How NRIC Is Helping Advance Technology for the Nuclear Power Industry

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) is a national Department of Energy (DOE) program led by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) that allows collaborators to harness the world-class capabilities of the U.S. National Laboratory System. NRIC supports the construction and demonstration of advanced reactor systems through a suite of services and capabilities. “Our vision is …

Rising steel prices, interest rates could push NuScale Utah project cost to $100/MWh, but support remains

Rising steel prices, interest rates could push NuScale SMR cost to $100/MWh, threaten UAMPS project NuScale Power Higher steel prices and interest rates are driving up the projected cost of energy from Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems’ planned 462 MW small modular reactor project, multiple municipal utilities have reported. Previous cost estimates were for the project …

China Approves Commissioning of Thorium-Powered Reactor

4. This graphic visualizes the thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR-LF1) engineering design. A 2-MWth version of the TMSR is under commissioning in China. Courtesy: SINAP China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Aug. 2 gave Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) the green light to commission the experimental 2-MWth thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR-LF1) at …

Japan to consider developing high-temperature gas reactor

The Japanese government plans to consider developing and building next-generation nuclear reactors. One of them is known as a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. One feature of such a reactor is the use of helium gas to cool the reactor’s core. That theoretically makes it possible to extract extreme heat in an efficient manner compared with existing …

U.S. developing domestic uranium strategy -energy secretary

The United States is working on supplying its own uranium for existing and advanced nuclear reactors that could become commercial in the future to reduce dependency on Russia for the fuel, Jennifer Granholm, the U.S. energy secretary told reporters on Wednesday. The United States relies on Russia and its allies Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for roughly …

Small modular reactor advocates see opportunity in former US coal towns

Swapping coal-fired generating stations with nuclear power plants could be a win-win for utilities and coal towns, minimizing costs and creating jobs, according to industry experts. The opportunity to bring new energy investment to coal communities arose Oct. 24 at two nuclear energy events hosted by the American Nuclear Society and the Atlantic Council. That …