News

Teams of nuclear safety and security experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are being stationed at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants (NPPs) and the Chornobyl site this week, the U.N.'s atomic industry watchdog said. (read more)

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman said Thursday that the Kingdom was exploring options for harvesting and utilizing its own uranium for nuclear fuel, stating a variety of domestic supplies were available.(read more)

Georgia Power said it had pushed back its expected start date of Vogtle Unit 3, which had been expected to enter into commercial service in the first quarter of 2023.. The company now says initial criticality would be pushed back to February, while commercial service would not be attained until April.(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company has signed an agreement with Ignalinos Atominé Elektriné (IAE) to dismantle the two RBMK-1500 nuclear power reactors at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Visaginas Municipality, Lithuania.(read more)

The dome sealing the the internal containment (IC) at Akkuyu 1, part of a four-reactor power plant project in Turkey, has been completed, Russian builder Rosatom said last week.(read more)

NuScale Power, LLC (NuScale) and Portland, Oregon-based small modular reactor developer NuScale said this week it had signed a contract for front-end engineering and design (FEED) work with Romania’s RoPower Nuclear.(read more)

Bangladesh on Tuesday refused waterway access to the Russian ship Ursa Major, which was delivering nuclear plant components destined for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Station construction site, The Maritime Executive has reported.(read more)

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency this week released its third report on the progress and protocols of Japan’s plans to release treated water that has been contaminated at the disaster site of the Fukushima Diaichi Nuclear power plant.(read more)

The dome of the reactor building of Unit 3 has been installed in design position at Kudankulam NPP construction site at India's southern apex, general designer and general contractor Rosatom said.(read more)

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has renewed the operating license for the Morris Operation Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) located in Grundy County, Illinois, according to the Federal Resister.(read more)

NuScale Power announced Tuesday that it would collaborate with Shell Global Solutions and other industry participants to seek a strategy for an economically optimized Integrated Energy System (IES) for hydrogen production using electricity and process heat from a future NuScale VOYGR small modular reactor (SMR) power plant.(read more)

Britain’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) confirmed Tuesday the government will take a 50 percent stake in the Sizewell C nuclear plant project, matching the financial commitment of EDF, which is a French, state-owned company.(read more)

Ukraine’s four operational nuclear power plant sites all have access to the national grid again following a complete loss of off-site power earlier this week, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday.(read more)

An International Atomic Energy Agency audit in Sweden found the country has a “comprehensive regulatory infrastructure” designed to keep its nuclear operations safe and secure.(read more)

Brazil's Eletronuclear said that Friday afternoon, November 11, notched the restart of concrete pouring at the Angr 3 nuclear plant construction project at the Angra facility on the country's coastline about 70 miles south of Rio de Janiero.(read more)

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said this week it had completed development of a remote virtual training simulator has can teach technicians how to use lasers and plasma to cut underwater reactor vessel internals (RVI) to decommission nuclear power plants.(read more)

Rolls-Royce said this week that it had been selected as the preferred nuclear technology provider for the newly formed Solway Community Power Company which plans to bring a small modular reactor system (SMR) to West Cumbria.(read more)

The Steam Generating Team (SGT), a joint venture between Framatome and United Engineers & Constructors, Inc. (United), has successfully completed the steam generator replacement project at Watts Bar Unit 2. Framatome has announced.(read more)

In a mid-October event, ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev attended a ceremony in Bangladesh to mark the completion of installation of a reactor vessel at Rooppur NPP Unit 2.(read more)

The Biden-Harris Administration announced this week a $1.5 billion bump in funding for the country's national laboratories, including close to $500 million for Oak Ridge near Knoxville, Tennessee, and $150 million for the Idaho National Laboratory that was announced in October.(read more)

Ontario Power Generation has submitted the first tranche of its application for a license to construct a small modular reactor plant, which would be a first for Canada.(read more)

TerraPower and GE-led joint venture Global Nuclear Fuel–Americas, announced an agreement to build a Natrium Fuel Facility at the site of GNF-A’s existing plant site near Wilmington, North Carolina.(read more)

Finish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) said an investigation into the cause of cracks found in the Olkiluoto 3 EPR (OL3) feedwater pumps a week ago would continue in “several laboratories.”(read more)

Welding of the pearlitic part of the reactor coolant pipeline has been completed at the Kursk NPP-2 construction project, Russian nuclear powerhouse Rosatom said Tuesday.(read more)

Holtec International said Wednesday they had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Škoda Praha and Hyundai Engineering and Construction (HDEC) to advance the planning for construction of SMR-160s in the Czech Republic. (read more)

Modular nuclear plant developer NuScale said this week that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards had issued a letter supporting an NRC staff decision on the company’s methodology for Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) size determination. The committee said the NuScale methodology was acceptable.(read more)

X-Energy subsidiary TRISO-X LLC, this week broke ground and began construction activities on North America’s first commercial-scale advanced nuclear fuel facility at a site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.(read more)

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has completed a £10m ($11,2 million) extension of its Materials Research Facility (MRF) at Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire.(read more)

Six years late and with costs ballooning from an original estimate of $14 billion to more than $30 is close to paying off at the Vogtle Plant expansion project as Georgia Power said Wednesday that fuel loading had begun for the Unit 3.(read more)

Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Company said Wednesday that special inspections had verified the integrity of Sendai Nuclear Power Stations Units 1’s core components, the inspections prerequisites for license extensions.(read more)

Press ReleaseCameco Corporation (“Cameco”) and Brookfield Renewable Partners (“Brookfield Renewable”), together with its institutional partners (“the consortium”), are forming a strategic partnership to acquire Westinghouse Electric Company (“Westinghouse”), one of the world’s largest nuclear services businesses.(read more)

Britain's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Tuesday it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cwmni Egino to support their development of a new small scale nuclear project in North Wales.(read more)

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in a meeting deigned to address concerns over the Zaporzhzhia Nuclear Power Plant which sits in a Russian-occupied war zone in Ukraine.(read more)

The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency remains both vigilant and engaged in negotiating safety protocols for Ukraine’s war-threatened Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, learning this week that Ukrainian operators plans to restart Unit 5 to produce heat and steam for the plant itself.(read more)

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, this week issued a call for proposals for the fourth round of its Canadian Nuclear Research Initiative (CNRI).(read more)

Long-term partners Westinghouse Electric Company and Ansaldo Nucleare have signed a new cooperation agreement designed to foster development of the next generation nuclear power plant based on lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology, the companies announced this week.(read more)

U.S. nuclear power service giant Westinghouse Electric Company said it extended its reach in Poland by signing Memoranda of Understanding with 22 different companies there.(read more)

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) today announced that its operating and maintenance subsidiary, Nawah Energy Company (Nawah) has successfully started up Unit 3 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, located in the Al Dhafra Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the UAE.(read more)

In Byuykecili of the Mersin Province in Turkey, the reactor pressure vessel for Unit 2 of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant construction site has been installed, said operations manager Akkuyu Nukleer.(read more)

Curtiss-Wright Corporation and X-energy announced that they have signed a preferred strategic supplier agreement to advance the design and deployment of X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced Small Modular Reactor (SMR).(read more)

Framatome announced this week it had completed installation of the first 3D-printed, stainless steel fuel component at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant, operated by Vattenfall in Sweden. In collaboration with KSB SE & Co. KgaA, the ATRIUM 11 upper tie plate grids were designed, manufactured, and installed in Forsmark Unit 3 for a multi-year irradiation program. (read more)

The Westinghouse Electric Company’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in Hopkins, South Carolina, has been given a renewed operating license that extends their mission through 12 September 2062.(read more)

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has concluded a safety review of Romania’s process for selecting the site of the country’s planned Small Modular Reactor (SMR), which could become the first SMR built in Europe, the UN's atomic energy task force said.(read more)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Wednesday released a report showing that hundreds of U.S. coal power plant sites could convert to nuclear power plant sites, adding new jobs, increasing economic benefit, and significantly improving environmental conditions.(read more)

In a meeting in Karpacz, Poland, officials from U.S. small reactor developer NuScale Power LLC and Poland’s KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. (KGHM) signed the first Task Order and a Statement of Commencement to begin work under the Early Works Agreement (EWA) signed by the companies in February 2022.(read more)

British industrial Rolls-Royce SMR said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Czech nuclear engineering and manufacturing firm Škoda JS to work towards small modular reactor plants in both and beyond the Czech Republic.(read more)

Atommash, AEM-Technologies, JSC Branch in Volgodonsk (part of Rosatom Machine Building Division - Atomenergomash) has completed welding of the steam generator heads for Kudankulam NPP Power Unit No. 5, the company said.(read more)

Southern Company subsidiary Southern Nuclear said this week it had notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of its intent to seek subsequent license renewal (SLR) for both units at the Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, located in Baxley, Georgia.(read more)

Mexico’s Secretary of Energy Rocio Nahle Garcia, with support from the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, has authorized a 30-year extension for the operating license for Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Station’s Unit 2.(read more)

The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (HAEA) has issued the license for the construction of two power Russian-designed Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactors at the Paks II nuclear power plant site. (read more)