nuclear

Westinghouse Electric Co. and CORE POWER said the companies have formalized a deal for the design and development of a floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) using the Westinghouse eVinci microreactor. The companies on Nov. 25 called the floating facilities “a game-changing approach to deploying nuclear energy to islands, ports, coastal communities and industry.” “There’s no […]

The energy landscape in the U.S. is undergoing a seismic shift, owing in part to the exponential growth of generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications and data centers, according to McKinsey & Company. This rise in energy demand is further exacerbated by the country’s increasing seasonal cooling and heating needs due to extreme weather. To offset […]

Officials with Kenya’s Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) said the country is on track to start construction on its first nuclear power plant by 2027. The group at a parliamentary hearing this month said the facility would begin generating power by 2034. Kenya’s move is the latest by an African nation as more countries […]

As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption skyrockets—and especially generative AI (genAI)—the underlying infrastructure powering these technologies faces unprecedented demands. Data centers, the nerve centers of AI operations, rely heavily on electricity, and their growth is reshaping how we think about energy. The current power consumption by data centers already accounts for about 3% of the world’s […]

In a strategic move to reduce its heavy dependence on Russian natural gas, Belarus has successfully completed its first nuclear power plant (NPP). The Belarusian NPP, featuring two VVER-1200 reactors, now

A collaboration between startup Atomic Canyon and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory allowed construction of a sentence-embedding model using 53 million pages of Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents

At the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, last December, 25 countries underlined the role of nuclear energy in their climate strategies by issuing a

The need for emissions-free power generation, along with the ability to provide more power when and where it’s needed, is driving research and development of smaller nuclear reactors. Energy industry

Nuclear power plants are still being dismantled, and the business of decommissioning remains strong, but the need for more baseload power and emissions-free generation has some companies ready to restart idled

This is indeed an extraordinary time to be in nuclear energy. Case in point: Over the past few months, we have seen an announcement between Microsoft and Constellation Energy to restart the Three Mile Island

The carbon-free attributes and consistently high fleet performance have led to increasing momentum behind nuclear power. With ambitious plans to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050, the nuclear industry is

Yet another nuclear power “renaissance”? Again? The industry and its friends in high places would like us all to believe so. But, besides the fact that “relapse” would be a better word choice, we’ve also seen this bad horror flick before. Anyone recall the George W. Bush administration’s attempted nuclear power relapse? Of some three-dozen […]

An analysis from global data and analytics group Wood Mackenzie says Republican control of the White House and Congress means U.S. energy policy will move away from net-zero emissions targets, but there remains bipartisan support for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The group also said competitive economics for renewable power resources mean the energy transition […]

Canada’s AtkinsRéalis Group announced it has an agreement to build two new CANDU nuclear reactors in Romania, which would be the first new reactors of that type built since 2007. The Montreal-based company on Nov. 15 said the Romanian project is a joint venture with Fluor Corp., Ansaldo Nucleare, and Sargent & Lundy. The contract […]

President-elect Donald Trump announced that Chris Wright, the CEO and founder of Denver, Colorado-based Liberty Energy, will lead the Department of Energy (DOE) in the new administration. “I am thrilled to announce that Chris Wright will be joining my Administration as both United States Secretary of Energy, and Member of the newly formed Council of […]

Officials from the U.S. and Ukraine said the countries will partner on building small modular reactors (SMRs) to replace the latter’s coal-fired power generation, with the SMRs used to help Ukraine decarbonize its steel industry. A statement from the U.S. State Dept., released at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Nov. 16, […]

State-owned PGE, the largest power producer in Poland, said the 1,366-MW PGE Gryfino Dolan Odra power station has entered commercial operation. The facility is now the country’s largest gas-fired power plant. Officials on Nov. 8 said the station will supply about 5% of Poland’s electricity. PGE officials said the plant is “one of the most […]

The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has published Community Benefits Plans (CBPs) for several projects that recently finalized financing from the agency. The projects include the restart of the Palisades nuclear power station in Michigan, which is expected next year. The DOE on Oct. 29 said the CBPs are part of […]

The power generation sector is looking at numerous ways to provide enough electricity to satisfy demand from data centers. Bloomberg Intelligence recently said its research shows data centers, buildings filled with servers and other computing equipment for data storage and networking that supports operations and artificial intelligence (AI), could be responsible for as much as […]

Voters in Kazakhstan reportedly have approved a plan that would bring the country its first nuclear power plant. Election officials said 70% of voters in a referendum held October 6 support the strategy promoted by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who has said nuclear power is a way to move the country away from reliance on coal-fired […]

Marking the first-ever revival of a nuclear power plant in the U.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) on Sept. 30 finalized a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to Holtec International to support the recommissioning of the 800-MW Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township, Michigan. Separately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded electric cooperative Wolverine Power […]

Groundbreaking has kicked off at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), where Project Pele—the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) full-scale transportable microreactor prototype—will be placed for testing in 2026. When operational, the reactor will become the “first-ever Generation IV nuclear reactor to generate electricity in the U.S.,” the DOD said on Sept. 24. Project Pele, developed under a […]

Google’s top executive confirmed the company is working on large-scale data centers that would use more than 1 GW of power. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, in a speech last week at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh said small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could possibly be used to generate the needed electricity. Pichai […]

Microsoft has announced a deal to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. It’s the latest move by a technology company to use nuclear power to provide electricity for energy-intensive data centers and support the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The agreement announced September 20, if approved by regulators, would allow Microsoft […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted Abilene Christian University (ACU) a construction permit to build its Molten Salt Research Reactor (MSRR) facility on the university’s campus in Texas. The approval is the regulatory body’s first for a liquid-fueled advanced reactor, the first for a research reactor in decades, and its second for any advanced […]

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 […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said generation capacity of nuclear power worldwide is expected to rise more than the group previously expected, to as much as 950 GW of generation by 2050. The IAEA in a report published Sept. 16 revised its annual projection for a fourth straight year, saying global nuclear capacity could […]

A government agency in Russia has published a draft plan for the expansion of nuclear power in the country that calls for construction of as many as 34 new reactors by 2042. The Unified Energy System of Russia recently released the plan (translated from Russian), writing that it is open for consultation for the next […]

Chinese researchers have confirmed the first of two units of the 200-MWe high-temperature modular pebble bed (HTR-PM) demonstration project at the Shidao Bay site in Rongcheng, Shandong Province, successfully

A new U.S. president will be inaugurated in less than five months. Polls show the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to be very close, with potentially only a few swing states deciding the election. While energy policy may not be a deciding factor for many Americans in choosing who they will vote for, […]