE’s internal review process. […]