nuclear fuel

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) has approved the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA), just two weeks after it was introduced. Among the bill’s major provisions are that it will seek to  strengthen the nuclear fuel supply chain, help incentivize commercial deployment of new reactor designs, and create a credit […]

Industry experts agree that deep geological repositories are needed for long-term storage of spent reactor fuel. They’re also digging for alternative methods. The U.S. Department of Energy earlier this year

July 20, 2020 – Framatome delivered its first nuclear fuel reload to the largest power producer in the U.S. The 100 fuel assemblies were manufactured at Framatome’s fuel fabrication facility in Richland, Washington, and inserted into the reactor at the nuclear energy facility as part of the spring refueling outage completed in May. Framatome delivered […]

Several industry-led developments and a possible new advanced nuclear demonstration have been announced since the White House working group laid out a national strategy to revive the nuclear industry last week. Centrus Energy on April 28 signed a letter of intent with Advanced Reactor Concepts (ARC), developer of a 100-MWe sodium-cooled fast-reactor design, that potentially […]

In Part 1 of this series, published in the March 2020 issue, POWER explored how existing reactors may leverage advances in nuclear fuel to boost power generation safety and economics. This installment surveys

Honeywell International’s uranium conversion plant in Metropolis, Illinois, has received the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) approval to run for 40 more years. The approval for the nation’s sole conversion facility is key to ensure it can continue supplying  uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a basic component of enriched nuclear fuel used in commercial nuclear power reactors. The […]

In an exclusive interview, executives from Silicon Valley–based Oklo, a company Idaho National Laboratory (INL) chose this week to demonstrate the first-of-its-kind use of recycled high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel in its full-size Aurora micro-reactor, told POWER that the project could have broad implications for the future of nuclear power. Marking a significant boost for […]

Power plant engineers have loaded 18 mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies in Unit 4 at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Distinct from traditional nuclear fuel with enriched uranium, MOX fuel pellets are based on the mix of nuclear fuel cycle derivatives, such as plutonium oxide bred in commercial reactors and uranium oxide […]

Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF), a GE-led joint venture with Hitachi Ltd. that supplies boiling water reactor fuel and fuel-related services around the world, said lead test assemblies utilizing its ARMOR-coated zirconium cladding and IronClad Accident Tolerant Fuel solutions have been installed at Exelon’s Clinton nuclear plant in Illinois. “We continue to work with our customers […]

Agreement could spur new improvements in core design, performance, and levelized electricity cost of NuScale’s small modular reactor PORTLAND, Ore.—Today, NuScale Power and Enfission, LLC, a joint venture of Lightbridge Corporation (NASDAQ: LTBR) and Framatome, announced a memorandum of understanding to explore the use of next generation nuclear fuel technology in NuScale’s small modular reactors. […]