The allocation is provided as a non-federal match for Energy Northwest’s participation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) loan programs office application. The utility wants to develop “up to 12 Xe-100 advanced small modular reactors” capable of generating up to 960 MW of electricity adjacent to the large nuclear-powered Columbia Generating Station in Richland.

The capital allocation received bipartisan support but still needs to be signed by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

The $25 million allocation represents the first significant investment in nuclear energy generation by the Washington State Legislature in over a decade.

“The people of the 8th District are energy-savvy consumers who understand the importance of clean nuclear energy,” said Rep. Stephanie Barnard (R – Pasco). “The development of advanced SMRs has been a top priority goal in the Tri-Cities for years, and it’s a top priority for me.”

Energy Northwest said it expects to bring the first Xe-100 module online by 2030.

X-energy’s Xe-100 SMR is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The Maryland-based company said its SMR can address a broad range of uses, including applications that currently rely on fossil fuels to produce steam and heat for processes like manufacturing, petroleum refining and hydrogen production.

Energy Northwest and X-energy have discussed plans for an Xe-100 reactor facility in central Washington since 2020. At one time X-energy’s goal was to have an operational unit by 2028, starting with a 320 MW four-unit Xe-100 power plant in the state.

The request includes $694.2 million in research and development activities meant to help advance reactor and fuel technologies, address gaps in the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain and utilize the latest artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to optimize performance.

The DOE broke down five areas where the requested budget would be spent:

1. Access to HALEU

NE is requesting $188 million to secure a near-term supply of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for DOE-supported research and demonstration projects. 

These efforts include the recovery and downblending of government-owned legacy uranium and ramping up enrichment operations in Piketon, Ohio to help make limited quantities available.  

The funding is meant to complement the DOE’s longer-term strategy to expand its domestic enrichment capacity through purchase agreements with industry partners to help spur demand for additional HALEU production.  

The recently passed FY24 spending bill directed $2.72 billion to further build out a low-enriched uranium and advanced nuclear fuel supply chain.

2. Developing new reactor technologies

The FY25 request includes $142.5 million to support the continued execution of five advanced reactor projects supported through DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.  

NE is also requesting $56 million to establish new testing facilities at the national labs, including $12 million to finish the construction of the NRIC DOME at Idaho National Laboratory.  

DOME will be the world’s first microreactor test bed and could start testing designs as soon as 2026.

The funding also includes $16.5 million for DOE’s MARVEL microreactor testing platform to complete the fabrication of its fuel and key components.  

NE is also requesting more than $18 million to initiate construction of the LOTUS testbed that will be used to test new technologies to generate data required for design and licensing.  

3. Boosting university R&D

NE is requesting $143 million to support emerging technologies developed by U.S. universities, colleges, and small businesses. 

The funding will also be used for university infrastructure improvements and fuel services, along with workforce development activities such as scholarship and fellowship opportunities.  

NE is getting closer to eclipsing the $1 billion funding mark with more than $990 million awarded to colleges and universities across the country since 2009.  

4. Additive manufacturing and AI

The FY25 request also includes $32 million to advance the use of digital tools and manufacturing methods to strengthen nuclear supply chains and help optimize reactor performance.

This funding includes $17 million to support the qualification of additively manufactured materials for use in nuclear reactors and $9 million to develop and demonstrate sensors, instrumentation, and control systems, including potential ways to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to advanced reactor designs and operations.

DOE says the two technologies combined could drastically reduce the time it takes to test, qualify, and deploy new reactor components and fuels. 

The remaining $6 million will address high-priority supply chain needs for the near-term deployment of advanced reactors. 

5. Deploying U.S. reactors internationally

Finally, the FY25 request includes $8 million to support several U.S. international projects, including providing workforce development, training, and technical expertise to new and emerging nuclear energy countries in Africa, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe.  

The funding will be used to establish regional clean energy training centers in key markets to provide capacity-building and professional development opportunities in regions looking to develop or grow their civil nuclear programs. 

The full budget request can be read here.

The THETA testing campaign is focused on the key thermal-hydraulic behavior of Oklo’s fast fission reactor design. Oklo says a better understanding of key thermal-hydraulic behavior enables design optimizations while providing high-fidelity data using high-fidelity instrumentation.

“Argonne’s leadership and technical expertise have been pivotal to THETA’s success, and the completion of the second phase of testing is a huge accomplishment,” said Patrick Everett, Deputy Senior Director of Product at Oklo. “THETA has and will continue to play a major role in Oklo’s testing endeavors to support our commercialization plans for our Aurora Powerhouses”

Oklo shared costs for the work done at Argonne National Laboratory with funding from a Department of Energy Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear voucher.

Last month, Oklo announced the signing of a lands right agreement with the non-profit Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) for land including options for the siting of two plants. The company recently announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reviewed and approved the Safety Design Strategy (SDS) for its Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

The Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility is being designed to demonstrate the reuse of recovered nuclear material to support Oklo’s planned commercial advanced fission power plant demonstration at INL.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Monday marked 13 years since a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country’s northern coasts. Nearly 20,000 people died, whole towns were wiped out and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was destroyed, creating deep fears of radiation that linger today. As the nation observes the anniversary, the AP explains what is happening now at the plant and in neighboring areas.

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, causing a tsunami that battered northern coastal towns in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. The tsunami, which topped 15 meters (50 feet) in some areas, slammed into the nuclear plant, destroying its power supply and fuel cooling systems, and causing meltdowns at reactors No. 1, 2 and 3.

Hydrogen explosions caused massive radiation leaks and contamination in the area.

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, says that the tsunami couldn’t have been anticipated. Government and independent investigations and some court decisions have said the accident was the result of human error, safety negligence, lax oversight by regulators and collusion.

Japan has since introduced stricter safety standards and at one point shifted to a nuclear energy phaseout. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government reversed that policy and has accelerated restarts of workable reactors to maintain nuclear power as a main source of Japan’s power supply.

A deadly Jan. 1 earthquake in Japan’s northcentral region destroyed many homes and roads but didn’t damage an idled nuclear power plant. Even so, it caused worry that current evacuation plans that solely focus on radiation leaks could be unworkable.

The nation marked a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. Monday, with Kishida attending a memorial in Fukushima.

WHAT HAPPENED TO PEOPLE IN THE AREA?

About 20,000 of more than 160,000 evacuated residents across Fukushima still haven’t returned home.
Decontamination work before the Tokyo Olympics meant to showcase Fukushima’s recovery led to the elimination of some no-go zones, but they remain in seven of 12 towns that had been fully or partially off-limits.

In Futaba, the hardest-hit town and a co-host of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, a small area was opened in 2022. About 100 people, or 1.5% percent of the pre-disaster population, have returned to live. The other host town, Okuma, which along with Futaba sacrificed part of its land to build an interim storage site for nuclear waste gathered from the decontamination, has seen 6% of its former residents return.

Annual surveys show the majority of evacuees have no intention of returning home, citing lack of jobs, schools and lost communities, as well as radiation concerns.

Residents who have raised radiation worries or linked it to their health problems have come under attack for hurting Fukushima’s reputation.

The disaster-hit towns, including those in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, have seen sharp population drops.

Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori said on NHK TV that a growing number of young people want to move to Fukushima to open businesses or help in the reconstruction, and he expressed hope that more residents will return.

WHAT ABOUT TREATED RADIOACTIVE WATER DISCHARGES?

Last August, Fukushima Daiichi began discharging treated water into the sea, and is currently releasing a fourth 7,800-ton batch of treated water. So far, daily seawater sampling results have met safety standards. The plan has faced protests from local fishers and neighboring countries, especially China, which has banned Japanese seafood imports

Fukushima Daiichi has struggled to handle the contaminated water since the 2011 meltdowns. TEPCO says the start of the process is a milestone and removing the tanks is crucial to make space for facilities needed as decommissioning progresses.

The contaminated cooling water is pumped up, treated and stored in about 1,000 tanks. The government and TEPCO say the water is diluted with massive seawater before release, making it safer than international standards.

WHAT ABOUT LOCAL FISHING?

Despite earlier fears that the water discharge would further hurt Fukushima’s hard-hit fishing industry, they have not damaged its reputation domestically. China’s ban on Japanese seafood, which mostly hit scallop exporters in Hokkaido, apparently prompted Japanese consumers to eat more Fukushima seafood.

Sampling and monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency have also boosted confidence in local fish.

Fukushima fishing returned to normal operations in 2021, and the local catch is now about one-fifth of its pre-disaster level because of a decline in the fishing population and smaller catch sizes.

The government has earmarked 10 billion yen ($680 million) to support Fukushima fisheries.

ANY PROGRESS REMOVING MELTED FUEL?

The contents of the three reactors is still largely a mystery. Little is known, for instance, about the melted fuel’s condition or exactly where it’s located in the reactors. Not even a spoonful of the fuel has been removed.

About 880 tons of melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors, and Japanese officials say removing it would take 30-40 years. Experts call that timeline overly optimistic. The amount of melted fuel is 10 times that removed from Three Mile Island following its 1979 partial core melt.

Robotic probes have glimpsed inside the three reactors, but their investigation has been hampered by technical glitches, high radiation and other complications.

It’s crucial for officials to understand the data from melted debris so they can make a plan to remove it safely. TEPCO aims to get the first sample out later this year from the least-damaged No. 2 reactor.

TEPCO has been trying to get the sample by using a robotic arm. Officials have struggled to get the robot past the wreckage, and hope that by October they can use a simpler device that looks like a fishing rod.

The fuel in the worst-damaged No. 1 reactor mostly fell from the core to the bottom of its primary containment vessel. Some of it penetrated and mixed with the concrete foundation, making removal extremely difficult.

In February, the plant made its first drone flight into the primary containment vessel to investigate the melted debris and examine how the fuel initially fell from the core. But a second day of exploration was canceled because a data transmission robot failed.

IS A 2051 COMPLETION POSSIBLE?

The government has stuck to its initial target for a completed decommissioning by 2051, but it hasn’t defined what that means.

The lack of data, technology and plans on what to do with the radioactive melted fuel and other nuclear waste makes it difficult to understand what’s in store for the plant and surrounding areas when the cleanup ends, according to TEPCO’s decommissioning company chief, Akira Ono.

An overly ambitious schedule could result in unnecessary radiation exposure for plant workers and excess environmental damage, experts say.

Under the an MOU signed by the companies, Fluor will design the plant for Longview Fusion Energy Systems. The two partnered in 2023 and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to leverage Fluor’s experience in developing and constructing large, complex facilities. Fluor will provide preliminary design and engineering to support the development of Longview’s fusion-powered plant.

According to Longview, their laser fusion power plants have a capacity of between 1,000 and 1,600 MW. They are able to power the needs of a small city or provide process heat or power to drive industrial production of the materials needed for operational necessities like steel, fertilizer and hydrogen fuel.

Longview says it does not need to build a physics demonstration facility, and, with its partner Fluor, can focus on designing and building the world’s first laser fusion energy plant.

“We are building on the success of the NIF, but the Longview plant will use today’s far more efficient and powerful lasers and utilize additive manufacturing and optimization through AI,” says Valerie Roberts, Longview’s Chief Operating Officer and former NIF construction/project manager.

National Ignition Facility

The planning for the laser fusion plant was enabled by the breakthroughs in fusion energy gain at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF).

“Laser fusion energy gain has been demonstrated many times over the last 15 months, and the scientific community has verified these successes,” said Edward Moses, Longview’s CEO and former director of the NIF. “Now is the time to focus on making this new carbon-free, safe, and abundant energy source available to the nation as soon as possible.”

According to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in a NIF ignition experiment, a tiny capsule containing two forms of hydrogen is suspended inside a cylindrical x-ray “oven” called a hohlraum.

NIF’s powerful lasers heat the hohlraum to temperatures of more than 3 million degrees Celsius, resulting in x-rays heating up and blowing off the surface of the target capsule. This causes a rocket-like implosion that compresses and heats the fuel to extreme temperatures and densities until the hydrogen atoms fuse, releasing energy.

In December 2022, the National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition, a fusion first with an energy production greater than the input energy.

These states include: Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming and Wisconsin. 

Notably, TerraPower plans to build its Natrium reactor near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

A 2022 DOE report found that more than 300 existing and retired coal power plant sites could convert to nuclear, dramatically increasing dispatchable, carbon-free energy as the country strives to meet its net-zero emissions goal by 2050. The department said each plant could match the size of the site being converted and help increase nuclear capacity by more than 250 GW — nearly tripling its current capacity of 95 GW. 

The DOE report also found that new nuclear plants could save up to 35% on construction costs depending on how much of the existing site assets could be repurposed from retired coal power plants. These assets include the existing land, the coal plant’s electrical equipment (transmission connection, switchyard, etc.) and civil infrastructure, such as roads and buildings.

DOE’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) is conducting three feasibility studies to assess different aspects of repurposing coal power plant sites with nuclear power. 

The proposed rule, to be published in the Federal Register in about six months, would create a new Part 53 section under the NRC’s regulations as an alternative to the existing, large light-water reactor licensing approaches under Parts 50 and 52.

“This proposed rule leverages significantly more risk insights than our existing regulatory framework in making safety determinations,” said NRC Chair Christopher Hanson. “Applicants can use our existing regulations today, but this proposed rule will provide future nuclear developers a clear, additional pathway for licensing.”

The rule, in meeting the requirements of the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, would give plant designers and plant operators flexibility in determining how their nuclear power plant will meet safety criteria, NRC said.

It would set out criteria in areas including reactor siting requirements; analyzing potential accidents; defining safety functions; categorizing structures, systems, and components; addressing construction and manufacturing requirements; providing defense in depth; and protecting the public and plant workers during normal operations.

The proposed rule also would modify agency regulations for operator licensing, employee fitness-for-duty, physical security and site access authorization.

NRC staff said it has conducted extensive public engagement on the proposed rule and plans to seek public feedback when the rule is issued later this year.

The DOE announced that the Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract (ITDC) was awarded to Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, LLC (H2C), which is a joint venture led by a BWXT subsidiary and includes subsidiaries of Amentum and Fluor.

The scope of the ITDC includes operation of Hanford tank farm facilities, eventual operation of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, and responsibility for other core functions such as project management, security and emergency services, business performance, and environment, safety, health, and quality.

Responsible for the federal government’s cleanup of the legacy of more than 40 years of producing plutonium through the 1980s, DOE is transforming the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington back into an operations mode to treat tank waste from the production era. More information is available from the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.

In a statement, Talen said it had sold the 960 MW Cumulus data center campus to a ‘major cloud services provider,’ revealed as AWS in a call with investors March 4.

The $650 million sale includes all land, power infrastructure, powered shell and intangibles on the data center campus. Talen will receive $350 million at close, with $300 million in escrow to be released following development milestones reached in 2024.

As AWS develops the data center, Talen will supply carbon-free power directly from the Susquehanna plant through a power purchase agreement (PPA). Amazon’s cloud platform plans to expand the data center campus to up to 960 MW of power consumption.

AWS has contractual power commitments that will ramp up in 120 MW increments over several years, starting in 2025. Each step up in capacity commitment has a fixed price for the initial ten-year term, after which it reprises based on a fixed margin above PJM Energy and capacity prices.

AWS will also have a one-time option to cap power capacity commitments at 480 MW. There are also two 10-year extension options linked to the license renewals of Susquehanna’s two nuclear units in 2042 and 2044.

Susquehanna Unit 1 has been in operation since 1983 and delivers about 1,257 MW. Unit 2, which has the same power capacity, was commissioned two years later.

Under the agreement, and separate from powering the campus, Talen Energy will receive additional revenue from AWS related to the remaining power that Susquehanna sells to the PJM wholesale market.

The Independent Power Producer is also retaining its interest in the Nautilus cryptocurrency facility. TeraWulf and Talen Energy had a reached a deal to build the bitcoin mine next to the Susquehanna twin reactors in 2021. TeraWulf uses 50 MW of capacity from the nuclear plant to power its operations.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), electricity consumption from data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) and the cryptocurrency sector could double by 2026. Data centers project to be significant drivers of growth in electricity demand in many regions.

In the U.S. alone, data center demand is expected to reach 35 GW by 2030, up from 17 GW in 2022, McKinsey & Company projects.[KC1] 

“Around-the-clock nuclear power matches very well with around-the-clock data center power needs,” said Talen President and Chief Executive Officer Mac McFarland.

Technology companies are notably exploring carbon-free nuclear energy to power artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Microsoft wants to integrate advanced nuclear technology into powering its data centers. In September the company announced its search for a Principal Program Manager of Nuclear Technology, who would be responsible for implementing a global small modular reactor (SMR) and microreactor energy strategy.

The Principal Program Manager would be tasked with leading the technical assessment for the integration of SMRs and microreactors to power the company’s data centers, according to the posting. This individual would maintain a roadmap for this integration and select reactor technology partners and solutions, Microsoft said.

Connecting to the electric grid is part of ongoing startup testing for Vogtle Unit 4. Now, operators will continue to raise reactor power for the generation of electricity while performing tests at various power levels, ultimately raising power to 100%. Once all startup testing is successfully completed and the unit is available for reliable dispatch, Vogtle Unit 4 will enter commercial operation, Georgia Power said.

The in-service date for Unit 4 is projected during the second quarter of 2024. Last October, Georgia Power said the in-service date for Unit 4 was being pushed back to 2024 due to a motor fault in one of four reactor coolant pumps.

Vogtle Unit 3, the first newly-constructed nuclear unit in the U.S. in over 30 years, entered commercial operation on July 31, 2023, after years of delays and projected costs of around $35 billion.

Nuclear energy currently provides approximately 25% of Georgia Power’s overall energy mix, including the existing units at Plant Vogtle and Georgia’s other nuclear facility at Plant Hatch in Baxley, Georgia.