Nuclear Energy

French nuclear giant Orano ended the first half of the year with a loss of €133m (€144m), weighed down by difficulties in its mining activities in Niger due to a “highly degraded” political context since a military regime came to power a year ago.

At the end of June 2024, the group noted “the deteriorated situation affecting mining operations in Niger”, Orano’s chief financial officer, David Claverie, said in a statement.

The coup in Niger on 26 July last year led to a halt in imports of critical materials necessary for uranium exploitation in Orano’s Somair mine, such as soda ash, carbonate, nitrates and sulphur. Orano said Somair is the only uranium mine in operation in Niger.

And although uranium extraction continued in the first quarter of 2024 after several months of early maintenance, Somair’s sales were unable to resume “due to a lack of logistics solutions approved by the Niger authorities”.

The blockage led the mine into “financial difficulty... weighing on its ability to continue its operations”, the statement read.

Orano said its teams have remained committed to finding new supply corridors and ensuring business continuity. This mobilisation enabled the resumption of production at the Somair ore processing plant in the first quarter of 2024 after several months of early maintenance, as well as the continuation of ore extraction at the mine.

However, Somair’s sales were unable to resume due to a lack of logistics solutions approved with the Niger authorities.

“While the security of supply for Orano’s customers remains ensured thanks to the diversity of its supply sources, this blockage is placing Somair in financial difficulty and weighing on its ability to continue its operations,” a statement said.

Seperately, a favourable increase in the price of uranium made it possible for Orano to once again consider a commissioning of the Imouraren deposit in Niger, the statement said.

In early 2024 Orano submitted a concrete technical proposal for the development of Imouraren, but on 20 June 2024, Niger decided to withdraw Imouraren SA’s licence to exploit the deposit.

“Orano’s priority is to protect its rights and establish a dialogue with the State of Niger to continue this project,” the statement said.

Despite its problems in Niger, the Orano group confirmed its outlook for the end of the year, with stable revenues of around €4.8bn.

Earlier this month, Canada-based GoviEx Uranium said Niger had withdrawn its licence for the the Madaouela uranium mine, dealing a major blow to the development of one of the world’s largest uranium projects.

While International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts stationed at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have been focusing on monitoring maintenance activities across the site, agency teams at other nuclear plant sites in Ukraine say nuclear safety and security is being maintained despite the effects of the ongoing conflict.

Regular, comprehensive maintenance is essential at all nuclear power plants around the world to prevent the degradation of reactor structures, systems, and components, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in his latest update on the situation in Ukraine, and has been an especially difficult task to implement during the war. "These are areas which are of vital importance for sustainable nuclear safety and security, even though they are often overshadowed by more urgent difficulties, including the extremely vulnerable off-site power situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," he said.

Over the past week, the IAEA's team at Zaporizhzhia have conducted several 'walkdowns' focused on monitoring maintenance activities across the site, as well as the availability of necessary spare parts for the plant. They observed ongoing maintenance of the components of the main electrical transformer of reactor unit 3, which were being disassembled for servicing, as well as monitoring planned maintenance activities in the reactor hall and the nuclear auxiliary building of unit 6, including the refuelling machine crane and the heat exchangers. The team was also able to observe the maintenance of some electrical as well as instrumentation and control equipment.

They did not report any issues related to nuclear safety or security related to the observed maintenance activities, but the team "was once again not granted access" the western part of unit 6's turbine hall, the agency said. Over the past week, the IAEA experts have continued to hear explosions and gunfire at various distances from the site, it added.

IAEA experts stationed at the Khmelnitsky, Rivne and South Ukraine nuclear power plants and the Chernobyl site also reported that nuclear safety and security is being maintained. The teams continued to report air raid alarms heard from the sites.

One of the three reactors at the South Ukraine plant has successfully restarted planning a planned maintenance and refuelling outage, and a planned outage at another unit is nearing completion. South Ukraine unit 2, which had been temporarily shut down following electrical protections due to a transformer problem in the 330 kV open switchyard, was restarted after the electrical connection was restored and returned to full power just over 24 hours after being shut down.

Unit 1 of Taiwan's Maanshan nuclear power plant has been taken offline and will be decommissioned following the expiry of its 40-year operating licence, in accordance with Taiwan's nuclear phase-out policy. The closure leaves the island with just one reactor remaining in operation.

The 936 MWe pressurised water reactor (PWR) was shut down on 27 July and officially entered its decommissioning period on 28 July.

Unit 2 of the Maanshan plant - a 938 MWe PWR - now becomes Taiwan's sole remaining operating power reactor. However, that unit's 40-year operating licence is due to expire on 17 May 2025.

In July 2021, state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) submitted an application to the Atomic Energy Council to shut down the two-unit Maanshan plant. According to existing legislation, the utility must file an application to decommission the units at least three years prior to energy production stopping.

The closure of Maanshan 1 comes amid a continuing debate among lawmakers about whether to extend the operating life of Taiwan's existing nuclear facilities.

Prior to the closure of Maanshan 1, nuclear power accounted for about 5% of the island's energy consumption, which is dominated by coal and liquefied natural gas. Taipower has said that with the closure of the reactor, the share of power generated by nuclear energy will now drop to 2.8%.

Phase-out policy

Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected to government in January 2016 with a policy of creating a "nuclear-free homeland" by 2025. Under this policy, Taiwan's six operable power reactors would be decommissioned as their 40-year operating licences expire. Shortly after taking office, the DPP government passed an amendment to the Electricity Act, passing its phase-out policy into law. The government aims for an energy mix of 20% from renewable sources, 50% from liquefied natural gas and 30% from coal.

However, in a referendum held in November 2018, voters chose to abolish that amendment. The Ministry of Economic Affairs said the amendment was officially removed from the Electricity Industry Act on 2 December.

Nevertheless, then Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin said in January 2019 "there would be no extension or restarts of nuclear power plants in Taiwan due to subjective and objective conditions, as well as strong public objection".

Unit 1 of Taiwan's oldest plant, Chinshan, was taken offline in December 2018, followed by Chinshan 2 in July 2019.

The 40-year operating licence for Kuosheng 1 was due to expire on 27 December 2021, when it was due to be shut down. However, in May of that year, Taipower announced it would only be able to operate the reactor until June owing to a lack of storage in the unit's used fuel pool. Unit 2 of the Kuosheng plant was shut down in March 2023.

Construction of two units at Lungmen began in 1999, but the project has been beset with political, legal and regulatory delays. The completed unit 1 was mothballed in July 2015, while construction of unit 2 was suspended in April 2014.

"If new nuclear energy technologies can address issues of nuclear safety and nuclear waste, and are accepted internationally, of course, we will be very open to discussing the matter," Premier Cho Jung-tai was cited as saying on 17 July by Bloomberg. He said the government will focus for now on expanding the use of natural gas and reducing the consumption of coal.

Orano's income has been affected by the situation in Niger, with logistical issues continuing to cause blockages to uranium sales. But the group has confirmed its financial outlook for 2024, targeting stable revenue and a positive net cash flow, and says it still wants to talk to the government about continuing the Imouraren project.

"At the end of June 2024, the group is in line with its development roadmap and notes the deteriorated situation affecting mining operations in Niger, connected to the evolving local geopolitical context, while ensuring its delivery commitments to its customers," CEO Nicolas Maes said in the French group's half-year results announcement on 26 July.

"In a favourable nuclear market, the group has confirmed its end-of-year outlook which consists of continuing to reduce its debt while accelerating its investment programme," he said, adding that the company's teams "are working hard on the construction of the nuclear industry of tomorrow" as well as on new activities in nuclear medicine and the battery value chain.

Orano's operating income of EUR12 million (USD13 million) reflected the "deteriorated condition of mining operations in Niger", the company said: for the same period in 2023, operating income was EUR260 million. However, it has confirmed its financial outlook for 2024 with revenue stable around EUR4.8 billion, and a positive net cash flow.

Niger's uranium industry - and France's involvement in it - dates back more than 50 years. Currently, Orano produces uranium from open-pit operations at SOMAÏR (Société des Mines de l'Aïr), near the town of Arlit, which is 63.4% owned by Orano and 36.66% owned by Sopamin (Sopamin manages Niger's state participation in mining ventures). It is also carrying out remediation of the former COMINAK underground uranium mine, where over 40 years of production came to an end in 2021.

The events of 26 July 2023 - when then-President of Niger Mohamed Bazoum was deposed in a coup d'état - led to an interruption, for several months, in the import of critical reagents such as soda ash, carbonate, nitrates, sulphur, and other parts and products necessary for SOMAÏR's activity, Orano said in its earnings release. "Since then, Orano's teams have remained committed to finding new supply corridors and ensuring business continuity. This mobilisation enabled the resumption of production at the Somaïr ore processing plant in the first quarter of 2024 after several months of early maintenance, as well as the continuation of ore extraction at the mine. However, Somaïr's sales were unable to resume due to a lack of logistics solutions approved with the Niger authorities.

"While the security of supply for Orano's customers remains ensured thanks to the diversity of its supply sources, this blockage is placing Somaïr in financial difficulty and weighing on its ability to continue its operations."

The operation has survived up to now by selling stocks that had been earmarked to finance the eventual rehabilitation of the SOMAÏR site at the end of its life cycle - expected in the 2040s - Maes told investors. However, that stock is now almost completely used up, and the cash coming from the sale of remaining stocks will now be used to preserve the operation itself, and paying the wages of the workers there, until a solution can be found to enable the Orano to resume uranium exports.

Imouraren update

Orano also said it intends to pursue a dialogue with the Nigerien state following the withdrawal by the authorities of the operating permit for the Imouraren uranium mine. Imouraren SA - 66.65% by Orano Expansion and 33.35% by Sopamin and the State of Niger - was awarded an operating permit to mine the deposit in 2009, but development was suspended in 2015 due to the market conditions at the time.

With current market conditions making it possible to once again consider commissioning Imouraren, Orano earlier this year submitted a technical proposal for the development of the project to the government. In mid-June, the company said it had restarted preparatory activities at the site, where it envisaged carrying out in-situ leach mining operations. But days later - on 20 June - the company announced that the State of Niger had decided to withdraw Imouraren SA's licence to exploit the deposit, placing it back in the public domain.

Orano said in its update that it "has acknowledged" the Nigerien authorities' decision. "Orano's priority is to protect its rights and establish a dialogue with the State of Niger to continue this project," the company said.

The company has started the legal procedures to protect its rights at Imouraren, Maes told investors. It has submitted an application for may also submit an application for a new operating permit.

Although Niger accounts for 4% of global uranium production, the loss of the country's output was immediately offset by uranium production in other countries, particularly in Canada and Kazakhstan, Maes said. For Orano, Niger represents around 15% of Orano's uranium supplies, but that the situation in Niger is not endangering nuclear fuel supplies in France and the company will continue to meet its delivery commitments, he added.

Peru is advancing towards its goal of delivering universal health care to all cancer patients; decentralization of nuclear medicine and radiotherapy cancer services outside of the capital city is now well underway; and its second National Cancer Control Plan is nearing completion, a team of national and international cancer experts from the IAEA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has found.

The team were on the ground in Peru in April to conduct a thorough review of cancer control capacity and needs as part of an imPACT Review mission.

During the mission, experts noted that further reinforcements, particularly in the areas of nuclear medicine and radiotherapy, would bring further improvements, but said resources were limited. Subsequently, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi paid an official visit to Peru in June 2. He visited the National Cancer Institute (Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas - INEN) and confirmed the IAEA’s commitment to supporting Peru in its efforts to control cancer under the IAEA’s flagship Rays of Hope initiative, aimed at widening access to cancer care where the need is greatest.

“Through Rays of Hope, the IAEA will support Peru’s efforts to enhance cancer treatment capabilities by providing additional equipment to strengthen radiotherapy services,” he announced during the visit.

Support is needed in a country which the IARC’s Global Cancer Observatory (Globocan) estimates to have the fourth largest incidence of cancer in the region. In 2022, the number of recorded new cancer cases were estimated to be just above 70 000, primarily affecting the prostate, stomach and colorectum. With these numbers expected to rise by more than 30 per cent by 2035, the Ministry of Health requested a second imPACT Review to support its cancer control efforts, a decade after the first.

“It was an honour to note the progress taken by the Peruvian health authorities since our organizations last conducted an imPACT Review in the country,” said Lisa Stevens, Director of the IAEA’s Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT), while in Lima with the imPACT review team. “Positive steps were observed at all levels of the cancer control continuum, including for planning, screening, training, registration and management,” she added.

A key objective of the review was to evaluate the progress made in cancer prevention and control since 2014 and identify the gaps that persist in delivering equitable and timely access to quality services for cancer diagnosis and treatment. “We will use the evidence collected as part of the imPACT Review to inform the new integrated plan for cancer prevention and control and build a strategy for mobilizing funds and strategic partners,” said Eric Ricardo Peña Sánchez, Peru’s Vice Minister of Public Health. As the government prepares its third multisectoral National Cancer Control Plan, its commitment to addressing the nation’s growing cancer burden is evident, particularly in three large areas located in the north, coastal south and central highlands of the country, known as macro-regions.

Steps have already been taken to decentralize cancer management services in Peru, notably in these three macro-regions, enabling patients outside of the capital city to access services. "The investments needed to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves are substantial,” explained Essy Milagros Maradiegue Chirinos, Executive Director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Directorate of the Ministry of Health (MINSA). “We will collaborate with donors and partners active in the sector to identify priorities and organize funds in an effective and rational manner," she added.

Several organizations are supporting Peru in its efforts to advance cancer care, notably MD Anderson Cancer Center, which participated in the mission with experts in cancer prevention, pathology, surgery and City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) which is supporting MINSA with resource mobilization and capacity building in the city of Arequipa.

According to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) representative Maureen Birmingham, the mission arrived at the most opportune moment for the country, considering that the current cancer control plan is nearing its completion. “There is a need for information and evidence to analyse the gaps that remain to ensure timely and quality access for the entire Peruvian population, achieving the principle of universal health access,” she said.

The imPACT Review team commended important improvements in cancer care over the past decade, including expansion of the regulatory and planning framework to cover cancer care, and an extension of free HPV vaccination coverage for all girls up to 18 years of age.

Furthermore, the government has taken steps to strengthen information management in the country by establishing three population-based cancer registries, consolidating the National Cancer Registry with standardized hospital-based and population-based data and records, and ensuring specific budget allocations for surveillance, registry and research. The imPACT Review team’s recommendations were geared towards standardizing academic curricula as well as protocols and guidelines around screening, diagnosis, and treatment, to ensure the highest quality of service for patients.

At the end of the mission, a participatory planning workshop was organised with more than 80 stakeholders from across the cancer control spectrum to validate findings and clarify the short-, medium- and long-term recommendations developed by the team of experts for improving cancer care and diagnosis in the country. Key findings from this workshop were subsequently presented to the Ministry of Health leadership and are expected to feed into the third National Cancer Control Plan currently under development in the country.

The pouring of first concrete has been announced for both unit 5 at the Ningde nuclear power plant in Fujian Province and unit 1 of the Shidaowan plant in Shandong Province. Both units will feature Hualong One reactors.

The construction of Ningde units 5 and 6 and Shidaowan 1 and 2 - together with units 1 and 2 of the Xudabao plant in Liaoning Province - was approved by China's State Council on 31 July last year.

China General Nuclear (CGN) announced that first concrete for the nuclear island of Ningde 5 was poured at 10.58 am on 28 July "marking the official start of the main construction of the Hualong One unit and the full start of the construction of the second phase of the Ningde nuclear power project".

CGN noted Ningde was the first nuclear power plant to be constructed and put into operation in Fujian Province. The plant currently comprises four 1018 MWe CPR-1000 reactors, which began commercial operation between April 2013 and July 2016.

"The construction of units 5 and 6 of the Ningde Nuclear Power Project Phase II will further increase the proportion of clean energy in Fujian Province and inject stronger clean energy support into the high-quality economic and social development of Fujian Province," said Tian Huiyu, general manager of Fujian Ningde Nuclear Power Company Limited.

China Huaneng also announced that first concrete had been poured for the nuclear island of unit 1 at the Shidaowan plant on 28 July.

The company said the unit is its "first fully independently built large-scale pressurised water reactor nuclear power project".

The Shidaowan site is already home to the demonstration High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor-Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM), which entered commercial operation in early December last year. The HTR-PM features two small reactors that drive a single 210 MWe turbine. It is owned by a consortium led by China Huaneng (47.5%), with China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) subsidiary China Nuclear Engineering Corporation (32.5%) and Tsinghua University's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (20%), which is the research and development leader.

China Huaneng said the start of construction of the Shidaowan unit 1 Hualong One "marks that Huaneng Shidaowan has become a nuclear power base that uses both the latest independent third-generation nuclear power technology and fourth-generation advanced nuclear power technology".

China Huaneng plans to construct four Hualong One reactors, in two phases, at Shidaowan with a total installed capacity of 4.8 GWe. The construction of the two units of the first phase is scheduled to be completed and put into operation in 2029.

"After the project is completed, it will provide Shandong with about 20 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity each year, reduce the burning of 5.78 million tonnes of standard coal, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 14 million tonnes, sulphur dioxide by 45,000 tonnes, and nitrogen oxides by 40,000 tonnes," the company noted.

Construction started of the nuclear island for unit 1 at China National Nuclear Corporation's Xudabao plant in November 2023, with the pouring of first concrete for unit 2 following earlier this month. Those two units will feature CAP1000 reactors - the Chinese version of the Westinghouse AP1000.

The Australian government has stepped in to block a renewed attempt to mine uranium in the Kakadu National Park in the country’s Northern Territory, all but ending a decades-long dispute over one of the world’s largest untapped deposits of high-grade uranium.

Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), a company majority-owned by Rio Tinto, had applied to renew a licence permitting uranium mining at a site called Jabiluka, triggering opposition from the local Mirarr indigenous community.

Mirarr members opposed any prospect of mining there since an original development plan was stopped in the 1990s after public protests.

ERA had applied for a 10-year lease renewal on the mine, but on 26 July the Northern Territories’ mining minister, Mark Monaghan, said a decision had been taken not to renew the lease based partially on advice from the federal government in Canberra.

The Northern Territory government said it would deem the site to be “reserved land”, preventing other mining companies from trying to develop it.

“We have gone through a thorough process to ensure that all stakeholder views have been considered in this decision,” he said.

“The federal government advice, along with the wishes of the Mirarr people, were critical to this process and outcome.”

The Northern Territory government declared special reserve status over the Jabiluka area, which is in the surrounds of Kakadu national park, in May.

ERA said it was disappointed with the licence decision and would consider its next steps, which could include an appeal. In contrast, Rio Tinto said it was “pleased” that the wishes of the Mirarr people had been respected.

Following the Northern Territory government’s decision to reject the mining lease renewal, uranium miner Boss Energy withdrew a takeover bid for ERA.

ERA, which entered a trading halt on Friday, confirmed it had received a AUD550m (€332m $359m) indicative offer for the mining lease at Jabiluka but said the proposal was withdrawn on Sunday following the NT government announcement.

Background: Uranium Resources And Nuclear Ban

ERA shut down production at its Ranger uranium mine in 2021 after 40 years of operation.

It has since been working to return the mine site to its original state, but the cleanup effort has become increasingly expensive and drawn out.

In February 2022, ERA said the rehabilitation could cost up to AUD1.2bn more than expected and take two years longer than initially planned.

According to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), the country has the largest endowment of uranium resources in the world, with around one-third of global resources.

Australia generated AUD812m in export earnings from uranium in 2022-23, the MCA said.

The MCA said it is advocating for the lifting of the nuclear energy ban in Australia.

Nuclear energy was banned 25 years ago, a decision that has “cost the nation significant global investment and scientific collaboration on new nuclear technologies”, the MCA said.

Australia’s federal Coalition leader Peter Dutton recently announced the party proposes to build seven large-scale nuclear power plants and two small modular reactors if it wins the next general election.

US-based engineering and construction company Burns & McDonnell has signed an agreement with BWX Technologies (BWXT) to further the design and development of microreactors that can provide thermal and electric power.

Burns & McDonnell said in a statement that the BWXT Advanced Nuclear Reactor (BANR) is a passively safe design that can power remote facilities such as those being evaluated by BWXT and the Wyoming Energy Authority while providing “economical, secure, carbon-free sources of heat and electricity”.

Burns & McDonnell will help BWXT develop the balance of the plant systems for the microreactor, produce the power plant layout and carry out preconstruction planning.

“This project marks a significant step in advancing energy solutions in Wyoming while providing reliable energy to aid existing power generation,” Burns & McDonnell said.

According to Burns & McDonnell the plant can be deployed for industrial users such as mining.

The current phase of the Wyoming Energy Authority study is exploring the feasibility of developing a nuclear market in Wyoming by using the existing supply chain for component manufacturing and assembly.

“There’s been tremendous support as we’ve explored the potential opportunities for deploying microreactors in Wyoming,” said Joseph Miller, president of BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC.

BWXT has also signed a cooperation agreement with the state of Wyoming as it evaluates locations for a potential new Triso nuclear fuel production facility to support anticipated future demand for advanced reactor deployment.

Bill Gates’s reactor company TerraPower recently broke ground on its first Natrium advanced nuclear plant in Wyoming.

Eielson Air Force Base in central Alaska has been the preferred location to demonstrate the benefits of microreactors to the U.S. Air Force—and by extension the Defense Department—since 2018. Now, a protracted solicitation process is nearing an end, and the Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency Energy (DLA Energy) expect to announce a final procurement decision by the end of the summer—or about one year after Oklo Inc. announced that it had been tentatively selected to supply a microreactor under a 30-year power purchase agreement.

Twist and turns: The Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) called on the Air Force to identify potential locations to site, construct, and operate a microreactor. The Air Force partnered with DLA Energy to create a pilot program, and procurement began with a request for proposals in September 2022 with a November due date (later extended to January 2023). The Air Force and DLA Energy announced their intent to award the contract to microreactor developer Oklo in August 2023. But the next month, in response to a claim filed by a bidder (and according to a document sent by DLA Energy to Ultra Safe Nuclear [USNC] and made public by a reporter for Northern Journal), DLA Energy rescinded its decision to allow for “further consideration.”

Nancy Balkus, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety, and Infrastructure, was asked about the procurement status during a presentation to the Alaska Senate Resources Committee on March 18. She explained that a notice of intent to award “was then reissued in February [2024], and then in March . . . a bidder then submitted a GAO protest. So that's where we stand today with a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office [which] has the due date of June 20th to be resolved.”

According to a May 2024 newsletter from the Balkus’s office, as a result of that protest, “A stop work order was issued for the procurement followed by the rescission of the notice of intent to award. As of April 12th, the procurement was placed on pause to allow for additional proposal review(s) set to be complete by the end of summer 2024.”

GAO bid protest records show the bidder to be USNC, which is developing and marketing a high-temperature gas-cooled microreactor. USNC was one of four microreactor developers—also including Oklo, Radiant Nuclear, and Westinghouse Electric Company—represented at a December 2023 stakeholder meeting for pilot project partners and community leaders, according to a January newsletter from Balkus’s office.

Work continues, with timeline in question: During the nearly two-year procurement, the Air Force has maintained the target of 2027 for an operational microreactor as originally defined in the FY 2019 NDAA. But in a set of FAQs last updated in May, they hedge: “The Department of the Air Force aims to have an operational reactor by 2027. The construction timeline is dependent on the vendor, and construction will begin only after the vendor meets siting and permitting requirements from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”

A fact sheet, also updated in May, gives “TBD 2027” as the date when “Demonstration and operational testing is targeted to begin (timeline is tentative and subject to change).”

Regulatory dialogue: The latest project newsletter stated that “We understand the importance of maintaining momentum while we complete due diligence requirements, including facilitating key conversations with federal and local partners on siting, licensing, and environmental health and safety. For example, the [Air Force] is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the [NRC] regarding National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements. Unanticipated milestone shifts have not halted our efforts to build relationships through information sharing, a crucial component of the microreactor pilot’s success.”

Balkus described the Eielson microreactor to the Alaskan Senate Resources Committee as a “pathfinder” project. “We're trying to blaze the trail along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Logistics Agency to license the microreactor and then create a playbook of how other villages or communities and cities in the state of Alaska and beyond can then pursue safe, clean, and affordable energy through a microreactor,” she said.

Eielson could eventually host more than one microreactor. “We're only preparing for a 5-MW microreactor, and the installation currently uses 15 to 18 megawatts of power,” Balkus told the committee, “so we're doing this small scale first, and then we'll add on to it once we have proven it.”

DOD’s nuclear community: The Air Force is participating in the DOD’s Nuclear Power Community of Interest—a “forum for connected learning related to nuclear power within DOD and the national labs”—according to the latest newsletter from Balkus’s office.

In addition to the Eielson microreactor pilot program, the DOD is pursuing other projects that would put nuclear power to use for the military. That includes Project Pele, the DOD-backed demonstration of a mobile microreactor designed by BWX Technologies at Idaho National Laboratory, and the Army’s fast-tracked solicitation, announced in early June, for two microreactors providing 3–10 MW of power to site at military bases by 2030. It also includes an Air Force collaboration with Radiant Nuclear at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, announced in March 2023, to simulate how microreactors could supply heat and power to the base.

The European Commission has approved, under EU state aid rules, the Dutch government's plan to invest EUR2 billion (USD2.2 billion) in the construction of the new Pallas research reactor in Petten, the Netherlands.

The government notified the Commission of its plan to support the Pallas project, which includes the construction of a reactor and a nuclear health centre in Petten.

The Pallas research reactor will replace the existing High Flux Reactor (HFR). The 45 MW HFR started operating in September 1960, since when its use has largely been shifted from nuclear materials testing to fundamental research and the production of medical radioisotopes. The reactor - operated by Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) on behalf of the European Union's Joint Research Centre - has for a long time supplied about 60% of Europe's and 30% of the world's use of medical radioactive sources.

Pallas will be of the "tank-in-pool" type, with a thermal power of around 55 MW, and able to deploy its neutron flux more efficiently and effectively than the HFR.

The reactor and the nuclear health centre will also be used to conduct research, development and innovation activities both in the field of nuclear medicine and nuclear power technology.

Although funding has been allocated in the coming years for the construction of the Pallas reactor, the Dutch government has yet to make a final decision on its construction. It has said construction will be able to go ahead if the Dutch parliament does not object to the creation of a new state-owned company and if the European Commission approves the public investment.

Under the state aid, funding will take the form of loans and equity for a total amount of about EUR2 billion to a newly established company (NewCo) that will build and operate the reactor and the nuclear health centre. NewCo will result from the merger of the Foundation Preparation Pallas-reactor, set up by the Netherlands in 2013 to manage the preparatory phase of the project, and NRG.

The European Commission has now assessed the measure under EU state aid rules and found that: the measure is necessary and appropriate, as the Pallas project would not materialise without the public support; the aid is proportionate as it is limited to the minimum necessary based on a proven funding gap; and the Netherlands has put in place sufficient safeguards to ensure that the aid has a limited impact on competition and trade.

"This EUR2 billion measure enables the Netherlands to support a strategic project contributing to the securing of supply of essential medicines and to the development of breakthrough innovation in the field of nuclear technology to the benefit of European citizens," said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy at the EC. "Our assessment has confirmed that the measures proposed by the Dutch authorities will limit any possible distortions of competition triggered by the public support."

Today's decision follows a 2013 Commission decision approving aid to the preparatory phase of the Pallas project.

"This is good news, for us, for the Netherlands, but especially for the many patients with life-threatening diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases, who depend on medical isotopes," said NRG-Pallas CEO Bertholt Leeftink. "With the arrival of the new Pallas reactor, the production of medical isotopes and the innovation of new applications for the treatment of cancer, among other things, are guaranteed."

The Foundation Preparation Pallas-reactor applied in June 2022 to the Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS) for a permit to construct and operate the Pallas reactor. ANVS granted a construction licence in mid-February last year. Preparatory work on the foundations began in May 2023.

Peter Dijk, Pallas programme director, said: "We are very pleased with this good news. This means that we are entering the next phase of the construction project: the construction of the reactor and the associated buildings. At the moment, together with the contractor FCC Construcción, we are fully engaged in the preparations for this construction phase. The preparatory phase of the construction pit and the foundation is nearing its end and with the approval of the European Commission, we can continue with the Pallas programme."

The Foundation Preparation Pallas-reactor noted that its planned merger with NRG will start next quarter. It said the new merged foundation will be converted into a capital company in which the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport will be the sole shareholder.

Four years after it shut down, NextEra Energy is looking into restarting the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant, CEO John Ketchum has confirmed.

The single-unit 615 MWe boiling water reactor plant in Iowa was taken out of service in 2020 after over 45 years of operation. The plant was the only operating nuclear unit in Iowa and had been producing around 9.2% of the state's electric generation and 19% of its emission-free electricity, but the decision to close it was made in 2018 when utility Alliant Energy and owner NextEra Energy Resources agreed to shorten their existing power purchase agreement by five years, ending in 2020 rather than 2025. The plant had been scheduled to shut in October 2020, but did not return to service after a severe storm in August that year damaged its cooling towers. The reactor itself was not damaged.

"I think there would be opportunities and a lot of demand for the market if we were able to do something with Duane Arnold," CEO John Ketchum told investors in response to questions during the company's second quarter results announcement on 24 June, although bringing a nuclear plant back into service would need "a lot of thought" and assessment of risks, he added.

"So sure, we're looking at it," he said. "We would only do it if we could do it in a way that is essentially risk free with plenty of mitigants around the approach. There are a few things that we would have to work through, but yes, we are. We are looking at it."

The reactor has been defuelled - all of its fuel is now in an on-site dry storage facility - but the buildings are not scheduled to be demolished until 50 years have passed. This deferred approach to decommissioning, with the facility placed into a safe storage configuration with eventual dismantling and decontamination activities taking place after residual radioactivity has decayed, is sometimes referred to as SAFESTOR.

The threat of premature closure of US nuclear generating capacity - and the resulting loss of its carbon-free generation attributes - has led to policy reforms and support mechanisms at the state and federal level to ensure that plants that might otherwise shut down can continue to operate.

Of those plants that have already closed, one - Palisades, in Michigan - is being prepared for a restart by now-owner Holtec International, with support from federal loan guarantees. Palisades is set to be the first power reactor to be returned to commercial operation after its being declared shut down, but may not be the last: Constellation Energy CEO Joe Dominguez also did not rule out a restart of the shut-down unit 1 at the Three Mile Island, which closed in 2019 in comments to investors earlier this year.

Tailwinds

NextEra Energy owns Florida Power & Light Company, the USA's largest electric utility, and NextEra Energy Resources, which it describes as the world's largest generator of renewable energy from wind and solar. It also, through its subsidiaries, generates power from seven commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.

NextEera Energy Resources' renewables and storage backlog increased by more than 3000 MW during what had been the company's second-best-ever quarter, including 860 MW from agreements with Google to meet its data centre power demand, Ketchum said.

Energy Resources of Australia Limited says it is disappointed with the Northern Territory Government's decision not to renew the mineral lease for the Jabiluka high-grade uranium deposit. Any decision about the future use of the site now rests with the Federal Government, in consultation with key stakeholders.

The Jabiluka uranium deposit was discovered in the early 1970s and, with resources of more than 130,000 tU3O8 (110,240 tU), is one of the world's largest high-grade uranium deposits. Jabiluka is also a site of international cultural heritage significance, containing extensive rock art galleries of World Heritage significance as well as sacred sites and the archaeological site of the oldest known human occupation in Australia.

A mining lease was granted in 1982. ERA purchased the Jabiluka lease from Pancontinental in 1991, and some development work began with the construction of an access decline excavation around the orebody, but mining was subsequently deferred and in 2005, the Mirarr and ERA formally agreed that mining may only proceed with the written consent of the Mirarr Traditional Owners.

In March, ERA - majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto - applied for a 10-year lease renewal on the Jabiluka uranium mine, but stressed it had no plans to develop the deposit. At that time, it said renewing the lease was the best way to preserve the mining veto and Jabiluka's cultural heritage.

The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr Traditional Owners, had publicly expressed its intention to oppose both the renewal and development of the Jabiluka Mineral Lease.

"Based on advice from the Federal Government, the Jabiluka Mineral Lease will not be renewed," said a statement from Northern Territory's Minister for Mining Mark Monaghan. "As the Mineral Lease relates to a prescribed substance, uranium, there are strict regularity requirements in place, and all proper processes have been followed by the NT and Commonwealth Governments to come to this decision."

In May, the Northern Territory Government announced that a Reserved Land area would prevent any future applications for the grant of a mineral title over the Jabiluka area once the lease ceases. The Reserved Land area will come into effect at the cessation of the Mineral Lease, due to expire on 11 August this year, meaning while this Reserved Land area is in place applications for a grant of any mineral title will not be allowed.

ERA said it "is disappointed with the decision and assessing the options available".

Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation welcomed the decision not to extend the Jabiluka mining lease, saying the decision "ensures that no mining will happen at Jabiluka, ending a decades-long fight by Mirarr and their supporters".

It noted the next steps for government will be to seek inclusion in the World Heritage estate and to work with Mirarr to establish a new set of arrangements to incorporate the area into the surrounding Kakadu National Park.

"It's a hugely significant day for the Mirarr and for all Australians," said Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation CEO Thalia van den Boogaard. "Jabiluka will never be mined and the internationally significant natural and cultural value of the site is finally being recognised and will now be protected. The Mirarr and their supporters have been steadfast in their opposition to this mining project for over four decades. Now the job starts of caring for Jabiluka as the heritage of all Australians."

A group of 18 European companies, led by Poland's Orlen Synthos Green Energy (OSGE), has applied to the European Industrial Alliance for Small Modular Reactors to establish a working group dedicated to the implementation of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's BWRX-300 technology.

The application for the creation of the working group was prepared by OSGE in cooperation with GE Hitachi and 16 alliance members from 10 EU Member States and Norway. All partners are interested in developing or participating in the development process of the BWRX-300 in Europe at various levels. "All have many years of experience in the energy market, acting as developers, energy companies, design and engineering companies with competences to build the necessary supply chain," OSGE said.

The working group aims to coordinate and accelerate efforts to construct BWRX-300 SMR reactors by members of the European Industrial Alliance for SMRs in different EU Member States. The specific objectives cover a wide range of issues, in particular: standardisation of the technology licensing process in EU countries; maximising the participation of EU suppliers in a jointly developed robust European supply chain, including preparation for nuclear fuel production; building the necessary competences, preparing staff; and creating an appropriate support system for this type of investment.

In response to calls from the nuclear industry, research community and nuclear safety regulators, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson announced in November last year that the European Commission would establish an Industrial Alliance dedicated to SMRs. It was established in February this year with the aim of facilitating and accelerating the development, demonstration and deployment of this technology in the EU in the early 2030s.

The Alliance works through working groups to improve the conditions for the development and deployment of SMRs, including rebuilding the supply chain for nuclear power. The activities aim to support specific SMR projects and accelerate their deployment on the European market.

OSGE plans to build a fleet of GE Hitachi BWRX-300 reactors in Poland. In May 2023, the company received a positive general opinion from the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency regarding selected technical assumptions for the BWRX-300 reactor technology. This is an element of the pre-licensing process. In December, the Ministry of Climate and Environment issued decisions in principle for the implementation of the investment in six locations: Stawy Monowskie, Włocławek, Ostrołęka, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Kraków-Nowa Huta and Stalowa Wola-Tarnobrzeg. In February 2024, the General Director for Environmental Protection issued a decision defining the scope of the environmental report for the construction of a SMR in Stawy Monowskie in the Małopolska province. This is the first such decision in the European Union.

The BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GEH's US Nuclear Regulatory Commission-certified ESBWR boiling water reactor design and its existing, licensed GNF2 fuel design, a unique combination that GEH says positions it to deliver an "innovative, carbon-free baseload power generation source" this decade.

"The BWRX-300 not only has the potential to be the first SMR reactor to be built in the EU, but also creates opportunities for European companies to significantly participate in its construction, including the production of key components in the EU," said Rafał Kasprów, president of the Management Board of OSGE. "A dedicated working group of 18 companies confirms the strong interest in the BWRX-300 technology from European entities. I believe that among the members of the European Industrial Alliance for SMR, which is still open to new participants, there will be other entities interested in joining the group."

Sean Sexstone, executive vice president of advanced nuclear technologies at GEH, added: "International collaboration is key to the successful implementation of new nuclear technologies. The companies in the BWRX-300 working group bring a range of experience and knowledge that will help accelerate the development of our SMR technology in the EU and around the world."

Next Monday, July 29, 10:00–11:00 a.m. (EDT), the American Nuclear Society will host a panel discussion titled “Changing Strategy: International Deployment of Nuclear Power Plants.”

Click the source to sign up.

A plutonium target bombarded with a beam of titanium-50 in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-Inch Cyclotron for 22 days has yielded two atoms of the superheavy element 116, in a proof of concept that gives Berkeley Lab researchers a path to pursue the heaviest element yet—element 120. The result was announced July 23 at the Nuclear Structure 2024 conference; a paper has been submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters and published on arXiv.

“This reaction had never been demonstrated before, and it was essential to prove it was possible before embarking on our attempt to make 120,” said Jacklyn Gates, the nuclear scientist at Berkeley Lab who led the effort.

Russian scientists first created element 116 (livermorium) in 2000 using a beam of calcium-48 and a target made of curium. But Berkeley Lab took a more challenging route, using a titanium-50 beam—the same beam that would be needed to produce element 120. The plan to make superheavy elements using Berkeley Lab’s unique facilities was included in the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee’s 2023 Long-Range Plan for Nuclear Science, and now it’s been proven possible.

Element 120 will be harder: Scientists at Berkeley Lab are credited in the discovery of 16 of the 118 known elements, but the last, seaborgium (element 106) was created 50 years ago, in 1974. Now, the lab’s Heavy Element Group wants to be the first to make element 120, which would sit on the eighth row of the periodic table. It approaches the “island of stability,” a theorized group of superheavy elements with unique properties that give researchers more time for study.

The heaviest practical target that could yield element 120 is californium-249, with 98 protons. That makes titanium, with 22 protons, the only candidate beam for an attempt on element 120.

Titanium proof: Researchers at the 88-Inch Cyclotron needed to prove that they could make a beam of the isotope titanium-50 that would be sufficiently intense to fuse with a plutonium-244 target. Until now, elements 114 to 118 had only ever been made with a calcium-48 beam (with 20 protons), which has a special or “magic” configuration of neutrons and protons that helps it fuse with the target nuclei to produce superheavy elements, according to Berkeley Lab.

The researchers have successfully generated a beam of titanium by heating and vaporizing a sample of titanium-50 inside an ion source called VENUS. Once the vaporized titanium atoms become charged, they can be maneuvered by magnets and accelerated in the 88-Inch Cyclotron. About 6 trillion titanium ions hit the rotating target every second.

“We knew these high-current titanium beams would be tricky because titanium is reactive with many gases, and that affects ion source and beam stability,” said Damon Todd, an accelerator physicist at Berkeley Lab and part of the ion source team. “Our new inductive oven can hold a fixed temperature for days, keeping titanium output constant and aiming it right at VENUS’s plasma to avoid stability issues. We are extremely pleased with our beam production.”

This could take a while . . . Before attempting to make element 120, researchers at the 88-Inch Cyclotron will prepare the machine for a californium-249 target while partners at Oak Ridge National Laboratory craft a target using about 45 milligrams of californium. According to Berkeley lab, researchers could potentially begin the attempt to create element 120 in 2025, and once the experiment is started, and if it is successful, it could take several years to see a few atoms of element 120.

“We needed for nature to be kind, and nature was kind,” said Reiner Kruecken, director of Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division, referring to the successful production of element 116. “We think it will take about 10 times longer to make 120 than 116. It’s not easy, but it seems feasible now.”

The collaboration for this work includes researchers from Berkeley Lab, Lund University, Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, San José State University, University of Strasbourg, University of Liverpool, Oregon State University, Texas A&M University, UC–Berkeley, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Manchester, ETH Zürich, and the Paul Scherrer Institute.

The House Appropriations Committee passed legislation out of committee this month to funnel an additional $9 billion toward two existing nuclear reactor demonstration projects and the deployment of at least one small modular reactor.

The proposal in House Resolution 8997 was developed by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R., Tenn.), chair of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, though some Democrats criticized that most of the funding would be diverted from the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office.

Fleischmann argues the funding boost is needed for U.S. nuclear to help tap into a $740 billion international market opportunity for nuclear equipment and services over the next 10 years, citing estimates from the Commerce Department.

“To realize that, we have got to complete these nuclear demonstration projects,” he said. “If we don’t do this, in a few short years, we will be out of the game not only with our foes but with our friends.”

Opposition: Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Ohio), the top Democrat on the subcommittee, said she strongly supports nuclear energy but does not want to see a large cut to the Loan Programs Office, which supports deployment projects across a wide range of clean energy technologies.

That office currently has 175 active applications requesting approximately $250 billion, and the cuts would reduce at least $90 billion in available financing, including for advanced nuclear projects, Kaptur said. At the end of June, the DOE reported that advanced nuclear projects totaling almost $65 billion in loan applications had come in already or were expected to be submitted in the next 120 days.

“Instead of setting a reasonable nondefense allocation for this bill and finding a bipartisan path that would have allowed the nuclear reactor demonstration programs to be robustly funded in their own right, my colleagues in the majority see fit to wipe out $65 billion in potential nuclear project financing . . . while allocating only $8 billion in funding for the reactor demonstration programs,” Kaptur said. “That does not seem like a sensible trade to me.”

The committee did not adopt Kaptur’s proposed amendment to provide $1 billion for the nuclear demonstration projects and keep the other $8 billion as loan program funding.

A closer look: Some of the funding proposed in Fleischmann’s package would go to the two main projects in the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program—TerraPower’s Natrium and X-energy’s Xe-100. To date, ARDP has received $2.5 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as well as funding via the annual appropriations process.

The committee expects the new money will be sufficient to complete the projects despite an increase in construction costs.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepted TerraPower’s construction permit for review in May and expects X-energy’s to be submitted within the year. Both projects were originally slated to begin operations before 2028, but Natrium is now looking at 2030 deployment due to a lack of commercial HALEU fuel suppliers beyond Russia.

The remainder of the proposed nuclear-related funding would be earmarked for small modular reactor development, with the goal of quickly deploying the first unit. NuScale canceled plans in late 2023 to build an SMR plant because of concerns over its commercial viability. The DOE began funding that project in 2020. The department is still funding a light water–cooled SMR project by Holtec Government Services through the ARDP.

Congress created a new funding stream for SMRs in the final appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2024 by repurposing unspent funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The DOE anticipates offering funding in two tiers:

• Tier 1 is dubbed the “first-mover team support,” and the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations will manage awards. The program will provide up to $800 million for two first-mover teams of utility, reactor vendor, constructor, and end users or power offtakers committed to deploying a first plant while also facilitating a multireactor, Gen III+ SMR order book.
• Tier 2, the “fast follower deployment support,” managed by the Office of Nuclear Energy, will be eligible for up to $100 million in awards to help bridge key gaps that have hindered the domestic nuclear industry in areas such as design, licensing, supplier development, and site preparation.

The DOE anticipates opening applications for the SMR funds in late summer or fall.

The House Appropriations Committee said in the report accompanying its draft legislation for FY 2025 that the DOE is not moving fast enough, which “puts at risk near-term deployment of U.S. nuclear technology domestically and internationally.” The committee proposed allocating an additional $100 million for up to two U.S. nuclear design companies to complete grid-scale design of SMRs, on top of the funds that would be repurposed from the Loan Programs Office.

What’s next: The full House is expected to vote on appropriations before Congress breaks for their annual recess in August, and the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected release its own appropriations bill soon. Then the chambers will mark up the legislation and conference to arrive at a final package.

Quotable: “Opponents say that this bill’s reprioritization of funding will hinder clean energy. But let me be clear, nuclear energy is clean energy,” Fleischmann said. “Strong American leadership in new nuclear deployment is essential for a stable domestic electrical grid.”

A new report from the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) says the lowest-risk option would be to wait until a mature market for the technology has emerged in the 2040s before introducing SMRs into Australia's low-carbon energy mix. But Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton says the first Australian units could be in operation before the end of the 2030s.

As current coal-fired power stations begin to retire there is an urgent need for mature, low carbon technologies to fill the energy supply gap, the ATSE said. SMRs can make use of existing transmission infrastructure, contributing to baseload power, or providing dispatchable power in a high-renewables grid. But the earlier a country enters the SMR development market, the greater the cost and technology risk, the report says.

Although several prototype SMRs may be licensed, commissioned and built in OECD countries by the mid-2030s a mature market is not likely to emerge until the mid to late 2040s, the ATSE's Small Modular Reactors - The technology and Australian context explained found. An in-development or prototype SMR would be a riskier proposition both technologically and commercially. "An Australian government that wished to pursue a prototype SMR earlier than the 2040s would need to undertake legislative reform, acquire social licence, work directly with developers, and build the requisite skilled workforce," the report said.

"SMR technology could provide low carbon energy compatible with Australia’s current electricity system, however as an emerging technology, there is considerable uncertainty around commercial viability and some of these potential benefits," ATSE President Katherine Woodthorpe said.

"Overall, the associated timescales, expense, skills gap, legal and regulatory barriers, and social acceptance of nuclear power means the technology is high-risk when compared to existing energy options."

Woodthorpe called for "non-partisan analysis" to "objectively examine technology readiness and the role of nuclear technology in the long-term", but said this should not "detract focus" from the rapid deployment of currently available renewable technologies.

Despite being a major producer of uranium, Australia has no nuclear power plants and is heavily dependent on coal for its electricity generation. The country has formally pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by 2030, with the current government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese supporting a transition to renewable energy. But the opposition has said it favours introducing nuclear power.

Speaking during a visit to Muswellbrook, in New South Wales - near one of the sites the opposition has earmarked for a possible future nuclear power plant - Dutton said the ATSE report underlined the need for reliable baseload power. "Our analysis is that we can have nuclear into the system 2035 to 2037 in the first two sites," he said.

"There is a lot of support here on the ground in Muswellbrook for nuclear energy and an understanding, I’ve got to say, of the realities of what we’re facing in the energy debate at the moment," Dutton said.

The ATSE said it supports a technology-neutral approach to the energy transition which requires that all options are considered on their merits.

The UK government has launched a competition for funding up to GBP70 million (USD90 million) to support the development of a commercial HALEU deconversion facility in the country.

High-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) - uranium enriched to between 5% and 20% uranium-235 - will be used in the advanced nuclear fuel required for most of the next-generation reactor designs currently under development. At present, only Russia and China have the infrastructure to produce HALEU at scale.

The HALEU deconversion competition forms part of the GBP300 million UK HALEU Programme, launched in January with the aim of delivering a HALEU capability in the UK by 2031. The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said the investment will support domestic production of HALEU and is part of plans to help deliver up to 24 GWe of nuclear power by 2050, providing about 25% of the UK's electricity needs.

In May, the government announced the first tranche of this funding, awarding GBP196 million to Urenco to deliver a first-of-a-kind HALEU enrichment capability on a commercial scale, targeting first operations in 2031.

Specifically, the grant available in the competition is intended to support the design and construction of a commercial-scale oxide HALEU deconversion facility and the design of a commercial-scale metal HALEU deconversion facility.

The oxide HALEU deconversion facility is to be operational by 2031 in the UK. The facility should have an initial capacity to process at least 10,000 kgU per year but should be designed to allow for future expansion of production up to at least 30,000 kgU per year, DESNZ said. The facility should also permit the future inclusion of a metal deconversion line in the event of market growth. The application must also include, at a minimum, a proposal for the detailed design of a commercial-scale metal HALEU deconversion facility, with a minimum capacity of 5000 kgU per year.

"The successful applicant will be expected to collaborate with HALEU delivery partners and across the wider HALEU supply chain," DESNZ said. "This may include collaboration with the Nuclear National Laboratory (NNL) which is being considered for funding under the HALEU Programme. If successful the NNL will be utilising HALEU grant funding to build UK skills and capability in oxide and metal deconversion via a deconversion test rig and associated R&D programme, which could support the successful Applicant. If the NNL project goes ahead, we would anticipate that the successful applicant would work with NNL to derisk and optimise their plant design and facility operations during the course of the project."

The deadline for expressions of interest is 5 September, with applications accepted until 9 September. The funding period for this grant will be FY25-26 to FY29-30. Industry co-funding will be required at a minimum rate of 70:30 (government: industry).

"The project will support the growth of the front-end HALEU supply chain used by the UK nuclear industry whilst rebuilding scarce skills," DESNZ said.

Progress is being made towards a global nuclear liability regime for nuclear damage, participants heard at the Fourth Meeting of the Contracting Parties and Signatories to the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), held at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria last month.

In his opening remarks, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi highlighted the important role of an international liability regime in underpinning the worldwide increase in nuclear power to achieve progress towards net zero carbon emissions and reach climate goals, as well as address economic development and energy security.“The entry into force of the CSC in 2015 marked a major milestone in establishing a global nuclear liability regime. It is now the instrument that covers the greatest number of power reactors worldwide, about 180,” the Director General said.

Some 60 representatives from 14 Parties and Signatories (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, and United States of America) and 18 invited observer countries (Armenia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Myanmar, Paraguay, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, and Uruguay), as well as invited observers from nuclear suppliers, insurers, lenders, the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency, all participated in the Fourth Meeting.

The meeting focused on efforts to expand CSC membership and to provide guidance on the operation of the CSC. In particular, representatives from countries that are in the process of, or giving serious consideration to, joining the CSC shared their views and perspectives on the convention, including suggestions on activities that could facilitate decisions to become a party. A number of reasons for joining the CSC were identified, including increasing public acceptance through higher assured compensation; addressing supply chain concerns; promoting investor and lender confidence; and securing treaty relations with both neighbouring countries and countries where suppliers, investors and lenders are located. Industry participants expressed the view that a global liability regime based on the CSC would greatly facilitate the treatment of nuclear liability in nuclear power projects around the world, and expressed the hope that more countries would join the CSC.

Ben McRae, Chair of the Fourth Meeting and Assistant General Counsel for Civilian Nuclear Programs at the US Department of Energy stated that the global nuclear liability regime based on the CSC was key to achieving the full promise of nuclear power to address climate change, economic development and energy security.

“The CSC assures prompt, equitable and meaningful compensation for damage to people, property, and the environment and provides the legal certainty necessary for operators, suppliers, investors, lenders and insurers to participate in nuclear projects.

“The CSC provides neighbouring countries the means to take a regional approach to dealing with liability and ensures the courts of a costal state have exclusive jurisdiction over a nuclear accident in its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone,” McRae said

Representatives from the financial sector and the insurance community also provided information on how they assess nuclear risk in deciding on investment in, and insurance for, nuclear power projects. Participants were updated on the status of compensation following the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident.

Anthony Wetherall, Head of the Nuclear and Treaty Law Section in the IAEA Office of Legal Affairs, stated that “the annual CSC meetings and inter-sessional work contribute to the readiness of the Parties to put the convention into operation, including the supplementary international fund, should it ever be needed. In addition to discussing related matters, a key purpose of this meeting is to raise awareness and deepen the understanding of the CSC among those countries that are seeking to join the convention.”

The Inaugural Meeting of CSC Parties and Signatories was held in Ottawa, Canada in 2019, during which the IAEA accepted the request to act as the Secretariat for future meetings and to convene such meetings on a regular basis. Background

The CSC was adopted under IAEA auspices in 1997 and is the single existing international nuclear liability convention covering the greatest number of nuclear power reactors worldwide, approximately 180, or 43 per cent of such operational reactors. The CSC has 11 Parties (Argentina, Benin, Canada, Ghana, India, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, Romania, United Arab Emirates and United States of America) and 11 Signatories (Australia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mauritius, Peru, Philippines, Senegal and Ukraine). The Convention functions as an 'umbrella' for all countries that are party to one of the existing international nuclear liability conventions or have national legislation in place conforming to the basic nuclear liability principles in the Annex to the CSC. The IAEA’s online CSC calculator enables countries to run scenarios of potential contributions to the CSC’s contingent supplementary international fund.

One week after being selected as the preferred bidder, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) said it has begun contract negotiations for at least two new nuclear power units in the Czech Republic. The aim is for the contract to be signed in March 2025.

On 17 July, KHNP was announced as the winner of the Czech government's contest for at least two new reactors. The tender was originally for a binding offer for one new unit at Dukovany and non-binding offers for up to three more units - another one at Dukovany and two at Temelín. However, in February the Czech government announced it was changing the tender to binding offers for up to four new units, citing the cost savings per unit if they were not procured on a unit-by-unit basis. EDF was proposing its EPR1200 reactor, while KHNP proposed its APR1000, with both companies stressing their agreements with Czech suppliers to localise work if selected as preferred bidder.

KHNP announced it launched a negotiation response team on 22 July "to respond quickly and closely to negotiation procedures with the Czech Republic". The team held a preparatory meeting for negotiations on the contract in the Czech Republic on 24 July to discuss future contract negotiation plans and "began full-scale contract negotiations".

The aim is for the contracts for the initial unit(s) to be finalised this year and signed by the end of March 2025. The target for test operation of the first new unit is 2036 with commercial operation in 2038.

"According to the Czech government, the total project cost estimated by the Czech side amounts to around CZK200 billion (USD8.6 billion) for one unit, and around CZK400 billion for two units," KHNP noted. "The final contract value will be decided after the contract negotiations with KHNP. The total project cost calculated by the Czech government, which includes construction cost and contingency allowance, does not show the contract value with the vendor. The final contract amount may vary depending on the outcome of the contract negotiations."

KHNP President Hwang Joo-ho visited the Czech Republic on 24 and 25 July and met with Czech government officials and other key figures. On 24 July, Hwang - along with Sung Tae-yoon, the director of the presidential policy office, and Ahn Deok-geun, the minister of trade, industry and energy, who were dispatched to the Czech Republic as special envoys of the president - met with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Czech Minister of Industry Jozef Síkela to express their gratitude for the selection of KHNP as the preferred bidder. "We will do our best until the contract is signed to contribute to the Czech Republic's energy security and decarbonisation goals," Hwang said.

Hwang also met with Daniel Beneš, CEO and Chairman of nuclear operator ČEZ, telling him: "We will do our best in the negotiation process with the ordering company to construct Dukovany units 5 and 6 on time and safely."

In addition, Hwang discussed cooperation with the Czech industry. He met with Doosan Skoda Power and the Czech Power Industry Association (CPIA) to explore future cooperation plans with capable Czech companies.

"KHNP will continue to seek maximum involvement of Czech companies in the project," the company said on 17 July. "Since 2016, KHNP has already identified over 200 potential Czech suppliers and signed more than 76 MoUs with Czech companies as a basis for future cooperation. These include binding agreements."

The main turbines for the new units will be supplied by Doosan Skoda Power based on the agreement with KHNP. Through Doosan Skoda Power, KHNP also plans to source auxiliary equipment, such as the turbine and auxiliary systems, the condenser and feedwater heater, through Czech companies.

KHNP said it has actively engaged with Czech industry since 2016 and, together with its Korean partners, "has been building partnership with Czech companies through, for example, the development of localisation strategies and programmes, and the hosting of various events such as an APR1000 Supplier Symposium, technical seminars, construction forums and a Doosan partnership day".

"Cooperation with Czech companies with cutting-edge technological and scientific capabilities is not only one of our top priorities, but also an absolute necessity for the success of the completion of new nuclear units in the Czech Republic," KHNP Executive Vice President Insik Park said in May, ČT24 reported. "We are committed to building the new nuclear units with maximum involvement of Czech companies, making the most of synergies for cooperation, on time and on budget."

Brazil's Eletronuclear has extended by 45 days the deadline for publishing responses to the consultation on the proposed bidding contract for completing the works at Angra 3.

Eletronuclear said the delay was "based on the quantity and nature of the contributions received during the public consultation. Eletronuclear assesses the participation of interested parties in the bidding process as positive and emphasises that the extension of the deadline does not impact the company's planning".

The public consultation, held with support from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), sought suggested improvements to the proposed parameters of services, including Engineering, Procurement and Construction. The company will now publish the results by 19 August.

Meanwhile the company is awaiting a study by BNDES into the likely finances of the completed nuclear unit, which will feed into the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the National Energy Policy Council as a decision is taken on whether to give the go-ahead, and the proposed tariff for the sale of electricity generated by Angra 3. Earlier this year a Federal Audit Court analysis suggested that "charges to consumers will be much higher if the construction of Angra 3 continues than if the project is abandoned". Eletronuclear rejected that analysis and also pointed to the wider economic and employment benefits from the nuclear generation sector.

Brazil has two reactors - Angra 1 and Angra 2 - which generate about 3% of the country’s electricity. Work on the Angra 3 project - to feature a Siemens/KWU 1405 MW pressurised water reactor - began in 1984 but was suspended two years later, before construction began. The scheme was resurrected in 2006, with first concrete in 2010. But, amid a corruption probe into government contracts, construction of the unit was halted for a second time in 2015, when it was 65% complete. It resumed again in November 2022 - at the time of the project’s revitalisation, Eletronuclear’s aim was to start operations by the end of 2026. However, work halted again in April 2023 after disputes with the municipality of the City of Angra dos Reis over agreements relating to "environmental compensation" payments and also changes relating to the granted planning permission.

US engineering and construction company Fluor Corporation and RoPower have signed an agreement that will position Romania’s small modular reactor (SMR) project to move to a final investment decision and construction with deployment targeted for 2029.

The US embassy in Romania said in a statement that the agreement, signed on 24 July, was for the second phase of the front-end engineering and design (Feed) study for an SMR plant using NuScale’s Voygr SMR technology.

Fluor is the majority investor in Oregon-based SMR developer NuScale. Since 2011 it has invested more than $600m (€552m) in NuScale to help bring the Voygr technology to market. RoPower is the state company set up by Bucharest to develop the SMR project.

Fluor also announced the establishment of an office in Bucharest to carry out the work.

NuScale and RoPower signed a contract for Feed work towards the deployment of a Voygr plant at Doicesti, a former coal site in central Romania, in January 2023.

The contract followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between NuScale and Romania’s state nuclear company Nuclearelectrica to begin engineering studies, technical reviews, and licensing and permitting activities for the project.

The first phase of the Feed study was completed in late 2023 with funding from the US Trade and Development Agency, US Department of State, the government of Romania and NuScale Power.

The US embassy said in a statement that the US is committed to supporting the use of advanced nuclear technologies to power global decarbonisation efforts and provide energy security to partners around the world.

In November 2023 RoPower confirmed its commitment to proposed projects using SMR technology in the wake of an announcement by NuScale of the cancellation of its pilot Voygr demonstrator plant in the US.

The first full-scale demonstration of a nuclear power reactor designed to passively cool itself in an emergency was a success, showing that it should be possible to build nuclear plants without the risk of dangerous meltdown, researchers at China’s Tsinghua University have said.

The team of researchers working at China’s high-temperature reactor with pebble-bed modules (HTR-PM) nuclear plant in Shandong province, northeastern China, said the plant has passed a critical cooling test.

In a study published in Joule the researchers said they turned off external power to the plant Shidao Bay-1, also known as Shidaowan, to test its cooling abilities over two days.

To demonstrate that it could cool itself down without an external source, the researchers shut down the two reactor modules that make up the Shidao Bay plant when it was running at full power and tracked temperature movements inside the reactors.

Two safety tests were conducted, each at a power level of 200 MWt. The research team said the tests sought to prove that the plant is “incapable of melting down”.

During the tests, the power supply was totally switched off to see if the decay heat can be removed passively.

The researchers then monitored the plant in case of a meltdown, which did not occur. Instead, they said, stable temperatures were reached within 36 hours.

“The responses of nuclear power and temperatures within different reactor structures show that the reactors can be cooled down naturally without active intervention,” the researchers said.

“The results of the tests manifest the existence of commercial-scale inherent safety for the first time.”

Shidao Bay-1, the world’s first demonstration HTR-PM plant, began commercial operation in December 2023.

Background: China’s HTR-PM

The HTR-PM is a Generation IV high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) pebble-bed reactor, the world’s first commercial size power plant of this kind. It began commercial operation in December 2023.

China said at the time it was the first Generation IV plant in the world to go online. No precise definition of a Generation IV reactor exists, but the term is used to refer to nuclear reactor technologies under development including gas-cooled fast reactors, lead-cooled fast reactors, molten salt reactors, sodium-cooled fast reactors, supercritical-water-cooled reactors and very high-temperature reactors.

An international task force, the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), is sharing R&D to develop six Generation IV nuclear reactor technologies.

GIF said goals of Generation IV reactor design include lower cost and financial risk, minimising nuclear waste and high levels of safety and reliability.

In the HTR-PM, two reactors are connected to a single steam turbine to generate 210 MW of electricity. Each reactor unit has a thermal capacity of 250 MW.

The HTR-PM uses a helium coolant and a graphite moderator. Each reactor is loaded with more than 400,000 “pebbles”.

The pebbles used at the Shidao Bay HTR-PM are graphite-coated balls six centimetres in diameter, made up of about 12,000 four-layer particles dispersed in a graphite powder matrix.

The technology is intended to help replace coal-fired power plants in line with China’s plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

ANSI/ANS-8.28-2024, Administrative Practices for the Use of Nondestructive Assay Measurements for Nuclear Criticality Safety, was issued on July 15 after receiving approval of the American National Standards Institute in March.

ANSI/ANS-8.28-2024 is now available for purchase in the ANS Online Store.

This new standard, which was developed under the American Nuclear Society Nuclear Criticality Safety Consensus Committee’s Fissionable Material Outside Reactors (ANS-8) Subcommittee, applies to nondestructive assay (NDA) measurements of fissionable material for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) purposes (in situ and containerized material) to determine values of criticality parameters such as mass, concentration, and isotopic composition.

NDA tech use: ANSI/ANS-8.28-2024 provides administrative requirements for the use of nondestructive assay (NDA) technologies to support the goals of a nuclear criticality safety (NCS) program for fissionable material operations and addresses the responsibilities of management, supervision, NCS staff, and NDA staff. It also addresses NDA measurement plans, NCS evaluations, and the performance and maintenance of key NDA programmatic elements to support the implementation of NCS controls for operations with fissionable materials outside of nuclear reactors.

Measurement results: The use of NDA instrumentation has evolved since the 1980s to the extent that the fissionable material measurement results are commonly used to ensure that fissionable mass, concentration, or isotopic composition satisfies (or does not exceed) the NCS evaluation limits established for a given fissionable material process. ANSI/ANS-8.1-2014 (R2023), Nuclear Criticality Safety in Operations with Fissionable Materials Outside Reactors, requires that “before a new operation with fissionable material is begun, or before an existing operation is changed, it shall be determined that the entire process will be subcritical under both normal and credible abnormal conditions.” This is referred to as the process analysis requirement, from which the controls for the fissionable material processes are derived to ensure subcriticality is maintained.

It is common to impose controls on various NCS parameters—for example, mass, concentration, enrichment, or isotopic composition—in the NCS evaluation. NDA measurements may be applied to monitor the fissionable material process to ensure that specific NCS controls (e.g., mass or concentration limits) are satisfied.

Codifying practices: With the evolution of these NDA methodologies and methods of standard practice for performing these measurements, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board expressed an interest to the ANS-8 Subcommittee in codifying the administrative practices for the use of NDA measurements for NCS. This standard satisfies that request, providing a set of best administrative practices beyond those already provided in ANSI/ANS-8.19-2014 (R2019), Administrative Practices for Nuclear Criticality Safety.

In 1984, best administrative practices for NCS were codified into ANS-8 standards through the approval and issuance of ANS-8.19-1984 (R1989; withdrawn), Administrative Practices for Nuclear Criticality Safety, which has been superseded by ANSI/ANS-8.19-2014 (R2019). ANSI/ANS-8.28-2024 follows a similar format and is intended for implementation within the framework of an NCS program. It is not intended to govern the NDA measurement process or give details affiliated with the conduct of a qualified measurement. Rather, it provides guidance on specific administrative NDA practices to support the goals of an NCS program. Appendix A is a comprehensive list of approved NDA technical standards. Appendix B is a bibliography that users of this standard may find helpful.

A public hearing in Kemmerer, Wyo., drew dozens of comments and questions about TerraPower’s plans to build the Natrium nuclear reactor demonstration project in the coming years.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission presented information about and discussed the project with residents on July 16 as part of its extensive environmental review of the project to be sited on 334 acres near the Naughton coal and natural gas power plant. Even though TerraPower officially broke ground on nonnuclear construction work at the site in June, the NRC still has to sign off on a license and construction permit for the project to move forward.

“It’s very important for us to solicit your impact, or your input, on what the environmental [characteristics] you believe are present in the community and how the project is going to affect you,” said Joe O’Hara, environmental project manager with the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Division, as reported by WyoFile.

What they’re saying: Some residents raised concerns about the public services impact—such as water supply and infrastructure maintenance—from the dramatic growth expected from the project, including questions over who would pay for improvements in the roughly 2,400 person southwest Wyoming town. WyoFile reports that local basic services, such as water, education, housing, and health care, have been in decline for years.

Other commenters asked what safeguards would be in place for the area’s watershed and to protect residents against radioactivity exposure. Additionally, Kemmerer resident Marshal Corwin raised concern about a volcano located about four hours north of the project site. “Barring any accident [happening], the consequences could be world changing,” he told NRC staff.

Other locals expressed support for the plant and want to see the economic boost that the expected $4 billion construction project could bring to the region. Roughly 1,600 workers will be needed for Natrium’s construction at the project’s peak, and the build is expected to take five years. Once operational, the company estimates it will support 250 jobs on-site, including security.

About Natrium: TerraPower has designed a first-of-its-kind commercial advanced reactor that would use liquid sodium as a coolant instead of water. According to the company, the Natrium reactor features improved fuel utilization, enhanced safety features, and a streamlined plant layout that will reduce the overall amount of materials needed to construct the plant.

Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 would operate as a 345-MW sodium-cooled reactor in conjunction with molten salt–based energy storage. The plant’s storage technology would enable boosting of the system’s output to 500 MWe—enough energy to power 400,000 homes—for more than five and a half hours when needed to meet additional grid demand.

Natrium is one of two advanced reactor demonstration projects selected for competitive funding through the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. (X-energy’s Xe-100 is the other.)

TerraPower received $1.6 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Biden in November 2022. The Bill Gates–backed company has also raised more than $1 billion in private funding. Earlier this year, TerraPower announced the second round of contracts for long-lead suppliers supporting the development of the Natrium reactor.

TerraPower hopes to bring the Natrium plant on line by 2030 and then build additional units in Wyoming and elsewhere.

What’s next? The NRC is accepting public comments through August 12, which can be submitted via this federal portal.

After the public comment period closes, the NRC plans to publish a scoping report. The agency expects to publish its first draft of the environmental impact statement in July 2025.