fuel

  • Coal’s Revival: From Maintenance Mode to Market Necessity

    For more than a decade, the U.S. coal industry has been in decline — with waning investment, shrinking capacity, and the steady rise of gas and renewables. Yet, in 2025, a different story is emerging. Across the country, coal units once scheduled for quiet retirement are being called back into service in ways few anticipated—driven […]

  • Framatome, Standard Nuclear Announce JV for TRISO Fuel

    Framatome and Standard Nuclear Inc. have formed a joint venture (JV) to supply commercial quantities of Tri-structural Isotropic (TRISO) particles and proprietary advanced reactor products to the nuclear power industry. The  collaboration announced September 30 marks a significant advancement in Western nuclear fuel supply chain development, leveraging the expertise and robust infrastructure of two industry […]

  • Policy Shift, Private Sector Drive Put Nuclear Recycling Back on the Table

    Over nearly five decades, nuclear waste has been treated as an intractable problem, locked in dry casks, relegated to repositories that are slow to materialize, and generally viewed as a costly liability

  • Aalo Atomics Secures Capital, Regulatory Backing for 2026 Modular Nuclear Project at INL, Eyes Potential First Data Center Pairing

    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 […]

  • Safe, Secure, Economically Viable Nuclear Fuel Recycling is Here

    Nuclear reprocessing technology has advanced significantly in the 80 years since aqueous technologies were developed near the end of World War II, thanks to innovation from the private sector in the U.S. Having taken up the challenge of developing a proliferation-resistant, efficient, and profitable way to recycle used nuclear fuel, American companies like Curio are […]

  • Idaho Falls Power Negotiating PPA for MARVEL-Inspired Aalo-1 Nuclear Fleet

    Municipal power utility Idaho Falls Power (IFP) has announced it is negotiating a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Aalo Atomics, a 2022-founded nuclear engineering firm inspired by Idaho National Laboratory (INL’s) MARVEL microreactor. Aalo on Sept. 16 confirmed it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the utility to explore the deployment of a fleet […]

  • Framatome Will Supply Fuel for VVER Nuclear Reactors in Slovakia

    Framatome and Slovak utility Slovenské elektrárne on July 23 announced the companies have signed a major contract for the long-term supply of nuclear fuel to the Bohunice and Mochovce VVER reactors from 2027. This follows on from the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two companies in May 2023. “This contract marks a new milestone […]

  • The POWER Interview: Advanced Technology For Hydrogen Production

    Governments worldwide are investing in hydrogen production as a way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and help decarbonize the energy sector. The U.S. Dept. of Energy last year published its U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, highlighting the need for collaboration across multiple agencies to push national decarbonization goals. The European Commission in […]

  • DOE Launches Nuclear RFP for Uranium Enrichment to Expand Domestic HALEU Chain

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for uranium enrichment and storage services as part of a measure aimed at stimulating a domestic supply chain for high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU). The action follows an RFP released in November 2023 for services to deconvert enriched uranium into metal, oxide, and […]

  • Hydrogen Is the Power of Tomorrow—but We Need to Start Small

    Sustainable, efficient, and powerful—many energy experts agree that hydrogen power has the potential to be a major force in the coming years. Hydrogen fuel provides all the convenience and power of fossil fuels (particularly of natural gas) without the carbon dioxide residue. Hydrogen doesn’t require soil-scarring mining projects or deep wells; it’s literally all around us, and can […]

  • Framatome’s Accident-Tolerant Fuel Completes First Cycle at U.S. Nuclear Plant

    Framatome, the France-based nuclear power company, said its Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) assembly reached a milestone, with the group on July 25 announcing the EATF successfully completed its first cycle of operation at a U.S. nuclear power plant. The assembly was installed at Unit 2 of the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland during a […]

  • How to Achieve a Thriving Nuclear Power Industry in the U.S.

    There are many reasons to be excited about the U.S. nuclear power industry and its potential for growth. For activists focused on climate change, its carbon-free attribute makes it a viable long-term power resource. Additionally, its around-the-clock generating capability makes it a vital option in a world increasingly filled with intermittent renewables. Furthermore, new technology […]

  • The POWER Interview: European Group Building Next Generation of Nuclear Reactors

    Advancements in nuclear power technology have brought several new companies into the sector, many of them working on innovative reactor designs and fuels to move the industry forward. One of those groups is newcleo, a company based in the UK with additional operations in Italy and France. The company began operating in 2021, and in […]

  • Marnie Surfaceblow: Even Minor Alarms Can Lead to Major Safety Improvements

    When investigating any potential problem, keep your eyes and your mind open to other possible dangers. “I am starting to wonder if you accepted this assignment because of … that,” stated Maya Sharma

  • Hybrids Combine Technologies to Enhance Electricity Production

    Solar + wind, solar + storage, wind + storage—even fossil fuels combined with renewable energy—are supporting the growth of hybrid power plants that are breaking the norms of traditional power generation

  • New VGB Standard includes ECM for online fuel fineness measurement EUcoalsizer (ECM)

    VGB, the international association of energy plant operators, has just released a new standard VGB-S-150-29-2021-10 for fuel particle fineness measurement that includes the laser-based EUcoalsizer (ECM) mobile system developed by combustion specialists of German EUtech Scientific Engineering GmbH. The standard extents the ISO Standard 9931 and recommends to apply the ECM mobile system in combination […]

  • Shift to Specialty Fuels—A Driving Force to Build Supply Chain Resilience

    Geopolitical tension, ongoing energy crisis, supply chain disruption, and destructive climate change effects have been altering energy needs and sourcing requirements. Global companies have been transitioning from traditional fossil fuels to specialty fossil fuels, such as industrial heating oil (IHO) and CO2-as-Energy. In addition to cost savings (25% to 30%), they offer relatively high heat […]

  • CNL Partners With ARC Canada to Advance Fuel Development

    CHALK RIVER, Ontario, July 27, 2022 — Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with ARC Clean Energy Canada (ARC Canada), a New Brunswick-based team working to develop and licence its sodium-cooled advanced small modular reactor (SMR) technology. Funded […]

  • Marnie Surfaceblow: What Is Killing This Biomass Boiler? Marnie and Maya Are on the Case!

    When seeking answers to critical operations problems, consider that multiple root causes may be at play—thus requiring many different solutions. Watch as our heroines track down the culprits! As they trudged

  • Russians Achieve Milestone with New Nuclear Fuel

    Rosatom announced that it has started the fourth irradiation cycle of fuel assemblies with VVER-type fuel rods in the MIR research reactor (Figure 1) at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk Region. The reactor tests have been ongoing since early 2019. The rods have four combinations of cladding and fuel matrix materials. […]

  • First Hydrogen Burn at Long Ridge HA-Class Gas Turbine Marks Triumph for GE

    Hydrogen combustion has begun at the 485-MW Long Ridge Energy Terminal combined cycle power plant—a flagship GE HA-class project that is purpose-built to transition from natural gas to hydrogen blends and ultimately be capable of burning 100% hydrogen. While the sprawling multimodal facility in Hannibal, Ohio—which sits on the Ohio and West Virginia border—achieved commercial […]

  • Grid-scale Testing Shows CoalSwitch™ Significantly Reduces Ash, Nitrogen Oxide and Sulphur Dioxide Compared to Burning Coal in Power Plant

    Low-carbon, clean energy pellet also outperforms “white” pellets in terms of heating value ASHLAND, Maine, Feb. 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Independent testing of CoalSwitch, the novel clean energy pellet from Active Energy Group (AIM:AEG) demonstrates that the fuel burns cleaner and produces fewer pollutants than coal while outperforming other “white” pellets. “This testing confirms […]

  • Vistra Claims ‘Extortion’ by Pipeline Company, Says Natural Gas Supply to Texas Power Plants Threatened

    Two Vistra Corp. subsidiaries have alleged in a complaint filed with the Texas Railroad Commission that a major pipeline firm has threatened to terminate natural gas service to five Texas gas-fired power plants—a combined 2 GW—“at any time” after Jan. 23. If escalated, the issue could pose new hurdles for the state’s electricity security as […]

  • Rosatom launches PWR fuel fabrication facility

    TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom has launched the new fabrication facility for manufacturing of TVS-K nuclear fuel for PWR reactors at the site of Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, one of the world’s major nuclear fuel enterprises. The new facility will enable TVEL to supply various modifications of TVS-K fuel to nuclear power plants powered by […]

  • Ingenuity Boosts Efficiency at Colombian Gas Power Plant

    The 1993-built 610-MW Prime Termoflores gas plant in Barranquilla, Colombia, set out to boost its efficiency and ramp up performance to provide reliable backup to the region’s volatile, hydro-reliant power

  • Gas Turbine Technology Advances That Could Boost Their Future Relevance

    Gas turbines have grown into a hallmark of the modern power system for their high efficiency, reliability, operational flexibility, fuel flexibility, and low-emission power options. But if gas turbines are to

  • Experimental Advanced Fuel Rods Loaded in Russian Nuclear Reactor

    The first Russian-made nuclear reactor fuel bundles with experimental ATF (Advanced Technology Fuel) rods have been loaded into Unit 2 at the Rostov nuclear power plant (NPP) in southwest Russia. The reactor resumed operations earlier this month after a scheduled maintenance and refueling outage. The Rostov site is home to four VVER-1000 reactor units (Figure […]

  • Valmet to supply a boiler upgrade and a flue gas cleaning system to Stora Enso’s Anjala-Ingerois sites in Finland

    JULY 14, 2021 — Valmet will supply a boiler upgrade and a flue gas cleaning system to Stora Enso’s Anjala-Ingerois sites in Finland. The goal of the investment is to reduce the emissions and to ensure flexible use of different fuel mixtures in heat production, as well as to achieve better boiler performance and higher […]

  • Rediscovering Fire: Advancements in Gas Turbine Combustion

    Gas power market drivers and a quest for relevance in future decarbonized systems are driving fundamental shifts in gas turbine combustion design approaches. Combustion lies at the heart of gas turbine

  • Renewable Natural Gas Emerging as Serious Decarbonized Gas Contender

    Last December, two giant Virginia-headquartered firms—energy company Dominion Energy and food manufacturer Smithfield Foods—announced completion of a novel renewable natural gas (RNG) facility in Milford