ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy recently spoke on nuclear power’s potential for answering today’s energy demands as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Missouri. He also took part in the ribbon cutting for a large addition to the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR).

The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog delivered emergency medical supplies to Ukraine last week as part of ongoing aid to the country since its conflict with Russia began in 2022.

The Chicago–Great Lakes Local Section of the American Nuclear Society hosted a presentation at the Society’s headquarters in Westmont, Ill., on developments at the molten salt research reactor at Abilene Christian University’s Nuclear Energy Experimental Testing (NEXT) Lab.

A recording of the full presentation is available on the ANS website at ans.org/webinars.

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

Global partnerships advance the nuclear enterprise, demonstrating commitment to energy security, supply chain buildout, and economic and human development. Collaborations remain imperative, keeping these things in mind:

Approximately half of the 400-GW reactor fleet will be retiring by 2040.¹

The forecasted need for new nuclear is 300–600 GW by 2050.

There is a need to counter the build-own-operate model.²

Appropriate funding and financing mechanisms are needed.

Host country regulatory oversight is paramount.

By 2050, there will be 4 million nuclear professionals supporting the industry.³

Savannah River National Laboratory researchers are building on the laboratory’s legacy of using cutting-edge science to effectively immobilize nuclear waste in innovative ways. As part of the Center for Hierarchical Waste Form Materials, SRNL is leveraging its depth of experience in radiological waste management to explore new frontiers in the industry.

Applications for the Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship will be closing soon. Congressional Fellows can directly contribute to the federal policymaking process, working in either a U.S. senator’s or representative’s personal office or with a congressional committee. They will be responsible for supplying Congress with their expertise in nuclear science and technology, having a hand in the creation of new laws while gaining a deeper understanding of the legislative process.

In the high-stakes world of power generation, ensuring continuous operation and reducing downtime are central priorities. With the increasing complexity of power generation systems, maintenance practices are evolving to meet these demands more efficiently. Understanding the roles of Predictive Maintenance (PdM), Preventive Maintenance (PM), and Reactive Maintenance (Run-to-Failure) is crucial for maintenance professionals in the energy sector to make informed decisions about equipment management and long-term operational strategy.

Here is a recap of industry happenings from the recent past:

ADVANCED REACTOR MARKETPLACE

Texas universities evaluating SMRs for water desalination

Natura Resources has signed a memorandum of understanding with two Texas universities—Texas Tech University and Abilene Christian University—to evaluate the integration of the company’s molten salt small modular reactor technology with water desalination systems. The collaboration includes Texas Tech’s Texas Produced Water Consortium, which was established by the Texas legislature in 2021 to explore the potential benefits of using treated produced water for purposes outside of the oil and gas industry of the Permian Basin. Produced water is salty or brackish hydrocarbon-containing water that is produced as a byproduct of oil and gas extraction. The stated goal of the new collaboration is to develop “a sustainable solution for water scarcity by purifying produced water from oil and gas operations, making it available for agricultural and other beneficial uses.” Abilene Christian University is planning to host the first deployment of Natura Resources’ Natura MSR-1, a 1-MWt molten salt research reactor.

Nuclear Energy Agency Director General William D. Magwood IV visited Mongolia recently for a series of meetings with government representatives and to participate in discussions on nuclear energy development in the country.

The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”

The Department of Energy announced March 31 that a new Molten Salt Flow Loop Test Bed at Idaho National Laboratory recently went through its inaugural test run. The closed-loop test system will allow for continuous monitoring and analysis of chloride-based molten salt reactor technology and instruments before the construction of the Southern Company/TerraPower Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment. MCRE—an experimental fast-spectrum molten salt research reactor—will be built at INL’s repurposed Zero Power Physics Reactor, which has been renamed LOTUS (Laboratory for Operation and Testing in the United States).

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received a license application from Disa Technologies to use high-pressure slurry ablation (HPSA) technology for remediating abandoned uranium mine waste at inactive mining sites. Disa’s headquarters in are Casper, Wyo.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law on Monday that adds nuclear to the state’s clean energy portfolio—making nuclear power eligible for new sources of project financing at the state, county, and city levels.

Nichols

The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.

As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”

Servis

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory are investigating a used nuclear fuel recycling technology that could lead to a scaled-down and more efficient approach to metal recovery, according to a recent news article from the lab. The research, led by Argonne radiochemist Anna Servis with funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), could have an impact beyond the nuclear fuel cycle and improve other high-value metal processing, such as rare earth recovery, according to Argonne.

The research: Servis’s work is being carried out under ARPA-E’s CURIE (Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy) program. The specific project—Radioisotope Capture Intensification Using Rotating Packed Bed Contactors—started in 2023 and is scheduled to end in January 2026.

A combination of plentiful supply and uncertain demand resulted in spot pricing for uranium closing out March below $64 per pound, with dips down to about $63.50 during mid-March—the lowest price in 18 months, according to tracking by analysis firm Trading Economics. Spot prices have also fallen steadily since the beginning of 2024. Meanwhile, long-term prices have held steady at about $80 per pound at the end of March, according to Canadian front-end uranium mining, milling, and conversion company Cameco.

All three units at the Duke Energy’s Oconee nuclear power plant in South Carolina are now licensed to operate for an additional 20 years.

The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.

Dozens of Westinghouse employees and supply chain partners descended on Washington, D.C., last week to build legislative support for new nuclear projects.

A bill being considered in the Texas legislature would create a taxpayer-funded program to draw advanced nuclear projects to the state.

GOP state Rep. Cody Harris authored House Bill 14, which proposes use of public dollars to help fund nuclear construction, provide grants for reactors, and continue development research. The legislation would allocate up to $2 billion for a new Texas Advanced Nuclear Deployment Office and create within it a state coordinator position to assist in the state and federal permitting processes, according to Inside Climate News.