A Long Strange Trip ~ Diablo Canyon Licenses Renewed for 20 Years

• A Long Strange Trip ~ Diablo Canyon Licenses Renewed for 20 Years
• OPG Applies For Operating License for BWRX-300 SMR
• UK Awards $396M Contract For Three Rolls-Royce PWRs at Wylfa
• NANO Nuclear Submits Construction Permit Application to NRC For Microreactor
• U.S. Air Force Seeks Microreactors and SMRs for Military Bases
• Polish Companies Sign MOU for BWRX-300 Reactor Projects Across Europe
• Application Filed for Poland’s First Nuclear Power Plant
• TerraPower to Use Digital Twin Software to Clear Engineering Bottlenecks
• INL and Project Omega Announce ARPA-E Award for Nuclear Fuel Recycling
• USNIC Report – Geologic Repository Needed Even with Reprocessing of Spent Fuel
• Orano Completes NRC License Application for a Uranium Enrichment Plant in Oak Ridge, TN

What  a Long Strange Trip It’s Been;
Diablo Canyon Licenses Renewed for 20 Years

Once told me, “You got to play your hand”
Sometimes the cards ain’t worth a dime
If you don’t lay ’em down
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately, it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been
Truckin’ ~ Grateful Dead 1970

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating licenses of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant for an additional 20 years. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 are pressurized-water reactors (PWR) in Avila Beach, CA. Unit 1’s operating license will now expire on Nov. 2, 2044, and Unit 2’s will expire on Aug. 26, 2045.

The NRC’s review of the application for renewal of the licenses addressed safety and environmental matters. Both a safety evaluation and a final supplemental environmental impact statement were issued in June 2025. The NRC issued the renewed licenses after receiving documentation from PG&E of the required federal certifications under the Coastal Zone Management Act and the Clean Water Act.

The NRC’s safety evaluation and final supplemental environmental impact statement, as well as other information regarding the Diablo Canyon license renewal application, are available on the NRC website, which also contains general information about the license renewal process

The Decade Long Trip Isn’t Over Yet

PG&E also needs permission from the state Legislature to keep the twin reactors open for the next 20 years. For now the state has only authorized Unit 1 to stay open until 2029 and Unit 2 until 2030. The state’s byzantine and cumbersome environmental bureaucracy is a rats maze of overlapping regulatory requirements.

While the NRC license extends another 20 years, multiple state agencies have deadlines that hit in 2030. A key item is that PG&E will need a new wastewater discharge permit from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board.

Separately, the  California State Water Resources Control Board has an order in place requiring PG&E to stop operating its once-through ocean based cooling system by October  2030. Rate payers may not realize it, but some of their costs passed on to them by the utility to cover regulatory expenses include “annual mitigation fees” to the Ocean Protection Council or State Coastal Conservancy for fish deaths caused by the system.

After 2030 PG&E would need an exemption to the order by the State Water Resources Control Board to keep operating. This is an invitation to anti-nuclear groups to take another bite at the apple in their ongoing effort to shut the plant down.

The State Lands Commission has jurisdiction over the plant’s once-through cooling system’s infrastructure because it is located on the coastline on Avila Beach. The seawater condenser cooling infrastructure sits on a lease from the California State Lands Commission which expires in 2030. It uses almost 3 billion gallons of seawater per day.

Consistent with SB 846, PG&E obtained on June 5, 2023, an amendment to Lease No. PRC 9347.1 from the California State Lands Commission to extend the period of the lease to October 31, 2030. It covers a lease of submerged lands of intake cove and discharge cove Note: An amendment is required for intake cove dredging.

This regulatory requirement did not stand in the way of the NRC relicensing decision. The expected renewal action for the lease to be considered by the Commission is an obvious target of opportunity for anti-nuclear groups. There is no technological alternative to the cooling system for these reactors. In considering the renewal of the lease, the land board would be required to take into account that several other state agencies have certified the reactors comply with the Clean Water Act and have issued permits for its operation for the next 20 yearts.

In December 2025 the California Coastal Commission issued PG&E a coastal development
permit. It requires the utility to conserve thousands of acres of land to mitigate the impact of the once-through cooling system. The setting aside of ocean front dry land to save  marine organisms from being harmed by the reactors’ ocean intake for cooling water is another example of how California has taken being “green” into uncharted territory.

The utility proposed a timeline to conserve up to 6,700 acres of land, create 25 miles of trail easements and put aside $10 million for trail construction to mitigate its operations through 2030. It also committed to a prohibition on selling another 5,000 acres of land through 2040, unless the sale is for conservation.

Additional good news is that in February 2025 the plant established that it complies with the California Coastal Management Program. Also, at the same time the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board issued a five-year National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which allows the power plant to release up to 2.76 billion gallons of wastewater per day into the Pacific Ocean. The board also certified that operating the plant for another 20 years would comply with the Clean Water Act.

California’s environmental laws and regulations are among the most extensive and ambitious “green” policies in the U.S. As predicted, three anti-nuclear groups filed challenges to these decisions last week. All of these permits are targets of opportunity for these groups.

How California Saved Diablo Canyon in Spite of Itself

According to the California Public Utilities Commission, Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant generates about 2,200 MW and provides the state with 8.5% of its total electricity.

In 2016, PG&E announced plans to permanently shutter the plant, with original plans to shut Unit 1 down in 2024 and Unit 2 in 2025. However, as the the state’s energy needs grew over time, it became apparent that taking 2.2 GW of baseload power off the California grid was a very bad idea. The closure deal went into effect in 2018.

Not only would renewables (wind, solar) not be able to replace nuclear baseload power with 24X7/365 reliability, such a move would also lead to massive brownouts and even blackouts in the state’s biggest cities. Elected officials, including California Governor Newsom and state legislators, recognized that these outcomes would have regime changing effects at the ballot box. As a result, they moved to keep the plant open.

In 2022, Newsom signed legislation to keep Diablo Canyon open through 2030. In 2023 the Public Utilities Commission granted a five-year license extension to PG&E also extending the plant’s life to 2030.

PG&E, which in 2016 believed it needed to bow to the inevitability of California’s decade’s long hostility to nuclear power, did what was once thought to be impossible, and in 2023 it filed its application for a 20-year license application with the NRC.

Demonstrating that elected officials can be flexible when circumstances warrant it, in changing long standing positions in the 180 degree turnaround of just about everyone changed their position from closure to license extension. “

Retreating the 2016 shut down decision, in 2026 Governor Gavin Newsome praised the NRC’s license extension which was also a signal to the legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, to get in line to approve its operation past 2030. During the decade the government dithered over the fate of the twin reactors, PG&E kept the twin reactors online and the lights across the state. Had the twin reactors shut down immediately in 2016, restarting them a decade in to a decommisisoning process could have made it impossible to bring the plants back from the dead.

Governor Newsom said in a statement, “When the legislature and I partnered to extend Diablo Canyon’s operation past 2025, we made a commitment to Californians that tackling extreme weather and supporting a reliable grid are essential to building a safe, affordable, and resilient future for our state.”

“Today, I welcome the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval as we continue California’s clean-energy transition, creating good-paying jobs, fighting climate change, and cementing the Golden State as a global powerhouse.”

Gene Nelson, Ph.D. Senior Legal Researcher and President, Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. (CGNP), also celebrated the NRC’s decision. He said in an email to Neutron Bytes, “Independent intervenor Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. (CGNP) was the first nonprofit that advocated for the DCPP license extension. Our new tagline is, “California Needs DCPP’s 24/7 Reliable Power.” CGNP is gratified for the support of individuals and organizations that eventually brought us to this day.”

Cracking Open California’s Ban on New Nuclear Reactors

Assembly member Lisa Calderon (D-56th District) has introduced a pivotal piece of legislation. AB 2647, designed to update California’s decades-old nuclear moratorium to include advanced reactor technology.

By clarifying that the state’s ban on new nuclear plants does not apply to modern designs licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after January 1, 2005, the bill seeks to provide California with every available tool to meet its ambitious mandate of a carbon-neutral economy by 2045.

Calderon argues existing California law currently prohibits the Energy Commission from certifying most nuclear fission plants, a restriction that fails to account for the “advanced nuclear reactors” defined in the federal Energy Act of 2020. These modern designs offer significant improvements in standardization, fuel management, and safety compared to the fleet currently in operation.

Supporters of the bill say that “by modernizing the state’s approach to nuclear fission, AB 2646 ensures that California remains a leader in climate innovation while securing a stable and carbon-free energy future.”

Opposition to nuclear power among the usual groups may be changing. On 03/16/26 the Natural Resource Defense Counceil (NRDC), which had decades long opposition to nuclear power, changed it mind in regard to the restart of the Duance Arnold plant in Iowa.

The political newsletter Axios reported in its story, “NRDC’s preliminary view is that the plant’s restart is likely to have both climate and environmental benefits and consumer benefits . . . Google’s data center project] might otherwise have been wholly or partially powered by some combination of existing coal and natural gas, and new natural gas.”

Iowa isn’t California, but NRDC’s revised position is clear signal to other green groups to reconsider some of their long standing positions about nuclear energy.

Just an Old Fashioned Song Playing on the Radio

In the second half of the 20th century California earned a reputation in the nation’s history as a home to just about anything unusual, unexpected, and strange. It was a place where the normal expected course of events for large enterprises could be thrown into a whirlwind of changes emerging at the end in a place no one ever expected.

For instance, during his time in office Califonia Governer Jerry Brown was sometimes referred to as “governer moonbeam.” The New York Times dived into the the origin of moniker reporting that the nickname gain ground as Governor Brown declared his fascination with outer space, proposed that California launch its own space satellite (clearly ahead of his time in 1975) and revealed his study of eastern religions. The New York Times profile added that Brown, as governor of California between 1975 and 1983, “led the nation in pretty much everything — its economy, environmental awareness and, yes, class-A eccentrics.”

Brown also made tinsel town type headlines dating the rock star Linda Ronstadt who noted in her memoir that her life as a top of the charts Calfifornia folk rock star was “too chaotic” even for Brown who pursued ideas in a great variety of directions not all of them grounded in reality.

By way of background it is worth noting that Gavin Newsom was the Lt. Governer under Gov Jerry Brown who held the office from 2011-2019. It was Brown who signed the closeure deal into law in 2018. In 1979 Brown had issued a statement opposing nuclear power following the Three Mile Island Accident so his support for closure came as no surprise to anyone.

However, Brown’s opposition didn’t stop the commissioning of the twin reactors at Diablo Canyon which took place in 1985 and 1986. Their construction and eventual opening was the subject of controversy and protests with nearly two thousand civil disobedience arrests in a two-week period in 1981.

The 180 degree turnaround of top state officials and key stakeholder groups from what would have been a disasterous result for energy security caused by closing the reactors was transformed into to a welcome renewal of a future of reliable (24/7/354 CO2 emission free power based on relicensing them. It sounds like politics as an alchemical process of turning lead into gold and that’s not far off.

No one in 2016, swimming in the currents of conventional wisdom, expected that 10 years hence the two reactors would attain 20 year license extensions from the NRC.

The decade long saga from 2016 to 2026 of the relicensing of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant has turned out to be a very specific example of this phenomenon of politics and culture in California being in its own universe.

Here for your listening pleasure to unwind from the intensity of Diablo Canyon’s saga is a song by the Grateful Dead that conveys some of the alternate realities that characterized the experience.

• Truckin’ ~ Grateful Dead 1970 –Lately, it occurs to me what a long strange trip it’s been

Songwriters: Robert Hunter / Philip Lesh / Bob Weir / Jerome Garcia
Truckin’ lyrics © Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc., Ice Nine Publishing Co Inc.

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OPG Applies For Operating License for BWRX-300 SMR

(WNN) Canada’s Ontario Power Generation has submitted its application for a license to operate the first BWRX-300 small modular reactor at the Darlington New Nuclear Project. The application by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is for a 20-year license to be issued by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).

OPG already holds a construction license for the site, which has three regulatory hold points (RHP). The first of these was the installation of the reactor building foundation, a hold point which was lifted last week.

Ramzi Jammal, CNSC Executive Vice-President and Chief Regulatory Operations Officer, said in a letter to OPG: “The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission staff assessment of OPG’s submission, as well as all supporting documentation, concludes that OPG has met all the pre-requisites established by the Commission to remove RHP-1.”

The removal of this hold point means OPG “can place the foundation for the reactor building and commence civil construction of the reactor building structure, internal civil structures, and internal reactor building systems and components.” The next hold point will be the installation of the reactor pressure vessel.

About the BWRX300 at OPG’s Darlington, Ontario Site

GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s US Nuclear Regulatory Commission-certified ESBWR boiling water reactor design and its existing, licensed GNF2 fuel design.

The Darlington New Nuclear Project will be the first new nuclear build in Ontario in more than three decades. OPG received a License to Construct the first of four planned BWRX-300s at Darlington from the CNSC in April 2025. The following month the Province of Ontario approved the CAD20.9 billion (USD15 billion) budget and the start of construction for the first of the proposed four SMRs at the site.

Site preparation works began in the autumn of 2022, and several long-lead items, including the reactor pressure vessel, have already been procured. The plan is to connect the first unit to the grid by the end of 2030.

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UK Awards $396M Contract For Three Rolls-Royce PWRs at Wylfa

(NucNet) UK government body Great British Energy-Nuclear (GBE-N) has awarded a £300m (€343 million, $396 million) contract to a joint venture between US-based Amentum and UK company Cavendish Nuclear to serve as the owner’s engineer for its flagship small modular reactor (SMR) project in the UK.

This long-term agreement, with a maximum duration of 14 years, will support the deployment of three Rolls-Royce SMR plants at the Wylfa site in north Wales.

Amentum said the contract represents a significant milestone in advancing the UK’s clean energy ambitions and the rollout of its first SMRs.  GBE-N said in a statement that Rolls-Royce reactors are smaller and designed to be built more quickly than some traditional nuclear power stations.

The total cost of the three reactors was not included in the press statement. The Rolls-Royce reactor is a 470 MW PWR. At a hypothetical cost of $9,000 Kw, each plant could conceivably cost about $4.2 billion with all three coming in at roughly $12.5 billion for a total of 1,400 MW. GBE-N said it would make a final investment decision to build the Rolls-Royce reactors “in due course.”

The cost and potential output are equivalent to a single South Korean (KHNP) 1,400 MW PWR planned to be built in at the Dukovany site for CEZ, the state owned nuclear utility in the Czech Republic. Separately, Rolls_Royce has an agreement with ČEZ to deploy up to three gigawatts of new nuclear power in the Czech Republic and is one of only two SMR companies to progress to the final stage of Vattenfall’s technology selection process in Sweden. 

The Amentum-led joint venture, known as Litmus Nuclear, will play a pivotal role in the SMR program by delivering independent assurance and expert technical guidance across critical areas, including design, safety, engineering, construction, and commissioning.

This support is designed to help GBE-N achieve its goal of securing a final investment decision (FID) for the SMRs at the Wylfa site. The joint venture will also ensure the SMR program meets regulatory requirements and is can deliver reliable, low-carbon power for decades to come.

In November 2025, the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said Wylfa, on the island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn in Welsh), would be the site for the country’s first SMRs. It is locarted about 100 miles west of Liverpool on the UK’s western Atlantic Ocean coastline.

Amentum’s UK division is the delivery partner for project and construction management services at the Hinkley Point C nuclear project in England. It is also sole program and project management delivery partner at the planned Sizewell C reactor. Both sites will be homes to twin EDF 1,650 MW PWRs.

Rolls-Royce Inks MOU with Studsvik AB for SMRs

Rolls‑Royce SMR and Swedish nuclear technology company Studsvik AB have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore further collaboration and broaden their relationship across Studsvik’s full range of services to support the small modular reactor (SMR) program.

The MOU covers several technical areas, including fuel qualification and testing, plant life management, hot cell technology, core design and operational modelling, and regulatory licensing support. It enables the two companies to evaluate Studsvik’s capabilities and facilities and further explore ways they can support the future deployment of Rolls Royce SMR’s ‘factory-built’ reactors.

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NANO Nuclear Submits Construction Permit Application to NRC For Microreactor

NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) announced that a Construction Permit Application (CPA) has been submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its KRONOS MMR microreactor. The CPA was formally submitted by The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, NANO Nuclear’s partner for the KRONOS MMR deployment.

Nano took over the project in March 2025 from Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp following that firm’s filing for bankruptcy in October 2024.

The CPA represents one of the most consequential milestones in the nuclear reactor development lifecycle. Unlike early-stage conceptual work, a CPA requires:

• Engineering and safety analysis
• Site-specific evaluation and environmental considerations
• Demonstration of compliance with NRC regulations
• Extensive documentation developed through ongoing topical reports and engagement with NRC staff

The preparation of a CPA represents the culmination of years of engineering development, thousands of pages of technical documentation, coordinated input across reactor design, safety analysis, environmental review, and regulatory compliance disciplines, and establishment of a viable supply chain.

Insights gained through the CPA process are expected to play a critical role in refining NANO Nuclear’s assembly, siting, and deployment strategies, enabling the Company to move efficiently through future licensing and through multi-unit deployment projects.

Full-Scale Deployment Strategy Differentiation

NANO Nuclear said in its press statement that the firm’s approach with the KRONOS MMR is centered on commercially ready, scalable systems designed for real-world applications. Key elements of the firm’s approach include;

• Regulatory approval of a standardized commercial power reactor
• Standardized reactor manufacturing
• Fleet-scale rollout across multiple markets

Based on NANO Nuclear’s current understanding of the anticipated scope and review process, the company estimates the NRC formal review period to take approximately 12 months.

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U.S. Air Force Seeks Microreactors and SMRs for Military Bases

• Planning documents indicate deployment of SMRs of up to 300 MW

(NucNet) The US Air Force has issued a request for information (RFI) to manufacturers of micro and small modular reactors (SMRs) to evaluate the possibility of using nuclear technology at its bases. The RFI will help the government to identify companies’ ability to design, license, fuel, construct and deploy micro reactors or SMRs, without specifying any particular location.

The RFI calls on manufacturers to provide a comprehensive overview of what they can provide, including technology, regulatory and licensing readiness, fuel supply, construction strategy and financial structure. Documents published with the RFI show that the Air Force is interested in micro and small reactors of ranging from 1 MW to 300 MW and responses are due by April 19th.

Oklo Contract

In 2025, the Air Force announced its notice of intent to award Oklo a contract to provide power from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed reactor under 30-year, fixed-price terms.  The procurement action also involves the Defense Logistics Agency.

Oklo’s offering could include a new 75 MW design depending on the outcome of its NRC safety design review. The firm has not yet submitted its latest design for NRC review.

The notice initiates the negotiation process to potentially award a 30-year, firm-fixed-price contract to Oklo, Inc. after successfully obtaining an NRC license. Neither the USAF nor Oklo included an estimate of the value of the contract in their respective press statements. The Air Force Times reported the contract could be worth $100 million or more over its 30-year duration.

Oklo’s business model is to build & operate its advanced reactors which means every plant it installs at a customer site is a revenue generator for the firm in addition to generating electricity for the customer. Air & Space Forces Magazine reported that under the terms of the deal, Oklo would build and operate a 5 MW microreactor at Eielson Air Force Base, in Fairbanks, AK.

U.S Army Interest in Microreactors

The US Army has also expressed its intent to deploy nuclear power for its bases. In late 2025, the army said it had selected nine sites for the potential of microreactors to provide stable power production at its bases. Before that announcement, the army also unveiled the Janus Program aimed at deploying a microreactor by the end of September, 2028. The Janus program will build commercial microreactors through a contracting model in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit.

The reactors will be commercially owned-and-operated, with milestone payments intended to help companies close their business cases as they seek “nth-of-a-kind” production. The army will provide technical oversight and assistance, including support to the full uranium fuel cycle and broader nuclear supply chain.

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Polish Companies Sign MOU on BWRX-300 Reactor Projects Across Europe

(NucNet) Poland-based small modular reactor (SMR) project developer SGE has signed a memorandum of understanding with Polish construction group Polimex Mostostal and Polish engineering company ATEC Group to cooperate on the development and deployment of SMRs in Central and Eastern Europe. The agreement focuses on implementing the BWRX-300, developed by GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy.

The company’s flagship project is in Poland, where, in cooperation with state-controlled energy company Orlen, SGE has been preparing for development at three separate sites – Wlowlawek, central Poland, Ostrolaka, northeastern Poland, and Stawy Monowskie, in the south of the country. It is expecting to complete the first unit near Wloclawek by 2032.

In December 2023, the SGE-Orlen joint venture OSGE received a decision-in-principle for the construction of up to 24 SMRs at six potential sites across the country.

The BWRX-300 is a 300-MW water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems. It is based on an existing boiling water reactor design – the ESBWR – that is licensed in the US. However, despite pursuing licensing to build the ESBWR, neither of the two utilities that did so ever moved beyond the paperwork stage with their projects.

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Application Filed for Poland’s First Nuclear Power Plant

• Poland’s nuclear electric utility Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe (PEJ) has submitted an application to Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency for a construction permit for the country’s first nuclear power plant.

(WNN) One of the key elements of the documentation submitted with the license application is the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR). This report is one of the most important attachments, detailing the power plant design and its location. It also includes comprehensive analyses of technical and environmental factors demonstrating that the proposed solutions meet all requirements for nuclear safety, physical protection, radiological protection, and nuclear material safeguards for this type of facility.

The application includes a quality assurance program, safety classification, the design of the physical protection system for the nuclear facility and nuclear materials, basic information on the radiation emergency management system, and documentation confirming that the investor has the appropriate technical, human, and organizational capabilities to implement the project.

“This is one of the most important days for the implementation of the project for the first Polish nuclear power plant,” said Marek Woszczyk, President of the Management Board of PEJ.

In November 2022, the then Polish government selected Westinghouse AP1000 reactor technology for the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant, comprising of three units, at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in Choczewo municipality.

It is a major win for Westinghouse since its bankruptcy caused by the abrupt termination of the V C Summer project in South Carolina. An effort is underway to complete the two partially built AP1000 reactors at the site. The first major milestone for V C Summer will be a final investment decision by Santee Cooper expected in 2027.

PEJ said it expects to pour first concrete for Poland’s first unit in the fourth quarter of 2028. In order to meet this schedule, the company must obtain both a construction permit from the PAA and a building permit from the Pomeranian Voivode. PEJ said it plans to submit a building permit application in 2027.

Construction of each reactor is expected to take about seven years. This will be followed by approximately one year of testing and commissioning. The first reactor will begin commercial operation in 2036, the second in 2037, and the third in 2038.

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TerraPower to Use Digital Twin Software to Clear Engineering Bottlenecks

• TerraPower and SoftServe Integrate NVIDIA Omniverse to Speed Advanced Nuclear Energy Deployment
• The advanced nuclear developer and technology solutions provider are developing a breakthrough AI-powered platform to dramatically shorten nuclear plant design timelines 

TerraPower, which is building its first-of-a kind 345 MW sodium cooled advanced nuclear reactor in Wyoming, and SoftServe, basd in Austin, TX, is a digital engineering and technology consulting company. It released a preview of the NVIDIA Omniverse-powered engineering platform they are designing that will rapidly accelerate the siting and design of the Natrium advanced nuclear energy plant from years to months.

The platform is built with NVIDIA Omniverse operating system and applies digital twin technology to address some of nuclear power’s biggest design bottlenecks which include early-stage site engineering and design packages. This AI-powered digital twin compresses what once took engineering teams years to complete into mere weeks by analyzing thousands of variables simultaneously.

This illustration (below) highlights how TerraPower and SoftServe are using NVIDIA Omniverse to accelerate the deployment of the Natrium advanced nuclear energy plant.

NVIDIA Omniverse is a collection of libraries and microservices for developing physical AI applications such as industrial digital twins and robotics simulation. Omniverse libraries enable software makers to integrate pre-built functionality into their solutions.

The platform goes beyond digitizing design files by embedding different plant designs and layouts into geotechnical modeling, grid interconnection analysis and site-specific layout optimization. This acceleration enables projects to move through critical milestones faster and deliver the next generation of advanced nuclear facilities sooner.

“To meet growing power demand, advanced nuclear plants must move to construction faster, with higher design precision and disciplined execution,” said Eric Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at TerraPower.

“With our initial Natrium plant design complete, we are able to leverage our partnerships with NVIDIA and SoftServe to deploy an AI-powered digital twin to enhance our engineering teams efforts and greatly improve our speed to market capabilities.”

“Nuclear site engineering has always been expensive to get wrong—and until now, teams couldn’t really see the constraints until they were already committed to a layout,” said Dennis Loktinov, Senior Director of Enterprise Solutions at SoftServe.

“What we built with TerraPower on NVIDIA Omniverse changes that. Exclusion zones, terrain conflicts, cost tradeoffs—all of it is now visible in 3D, in real time, before a single dollar goes to construction. The bottleneck was never due to capability—it was the time it took to trust the design. We’ve removed that.”

“Using simulation and AI powered by NVIDIA, TerraPower and SoftServe are transforming how the world designs, licenses, permits, builds and operates advanced nuclear power plants,” said Marc Spieler, Senior Managing Director, Energy at NVIDIA.

“This shows how digital twin technology can dramatically compress timelines and help deliver clean, reliable energy faster than ever before.”

TerraPower’s Natrium reactor and energy storage system can be deployed in single, dual or quad unit configurations, offering between 500 MW and 2 GW of clean, flexible power. The demonstration released today highlights the seamless AI-powered functionality of reducing site-specific design work from 18 months to as short as eight weeks.

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INL and Project Omega Announce ARPA-E Award for Nuclear Fuel Recycling

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has awarded Project Omega a contract to advance used nuclear fuel (UNF) recycling. Through the award, Project Omega will validate key components of its molten-salt electrochemical recycling platform designed to safely process UNF, recover valuable isotopes, and significantly reduce long-term waste management challenges.

The U.S. currently lacks an industrial capability to recycle UNF. Project Omega’s ARPA-E award, which falls under the CURIE (Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy) program, has the objective of demonstrating a scalable pathway to recover this energy while reducing waste streams and strengthening domestic fuel supply chains.

At the core of the project is the demonstration of novel inert anodes used in the molten-salt electrochemical reduction of UNF. Omega’s ARPA-E award will support kilogram-scale prototype testing at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) designed to validate system performance and generate the mass-balanced engineering data required for pilot-scale deployment for this domestic fuel recycling capability.

Unlike legacy aqueous reprocessing methods that rely on nitric acid and generate large secondary wastewater streams, Project Omega’s approach remains entirely non-aqueous, using molten salts to separate materials through electrochemical processes. The process achieves high-purity separations without isolating pure plutonium, minimizing proliferation risks while leveraging commercially proven electrochemical metal-refining techniques.

Project Omega plans to construct a pilot facility capable of processing multiple types of UNF and recovering materials that can support advanced reactors, domestic isotope supply chains, and next-generation power systems.

By combining electrochemical engineering with commercial metal-refining techniques, this ARPA-E project is designed to move beyond laboratory research and toward deployable nuclear fuel recycling infrastructure that supports both civilian energy systems and national security missions.

The CURIE program is part of ARPA-E’s effort to develop new technologies for recycling used nuclear fuel and supporting the next generation of nuclear reactors. The program funds projects exploring improved methods for separating and recovering materials from spent fuel, better monitoring and accounting systems to track nuclear materials, and new facility designs that can make recycling technologies safer, more affordable, and easier to deploy.

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USNIC Report – Geologic Repository Needed Even with Reprocessing of Spent Fuel

The United States Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC) today released a new briefing paper examining the role of nuclear fuel recycling and its relationship to long-term waste management policy. It is titled “A Deep Geologic Repository Remains Necessary Even if Fuel Recycling Is Implemented.” (Full text – PDF file)

The report explains that while recycling technologies can recover valuable materials from used nuclear fuel and support advanced reactor development, they do not eliminate the need for permanent geologic disposal of certain long-lived radioactive materials.

Drawing on international experience and technical analysis, the paper highlights several key findings:

• Recycling and disposal serve different functions. Recycling can recover usable materials from used fuel, but residual waste streams will still require permanent disposal.
• Some radioactive materials cannot be reused. Certain fission products and long-lived radionuclides must be isolated from the environment over geologic timeframes. 
•  Recycling deployment will take time. Even if advanced recycling technologies are deployed in the future, they will not quickly address the existing U.S. inventory of used nuclear fuel.
• Global experience reinforces the need for repositories. Countries that recycle nuclear fuel still plan for deep geologic disposal of resulting waste streams.

The paper concludes that recycling and deep geologic disposal are complementary components of a responsible nuclear fuel cycle strategy—not substitutes for one another. Establishing a permanent disposal pathway will remain essential as the United States expands nuclear energy and advances new fuel cycle technologies.

About USNIC

The United States Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC) is the leading U.S. business advocate for advanced nuclear energy and the promotion of the American supply chain globally. USNIC has approximately 100 companies engaged in nuclear innovation and supply chain development, including technology developers, manufacturers, construction engineers, key utility movers, and service providers.

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Orano Completes NRC License Application for a New Uranium Enrichment Plant in Oak Ridge, TN

France-based Orano has completed a license application for a new $5 billion uranium enrichment facility in the U.S. by submitting the technical portion of the application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Following its Environmental Report (ER) submission in late January to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Orano completed the Project IKE license application today by submitting the technical portion of the application. Project IKE is a large gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility planned for Oak Ridge, TN.

The technical portion of the application includes the Integrated Safety Analysis (ISA), process safety information, and the analyses addressing criticality, chemical, and fire safety, as well as the required security and safeguards information.

Named in reference to President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower’s landmark 1953 “Atoms for Peace” address to the United Nations calling for the establishment of a robust nuclear energy industry, the Project IKE development began in September 2024 with the State of Tennessee’s announcement that Orano had selected Oak Ridge as the preferred site for its facility.

About Orano’s Enrichment Facility

The selected Project IKE site is in Roane County near Oak Ridge, TN on greenfield property owned by the Department of Energy across the street from the Horizon Industrial Center and surrounding the Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center (ORETTC). The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is not involved in the project.

On January 5, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that Orano was the sole provider selected for the $900 million award for low-enriched uranium supply. This is important funding for Orano’s $5 billion Project IKE development.

Ultimately, the design and capacity of the enrichment facility will depend on customer demand and market needs.  The initial facility concept is a footprint of 750,000 square feet, similar to Orano’s enrichment facility in Tricastin, France. With the timely completion of required milestones, Orano says significant enrichment operations could begin in 2031.

The facility’s modular design and site orientation enables expansion as needed by the market.

The output of an enrichment facility is measured in kilograms of “separative work units” (SWU), which is a calculation standardizing many enrichment process variables into a comparable number.

This facility will be initially designed for annual production capacity of 4 million SWU.For reference in 2023, U.S. utilities purchased 15 million SWU from domestic and international providers.

Based on customer demand and federal support, this Project IKE facility is designed for low-enriched uranium (LEU) up to 10%. Orano was selected in a Department of Energy award announced January 5, 2025, as the supplier of low enriched uranium (LEU) generated by new domestic sources.

For high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) up to 19.75%, Orano was also selected by the DOE for future task orders within the HALEU enrichment and deconversion contracts.

With appropriate market demand and federal support, a HALEU facility to enrich uranium for fueling certain advanced reactors could be co-located with the LEU facility on the Project IKE site to achieve cost and process efficiencies. Orano already has licensed HALEU transport systems to securely deliver this fuel to advanced reactor developers.

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