Nuclear Fission
Reactor design advances, safety milestones, fuel technology, and construction progress in nuclear fission power.
-
TRISO Fuel Testing Aims to Make Small Reactors Meltdown-Proof
Fuel that survives hotter than melting steel is now in testing, and it could decide which small towns get affordable nuclear power next.
-
Laser Enrichment Technology Locks In Its First Big Fuel Customer
What happens when a $1.76 billion nuclear project lands in a town that lost its enrichment jobs decades ago? Western Kentucky is about to find out.
-
Why China’s Newest Reactor Design Needs a Third Less Steel
A factory owner in Zhejiang province has spent the past decade watching industrial power demand outrun the grid’s ability to keep up cheaply. A reactor design that broke ground this month is built specifically to close that gap faster than its predecessor ever could. What Actually Broke Ground This Month Thirty-three percent. That’s how much…
-
The Reactor Control Room That Just Entered the Touchscreen Era
A Philadelphia-area electricity customer probably never thinks about the switches inside the Limerick nuclear plant thirty miles away, until one of them fails and a repair bill shows up somewhere on next year’s rate case. Constellation just started ripping out the switches that could cause that problem. What Constellation Is Actually Replacing Constellation just started…
-
Why an Oil Rig Crew, Not Reactor Engineers, Just Proved Deep Fission’s Design
A resident of Parsons, Kansas, the town Deep Fission has picked for its first reactor site, might reasonably worry about a nuclear plant showing up nearby: the containment dome, the security perimeter, the visible footprint. A drilling test in California this month points toward a design with almost none of that on the surface. What…
-
The Molten Salt Reactor Aiming to Go 24 Years Without Refueling
A conventional nuclear plant needs a refueling outage every 18 to 24 months, each one a multi-week shutdown that costs a utility real money in lost generation. A reactor being developed in Denmark and tested in South Korea is aiming for a refueling interval measured in decades, not months. What Saltfoss Just Signed With Korea…
-
The Fuel Deal That Decides Whether Microreactors Ever Ship
Piketon, Ohio lost thousands of enrichment jobs when its old gaseous diffusion plant shut down decades ago, and residents have watched partial comebacks rise and stall ever since. A fuel deal signed this September gives that comeback its most concrete boost yet. What Centrus and Radiant Just Signed Radiant does not have a single commercial…
-
Why a Wiring Contract Might Be the Most Important Nuclear Deal This Month
A homeowner near Wylfa, Wales has seen big energy projects promise cheap power before and then blow through their budgets on the way to delivering it. A wiring and automation deal signed this September is aimed at making sure this reactor doesn’t repeat that history. What ABB and Rolls-Royce SMR Just Agreed To “Partnerships along…
-
The Robot Arm That Keeps a Reactor Technician Out of Harm’s Way
A reactor maintenance technician at a molten salt plant has traditionally had one bad option when something behind the shielding needs fixing: suit up and walk into a radiological area. A test completed this month at Kairos Power’s Tennessee campus is aimed at making that option disappear. What Kairos Power Actually Tested Engineers at Kairos…
-
Why Sweden Is Building Four Identical Reactors Instead of One
Building four identical reactors instead of one custom plant lets crews repeat the same design and get faster each time. Sweden’s 1.2-gigawatt bet aims for its first unit online by the mid-2030s.