The Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment aims to achieve first criticality in 2027, with the US Department of Energy approving cost-shared funding under its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

The funding for an accelerated final stage is intended to support work by utility Southern Company, Idaho National Laboratory and maritime nuclear specialist Core Power to "advance scientific understanding of molten salt reactor technology and inform future reactor development".

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/us-doe-funding-to-accelerate-molten-chloride-reactor-development

Standing inside the reactor core and the control room have to be some of the coolest things I've done as a nuclear nerd. The ship was built as part of Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" program and sailed for about 10 years. The reactor was de-fueled in 1971 and the pressure vessel was removed in 2022. According to lore, Gene Roddenberry was inspired by the design aesthetic in the lounge for the TV show Star Trek.

i just accepted an offer for next summer with westinghouse as an APx project engineer and im really excited! im looking to see if anyone else has interned with them before because i have a few questions:

1. i got an offer of a $4k stipend for housing. will this be enough for cranberry township if i have roommates?

2. did your internship turn into a full time offer? if so, what was the total compensation? do you like what you currently do?

3. do you get free merch (this is a dumb question but i love free company merch lol)

thank you!

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today updated and renewed the certification of Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor design, incorporating lessons from the construction and operation of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 (the nation’s newest nuclear reactors) into the certified design.

The action gives future applicants a standardized, field-proven AP1000 design that reflects how the reactors were actually constructed and operated. It is intended to reduce duplicative regulatory reviews, lower licensing costs and help future AP1000 projects move through the NRC’s licensing process more efficiently.

During the construction and startup of Vogtle Units 3 and 4, the NRC reviewed and approved nearly 200 license amendments. By incorporating applicable design changes and lessons learned from that experience into the renewed certification, future AP1000 applicants can reference an updated design rather than seeking separate approval for changes the NRC has already evaluated.

“The NRC’s approval of the updated AP1000 design provides the regulatory foundation for America to move from building individual reactors to deploying them at scale,” Chairman Ho K. Nieh said. “This is how safety-focused, enabling regulation reduces regulatory uncertainty and investment risk.”

The renewed certification extends the AP1000 design’s validity through 2066. Future applicants will still be required to obtain NRC approval for site-specific environmental, safety and security considerations, and today’s action does not authorize the siting, construction or operation of any facility.

"NEi: How is MBIR different from earlier research reactors?

VK: Flexibility and scale. MBIR is a fast-neutron reactor designed with the needs of the global nuclear industry in mind for the next 50 years. Its defining feature is the testing equipment: instrumented cells and autonomous loop devices – independent circuits inside the core – that can fully replicate the operating conditions of different reactor types using different coolants (sodium, lead, lead-bismuth, gas), temperatures and pressures. That means several reactor concepts can effectively be modelled simultaneously, and prospective structural and fuel materials tested to support Gen IV concepts. An extensive network of vertical and horizontal experimental channels and ex-vessel devices adds capacity for large-scale materials science testing.

Beyond research, MBIR also has a practical dimension: it can produce a wide range of medical and industrial isotopes, and – as a functioning power plant – it will supply heat and electricity to the surrounding region, supporting local infrastructure.

NEi: Why are materials such a critical bottleneck for fast reactors?

VK: Two factors. First, compatibility with liquid-metal coolants – sodium, lead, lead-bismuth – places tough demands on the corrosion resistance of structural materials. Second, radiation damage in a fast-neutron spectrum causes swelling, radiation creep and helium embrittlement, which can sharply cut the service life of fuel cladding and in-vessel components. Solving these problems is one of the hardest engineering challenges in the industry, and it determines not just safety but the economics of fast reactors – burn-up and how long a fuel cycle can be achieved.

NEi: What role do research reactors play in moving Gen IV technology toward commercialisation?

VK: A decisive one. Many Gen IV concepts – sodium, lead, gas or molten-salt cooled fast reactors – already exist on paper or as pilot designs, but moving to industrial deployment requires large-scale experimental verification: confirming computational models, testing fuel and material behaviour, working through operating regimes. Research reactors remove uncertainty from that process, and MBIR’s capabilities should shorten the path from concept to deployment while lowering technological and investment risk.

Almost every aspect of reactor operation needs experimental validation; in practice, that means things such as neutron-physics characteristics of the core for each reactor type; how structural materials behave in contact with different coolants (corrosion in lead or molten salts, high-temperature creep for gas-cooled designs); thermal-hydraulic processes at temperatures well above those in conventional water reactors, including severe-accident scenarios; and fuel performance at high burn-up and damage doses. This is an enormous body of data that can only be generated through a dedicated experimental base.

There’s a real gap opening up in the current global research infrastructure. More than 670 research reactors have been built worldwide over the course of the nuclear era, but the overwhelming majority were commissioned more than 40 years ago, and the fleet is ageing faster than experimental demand is growing. The shortage of fast research reactors is particularly acute, even though they are the ones critical to closed fuel cycle and Gen IV development. That’s the gap MBIR is intended to fill, and it’s being built explicitly on a logic of international cooperation, pooling resources and expertise for Gen IV development"

On this day in 1959, Dresden-1 achieved criticality for the first time as the first commercial, privately financed nuclear plant in the United States.

In honor of the occasion, here's a selection of artifacts, documents, and photos from the early history of the plant. First, a pen and pencil set Commonwealth Edison gave away for the initial criticality. Then an invitation to the kickoff ceremony for major construction, with some items from GE Vallecitos, where the initial group of operators was trained. Then a publicity photo, memo, and candy dish from the dedication of the plant in 1960. And finally, for the operational phase of the plant, a BWR/1 fuel spacer grid, photos of the first in service inspection, and the first in service inspection report sent to the State of IL boiler inspector

It got temporarily delayed on Tuesday thanks to a technical test, but this Bloomberg article doesn't appear to be a false alarm this time. With this grid connection, Slovakia will now likely surpass France in share of electricity generated by nuclear power, and will become a net power exporter