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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

"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"

Kairos Power has secured $643 million in funding for its Hermes 2 demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The package includes $368 million from private investors and $275 million in financing from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The 50 MW fluoride salt-cooled reactor is targeting operations in 2030, with its electricity intended to support TVA's grid and growing demand from Google's data centers. The funding also supports expansion of Kairos' manufacturing capabilities.

The announcement highlights the combination of private investment and federal financing being used to advance next-generation nuclear technology. While commercial deployment remains years away, projects like Hermes 2 are an important step toward demonstrating advanced reactor designs at a meaningful scale.

ČEZ has submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment documentation to the Ministry of the Environment for its Rolls-Royce SMR small modular reactor project in Temelín.
The submission of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a key part of the permitting process and assesses the potential impact on the area from the proposed small modular reactor (SMR) project, as well as putting forward steps to minimise any impact.

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/czech-smr-environmental-impact-assessment-submitted

Wall a section of the sea so you have 25C swimming water in the middle of the winter. Add a gate to use fresh water in the summer for efficient cooling.

Ahead of its 60th anniversary, the University of Missouri Research Reactor was chosen to help conduct nuclear experiments for an international project.
The reactor will contribute to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which seeks to build the largest machine to create nuclear fusion, via an agreement with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Other nations involved with ITER include China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
John Brockman, associate director for research and education at the reactor, estimates Mizzou’s reactor was chosen over 26 other university research reactors for the position.

“There’s only a handful (of reactors) that can do the sorts of things that MURR can do,” he said.

Nuclear fusion is a form of renewable energy created by fusing and releasing the energy of hydrogen isotopes. Compared to nuclear fission, which requires uranium, nuclear fusion creates less waste and produces more energy.
Nuclear energy is preferred over other renewable energy sources as it isn’t determined by weather conditions, allowing for large-scale energy production.
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab reached out to the research reactor in the fall of 2025 for help conducting experiments related to ITER. PPPL is working to create a mirror to send rays out of a high radiation area, but the mirrors can be damaged by the radiation. The research reactor will determine how reflective a mirror-like piece of graphite is after spending time in the reactor.

PPPL and ITER have provided “impactful” funds as part of the research contract, Brockman said.