Tag: nuclear power

China Successfully Operates World’s First Thorium Molten Salt Reactor

An experimental Chinese nuclear plant reportedly just crossed a historic threshold, successfully operating the world’s first thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR). The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has broken a major scientific barrier by successfully converting thorium to uranium in a historic first.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that the breakthrough, which took place at an experimental reactor out in the Gobi Desert, is “poised to reshape the future of clean sustainable nuclear energy.” 

The process works by using a “precise sequence of nuclear reactions” in which naturally occurring thorium-232 absorbs a neutron, becoming thorium-233. Through a decay process, that isotope breaks down into protactinium-233 and then finally into uranium-233, a potent form of nuclear fuel that can sustain chain reactions for nuclear fission.

While this breakthrough was just publicized this month by a report by Science and Technology Daily, the TMSR has apparently been operational for years. Li Qingnuan, Communist Party secretary and deputy director at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, told the outlet that “since achieving first criticality on October 11, 2023, the thorium molten salt reactor has been steadily generating heat through nuclear fission”.

If the reports are true, this breakthrough would signal an incredible leap forward in a nuclear technology race that China is already winning handily. Although the United States is still the world’s biggest producer of nuclear energy, that status won’t last much longer. In the same time period that the United States built the overdue and over-budget Plant Vogtle, China built 13 reactors of similar scale, and has 33 more on the way. Beijing is also making major forays into the nuclear sectors of emerging economies, with particularly concerted efforts in Africa.

“The Chinese are moving very, very fast,” Mark Hibbs, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and expert on the Chinese nuclear sector, told the New York Times. “They are very keen to show the world that their program is unstoppable.”

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The Trump Administration’s Top Nuclear Scientists Think AI Can Replace Humans in Power Plants

During a presentation at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence on December 3, a US Department of Energy scientist laid out a grand vision of the future where nuclear energy powers artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence shapes nuclear energy in “a virtuous cycle of peaceful nuclear deployment.”

“The goal is simple: to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade,” Rian Bahran, DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors, said.

His presentation and others during the symposium, held in Vienna, Austria, described a world where nuclear powered AI designs, builds, and even runs the nuclear power plants they’ll need to sustain them. But experts find these claims, made by one of the top nuclear scientists working for the Trump administration, to be concerning and potentially dangerous. 

Tech companies are using artificial intelligence to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States. But few know the lengths to which the Trump administration is paving the way and the part it’s playing in deregulating a highly regulated industry to ensure that AI data centers have the energy they need to shape the future of America and the world.

At the IAEA, scientists, nuclear energy experts, and lobbyists discussed what that future might look like. To say the nuclear people are bullish on AI is an understatement. “I call this not just a partnership but a structural alliance. Atoms for algorithms. Artificial intelligence is not just powered by nuclear energy. It’s also improving it because this is a two way street,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in his opening remarks.

In his talk, Bahran explained that the DOE has partnered with private industry to invest $1 trillion to “build what will be an integrated platform that connects the world’s best supercomputers, AI systems, quantum systems, advanced scientific instruments, the singular scientific data sets at the National Laboratories—including the expertise of 40,000 scientists and engineers—in one platform.”

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Energy Department loans $1B to help finance the restart of nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island

The U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday that it will loan $1 billion to help finance the restart of the nuclear power plant on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island that is under contract to supply power to data centers for tech giant Microsoft.

The loan is in line with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration, including bolstering nuclear power and artificial intelligence.

For Constellation Energy, which owns Three Mile Island’s lone functioning nuclear power reactor, the federal loan will lower its financing cost to get the mothballed plant up and running again. The 835-megawatt reactor can power the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes, the Department of Energy said.

The reactor had been out of operation for five years when Constellation Energy announced last year that it would spend $1.6 billion to restart it under a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to buy the power for its data centers.

Constellation Energy renamed the functioning unit the Crane Clean Energy Center as it works to restore equipment including the turbine, generator, main power transformer and cooling and control systems. It hopes to bring the plant back online in 2027.

The loan is being issued under an existing $250 billion energy infrastructure program initially authorized by Congress in 2022. Neither the department nor Constellation released terms of the loan.

The plant, on an island in the Susquehanna River just outside Harrisburg, was the site of the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident, in 1979. The accident destroyed one reactor, Unit 2, and left the plant with one functioning reactor, Unit 1.

In 2019, Constellation Energy’s then-parent company Exelon shut down the functioning reactor, saying it was losing money and Pennsylvania lawmakers had refused to subsidize it to keep it running.

The plan to restart the reactor comes amid something of a renaissance for nuclear power, as policymakers are increasingly looking to it to shore up the nation’s power supply, help avoid the worst effects of climate change and meet rising power demand driven by data centers.

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Trump Admin To Lend “Hundreds Of Billions” To Build Nuclear Power Plants

While the market is finally starting to grapple with the most unpleasant question of who will plug the funding gap needed to build out all the data centers required to make the AI dream a reality, a gap which Morgan Stanley recently calculated would be as large as $2.9 trillion in capex funding needs, of which at least $1 trillion will come in the form of debt (and mostly private debt)…

… there is another, just as critical question: who will fund the energy buildout that powers these data centers? 

Recall, last December Morgan Stanley calculated that the US would need at least 36GW in new power to be brought online by 2028 to energize all the (yet to be built) data centers, a number which one year later is surely far higher. 

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The largest project in the history of humanity is about to enter a key phase the final assembly of the reactor core led by an american giant

The world’s largest and most ambitious fusion energy project has reached a turning point as Westinghouse Electric Company begins assembling the heart of ITER’s fusion reactor in Cadarache, southern France. The international effort, designed to replicate the energy of the sun, could one day provide humanity with an endless supply of clean, sustainable power.

Westinghouse leads final assembly of ITER’s tokamak core

In August 2025, the ITER fusion project entered one of its most technically demanding phases — the final assembly of the reactor’s tokamak core. Westinghouse, a global leader in nuclear technology, secured a €168 million contract to oversee the installation and welding of nine giant steel sectors that will form the tokamak’s vacuum vessel, the central chamber where fusion will occur.

This donut-shaped vessel must be perfectly circular and hermetically sealed, as it will contain plasma heated to over 150 million degrees Celsius—hotter than the core of the sun. Each sector, weighing about 400 tons, requires millimeter-level precision to ensure the system’s stability and safety during operation.

Westinghouse’s experience spans over a decade of work with Ansaldo Nucleare and Walter Tosto through the AMW consortium, which produced five of the nine reactor sectors. Their expertise ensures precision in both construction and integration, as the vessel must endure enormous magnetic and thermal stresses.

As former ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot once said, “Assembling this is like putting together a three-dimensional puzzle on an industrial scale.” Every weld, joint, and component must perform flawlessly to contain a process capable of replicating stellar reactions on Earth.

Global collaboration of unprecedented scale

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) represents one of the greatest examples of scientific collaboration in history. Bringing together 35 nations—including the European Union, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, India, and South Korea—the project unites over half the world’s population and 85% of global GDP toward a common goal: sustainable energy.

Each participating country contributes precision-built components manufactured across four continents, shipped to France for assembly. This global supply chain transforms ITER into a model for future international cooperation in large-scale science and technology projects.

The result is more than just a reactor—it’s a demonstration of how humanity can coordinate resources and knowledge to solve planetary challenges, setting a precedent for future global energy innovations.

Technical ambitions and timeline challenges

ITER’s goal is to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power from just 50 megawatts of input—a tenfold return that would confirm the commercial viability of nuclear fusion. Achieving this would redefine global energy systems and represent a technological breakthrough comparable to the invention of electricity itself.

However, progress hasn’t come without challenges. Since construction began in 2010, ITER’s timeline has been extended multiple times due to technical complexity, supply chain coordination, and the unprecedented scale of the project. Originally scheduled for first plasma by 2018, the target now stands at 2035 for the first deuterium-tritium fusion experiments.

This delay underscores fusion’s enduring difficulty: creating and maintaining the extreme conditions necessary for sustained reaction. As the saying goes in the industry, “Fusion is always 30 years away”—a reminder of both the ambition and patience required for such pioneering work.

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DOE And NRC Sign Addendum To Fast Track Commercial Reactor Licensing

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently signed Addendum No. 9 to their 2019 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), paving the way for faster follow-on licensing of advanced nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel technologies.

This agreement, signed Oct 24th and effective immediately, comes as major concerns have been raised by reactor development companies and industry observers regarding the double work that may be required of developers when they bring their tested products over to the NRC. Demand for clean, reliable energy by data centers and major industrial companies has created a stronger need for change in the path to reactor design commercialization, with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon signing long-term offtake agreements with reactor operators Constellation, NextEra, and Talen.

The addition to the MOU comes from the directives out of Trump’s executive orders signed back in May of this year. From section 5.d of the executive order “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission”:

“Establish an expedited pathway to approve reactor designs that the DOD or the DOE have tested and that have demonstrated the ability to function safely. NRC review of such designs shall focus solely on risks that may arise from new applications permitted by NRC licensure, rather than revisiting risks that have already been addressed in the DOE or DOD processes.”

Surprisingly, the DOE and NRC took the executive order one step further and included a streamlined licensing process for nuclear fuel facilities as well. It becomes less surprising when we remember the current administration has highlighted multiple times the desire to reduce the reliance on foreign nuclear fuel supplies. Even with the Russian uranium import ban, the US is still importing over a fifth of the required enriched uranium from Russia through last year. The US government is looking to expand the domestic capacity of every step in the fuel chain as quickly as possible.

The new addendum will directly impact the companies already announced by the DOE as participants in their pilot reactor and fuel programs:

  • Reactor developers: Aalo Atomics, Antares Nuclear, Atomic Alchemy, Deep Fission, Last Energy, Oklo (two projects), Natura Resources, Radiant Industries, Terrestrial Energy, Valar Atomics
  • Fuel facilities: Standard Nuclear, Oklo, Terrestrial Energy, TRISO-X, Valar Atomics

Additional companies are expected to be announced for both of the programs in the near future, as the DOE still looks to expand the number of participants as an effort to increase the chance of success.

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Republican Socialism Goes Nuclear: Trump Bets $80 Billion on Government-Backed Energy

Since President Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office, the federal government has trademarked its own version of Republican socialism by nationalizing steel production and taking equity stakes in chip manufacturers and mining projects. Now, it’s getting involved in the nuclear power sector. 

On Tuesday, Westinghouse Electric Company announced that it had entered “into a strategic partnership” with the federal government, Brookfield Asset Management, and uranium fuel supplier Cameco Corporation to build “at least” $80 billion worth of Westinghouse’s AP1000 nuclear reactors across the country. The agreement was made “in accordance” with Trump’s May executive order, which called for the deployment of 10 new large nuclear reactors in the U.S. by 2030, according to Westinghouse. 

The details of the agreement are still a bit murky, but the federal government will underwrite at least some of these projects, while others might be financed by Japan. On Tuesday, Japan’s trade ministry pledged to invest $550 billion into American projects, in exchange for lower tariff rates from the Trump administration. Included in this package was an “artificial intelligence and a nuclear reactor construction initiative that was expected to be worth up to $100 billion and involve Mitsubishi Heavy [Industries] and Toshiba,” reports The New York Times. 

The deal might also allow the federal government to take an equity stake in America’s largest nuclear power company. Bloomberg‘s Liam Denning writes that as long as the U.S. government follows through on its financial commitment, “it would then get a 20% share in any dividends paid out by Westinghouse above a $17.5 billion threshold.” If these projects are up and running within the next “three years or so” and “Westinghouse is deemed at that point to be worth at least $30 billion, the company may then be required to do an initial public offering with the government getting warrants that may convert into an equity stake,” according to Denning. 

Nuclear power is clean, reliable, and safe, but forcing taxpayers to bet on its future success is risky. After thriving throughout the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, the industry has been plagued by P.R. disasters and project failures that have hampered nuclear power for much of the last 30 years. 

Recent efforts to revive the industry have not done much to build public confidence. A failed nuclear power plant project in South Carolina, which featured two AP1000 reactors, left ratepayers on the hook for millions of dollars, although Brookfield Management is considering reviving the project, according to the Associated Press.

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Trump Administration Providing Weapons Grade Plutonium to Sam Altman

With the economy the way it is these days, it’s nice to have a little walking around money.

Donald Trump certainly thinks so. Since his return to the White House, the president has labeled 440 federal properties for possible sale, leased 13.1 million acres of public land for strip mining, and held a fire sale for satellites developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

In one of his wildest money moves to date, the Financial Times reports that Trump is now offering companies access to plutonium from America’s arsenal of cold war nuclear missiles.

On Tuesday, the US Department of Energy (DOE) launched an application for interested parties to apply for access to a maximum of 19 metric tonnes — a little under 42,000 pounds — of weapons-grade plutonium, which has long been a key resource undergirding the US nuclear arsenal.

One of the companies anticipated to receive shipments of the fissile isotope from the DOE is Oklo, a “nuclear startup” backed — and formerly chaired — by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Earlier in October, Oklo was one of four US companies chosen by the DOE to join a new pilot program meant to rush the testing and approval of experimental reactor designs.

As the FT reports, we won’t know for certain until December 31, when the DOE announces the companies selected to purchase the plutonium, but it’s likely Oklo will be among them. That’s stirring up plenty of anxiety throughout the scientific community, who say the relaxed approach to nuclear development is a major cause for alarm.

“If there were adults in the room and I could trust the federal government to impose the right standards, it wouldn’t be such a great concern, but it just doesn’t seem feasible,” Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists told the FT.

The move comes as tech companies like OpenAI contribute to a surge in energy consumption unlike anything the US has ever seen, leading to record high electrical bills for American people. To meet demand, the Trump administration has embraced nuclear energy, which currently depends almost entirely on foreign imports of uranium into the US — a bottleneck the White House is trying to do away with.

In that light, pawning off warheads to the highest bidder is something of a stopgap solution while domestic uranium producers get things in order. In the meantime, it may have the fascinating side effect of reducing the US’ capacity to threaten its rivals with nuclear obliteration — which, to be fair, is sure to be a welcome development for many nations around the world.

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Cruz introduces bill to advance nuclear fuel recycling, research, safety

An advocate for developing nuclear energy in his home state, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has proposed a bill to advance nuclear fuel recycling, including research over its feasibility and safety.

The Advancing Research in Nuclear Fuel Recycling Act of 2025, cosponsored with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, would require the U.S. Department of Energy to analyze the costs, benefits, and risks of recycling spent nuclear fuel compared to interim storage solutions.

“Spent nuclear fuel has the potential to dramatically increase America’s energy, economic, and national security,” Cruz said. “Domestic recycling can reduce the space we need for spent nuclear fuel, enhance energy independence, reduce our dependence on imports, and broaden the supply of rare elements and isotopes used in medicine and advanced technologies.

“Recycling solutions will also reduce the burden on individual states from nuclear waste accumulation, and accelerate progress on nuclear energy, which is our nation’s cleanest baseload energy source. I’m proud to work with Sen. Heinrich on this legislation and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass this bill.”

The bill would direct the DOE to analyze the “practicability, potential benefits, costs, and risks, including proliferation, of using dedicated recycling facilities to convert spent nuclear fuel, including spent high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, into useable nuclear fuels, such as those for commercial light water reactors; advanced nuclear reactors; and medical, space-based, advanced-battery, and other non-reactor applications,” according to the bill language. Recycling would involve taking spent fuel already being held in storage sites nationwide to use as fuel or input for advanced nuclear reactors, existing reactors, or commercial applications, according to the bill language.

The bill also would direct the DOE to investigate the risks of aqueous (PUREX and its derivatives) recycling processes with the practicability, potential benefits, costs, and risk of non-aqueous (such as pyro-electrochemistry) recycling processes.

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Defending Against Strained Grids, Army To Power US Bases With Micro-Nuke Reactors

As soaring demand for electric power threatens to rapidly overtake America’s supply, the US Army on Tuesday announced a plan to install nuclear microreactors at bases across the country. “What resilience means to us is that we have power, no matter what, 24-7,” said principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army Jeff Waksman after the program was unveiled at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting Warriors Corner panel. 

Pursuant to what has been christened the “Janus Program,” the Pentagon is charged with bringing the first reactor online no later than September 30, 2028, and is currently identifying the first nine posts that will receive two reactors each. Those reactors will generate less than 20 megawatts of power, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s comparable to the demands of a single, small town. In addition to preserving the installations ability to function in the face of overwhelmed grids, the reactors will also serve as a safeguard against cyberattacks and weather catastrophes. The program is empowered by Executive Order 14299, “Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security,” which was signed by President Trump in May. 

The microreactors will be owned and operated by private companies that will be selected in 2026; the budget has yet to be disclosed. “The race today is to actually develop the capability. We are all trying to figure out who can turn these things on,” Isaiah Taylor, chief executive and founder of microreactor startup Valar Atomics, told the Journal. The Janus Program comes after six years of Army work with startup companies to develop microreactors for service around the globe. The Air Force has its own parallel program, with eight companies pursuing contracts to power USAF installations. Microreactors are roughly the same size as a shipping container, and are meant to be easily transportable and rapidly brought online upon arrival. 

“Since the Manhattan Project, the Department of Energy and the Department of War have forged one of the defining partnerships in American history—advancing the science, engineering, and industrial capability that power our national security,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re extending that legacy through initiatives like the Janus Program, accelerating next-generation reactor deployment and strengthening the nuclear foundations of American energy and defense.”

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