Author: Fission Today

Christian Nationalists in US Government Push Attacks on Iran as Holy War Hegseth’s prayer services at the Pentagon are a sign the guard rails are shrinking. On March 25, he prayed for “overwhelming violence” using carefully selected passages from the Bible to justify an unjust war. Head bowed, Hegseth intoned: “Pour out your wrath upon those who plot vain things and blow them away like chaff before the wind…. Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation…. Let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse so that evil may be driven back.” Christian nationalists conveniently ignore…

The State of Texas has opened applications for $350 million in advanced nuclear grants through the Texas Advanced Nuclear Development Fund (TANDF), making the nation’s largest state‑level nuclear package competitive for the first time across two programs aimed at reactor construction and supply chain development. In an exclusive interview with POWER, Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office (TANEO) Director Jarred Shaffer said notices of intent are due April 23, with full applications closing May 14. TANDF’s $350 million funding is divided across two reimbursement programs structured under Chapter 483 of the Texas Government Code, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott…

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DOE Using AI to Prepare NRC Licensing Documents NRC’s Progress in Using AI to Regulate the Nuclear Industry X-Energy Files for IPO X-Energy Inks Co-Development Plan with Talen Energy Holtec International Updates SMR Agreement with Mitsubishi Texas Startup Launches Bid to Build Uranium Conversion Facility Global Laser Enrichment Lands $99 Million of Incentives for Paduach, KY, Project NASA Plans Test of Nuclear Electric Propulsion in 2028 Mars Mission Using AI to Reduce Reactor Licensing Timelines The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Argonne National Lab (ANL), Microsoft, and Everstar, has successfully demonstrated the use…

Governments are committing substantial public funding to nuclear fusion power as a potential source of safe, dispatchable low-carbon electricity to support power-sector decarbonization. These investments should be based on the certainty that fusion power plants (FPPs) may affordably serve an important role in future power systems. However, due to the technology’s nascency and lack of empirical cost data, current assumptions about future cost reductions are weakly substantiated. With inaccurate cost projections overestimating FPPs’ role in future power systems, this distorts investment priorities and funding allocations. Providing empirically grounded cost trajectories for fusion power is therefore key to ensuring that scarce…

This is second post of a two part series on this topic.Click here for part one. Did the Japanese offer to surrender before the atomic bombs were dropped in August 1945? In my first post earlier this week, I gave what we might call the standard diplomatic history answer: no, they didn’t. There were “peace feelers” to the Soviet Union from an important minority of the Japanese government, which is quite interesting and complicates the overly-simple picture of Japanese fanaticism that is often told about their refusal to surrender, but they don’t constitute, in any meaningful sense, a real offer…

Despite growing concerns about rising utility bills, Xcel Energy is lobbying Minnesota lawmakers to make permanent a controversial program that enables it to charge customers hundreds of millions of dollars for fossil fuel infrastructure upgrades without standard regulatory review. Passed in its current form in 2013, the Gas Utility Infrastructure Cost rider (GUIC) allows gas utilities to fast-track urgent repairs and replacements of aging pipelines. Xcel successfully lobbied to extend GUIC’s initial expiration date of June 2023 to June 2028 during the 2023 session. The legislation under consideration now, House File 3830/Senate File 3954, removes that sunset date to functionally…

In biology, defects are generally bad. But in materials science, defects can be intentionally tuned to give materials useful new properties. Today, atomic-scale defects are carefully introduced during the manufacturing process of products like steel, semiconductors, and solar cells to help improve strength, control electrical conductivity, optimize performance, and more.But even as defects have become a powerful tool, accurately measuring different types of defects and their concentrations in finished products has been challenging, especially without cutting open or damaging the final material. Without knowing what defects are in their materials, engineers risk making products that perform poorly or have unintended…

This year’s report identifies two opposing trends: nuclear arsenals are growing, even as more countries choose to reject nuclear weapons and join the ban treaty. The Monitor shows that the total number of nuclear warheads in the world currently stands at an estimated 12,187. This number includes retired warheads scheduled for dismantling. The number of warheads that are available to be used by the nine nuclear-armed states has increased again to 9,745 – an increase of 141 since last year – and with a combined explosive yield equating to more than 135,000 Hiroshima bombs Of this number, 4,012 warheads are…

Israel launches strikes on nuclear sites as Iran warns of retaliation Uranium facility, steel plants and heavy water complex among targets hit as IRGC warns of escalation. By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP, Reuters and The Associated Press, 27 Mar 2026 Israel has struck a uranium processing facility in the central Iranian city of Yazd, the Israeli military confirmed, in an escalatory move that comes as regional diplomats have been attempting to broker an agreement to halt the joint US-Israeli war on Iran. The Israeli Air Force said it hit a plant used to extract raw materials essential to the uranium enrichment process, describing it as a “unique facility”…