Tag: nuclear power

The United States promotes an alliance with Argentina in artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and critical minerals to counter China’s influence in the region

Artificial intelligence is at the center of great-power competition. The United States is promoting “American AI” through initiatives such as the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI (PGIAI), launched with industry partners to expand AI access and training globally.

The White House’s AI Action Plan (2025) explicitly identifies diplomacy and standard-setting as tools to align partner nations with U.S. frameworks.

By embedding U.S.-based AI ecosystems in Hispanic America, Washington offers democratic governance standards and trusted digital infrastructure.

This strategy not only supports innovation but also reduces the risk of dependency on Chinese platforms, which carry surveillance and data security concerns.

While outcomes are not guaranteed, these initiatives increase the likelihood that regional AI standards will align with U.S. interests.

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Russia remains top uranium fuel supplier to US – Energy Department data

Russia is still the leading supplier of nuclear fuel to the US despite an import ban introduced under former President Joe Biden, the US Department of Energy has revealed.

According to the agency’s annual uranium marketing report released on Tuesday, Russia provided 20% of the enriched uranium purchased for American commercial reactors in 2024. France supplied 18%, the Netherlands 15%, Britain 9%, and Germany 7%, while 19% of enriched uranium was produced domestically.

Biden signed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act into law in 2024, with the ban formally coming into force in August that year. In retaliation, Moscow imposed a temporary cap on enriched uranium exports to the US in November.

The legislation, however, contains a system of waivers allowing purchases from Russia until 2028 if no alternative supply is available or if the imports are considered strategically important. Bloomberg reported that waivers were granted to Constellation Energy Corp, the largest US nuclear operator, and Centrus Energy Corp, one of only two domestic uranium enrichers.

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Nuclear Startup Receives Funding To Bury Its Mini-Reactors A Mile Underground

Nuclear startup Deep Fission has received funding to bury its mini reactors a mile underground. 

The company has taken an unusual path to raise money, completing an alternative public offering (APO) that brought in $30 million at $3 per share — well below the $10 price typical of traditional IPOs. The company will retain its name and list shares on the OTCQB market, according to Interesting Engineering.

“This is a unique moment for the nuclear industry,” said Liz Muller, Co-Founder and CEO of Deep Fission. “Deep Fission has the right technology, at the right time, and in the right place. With this funding, we can begin building our pilot reactor, with the goal of completion in 2026.” She added the company aims to scale “rapidly and profitably to address the massive energy demand from AI data centers and other customers worldwide.”

Deep Fission’s design uses small cylindrical reactors lowered into mile-deep, 30-inch boreholes. Each generates 15 megawatts, cooled by proven pressurized water systems. Burying the reactors in bedrock provides shielding, containment, and a minimal surface footprint. The company says it can deliver power for 5–7 cents per kilowatt-hour using low-enriched uranium and off-the-shelf parts.

“By burying the reactors, the company hopes to solve several problems that plague current reactors, including concerns over meltdowns and potential terrorist attacks,” TechCrunch wrote.

The Interesting Engineering article says that the startup has already signed a deal with data center developer Endeavor for two gigawatts of capacity and was selected for the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program, which targets first criticality by July 4, 2026.

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The Nuclear Waste Problem Haunting UK Energy Expansion

  • Effective nuclear waste management is a critical global challenge, particularly for countries like the UK looking to expand their nuclear power sectors.
  • The UK has a substantial amount of existing radioactive waste and is struggling to implement a long-term disposal solution, with the proposed underground geological disposal facility facing significant hurdles and cost concerns.
  • Public and local community pushback against potential nuclear waste sites further complicates the development of new disposal facilities, making finding a solution an ongoing and difficult process.

One of the biggest hurdles to expanding the global nuclear power sector is the concern over how best to manage nuclear waste.

While some believe they have found sustainable solutions to dispose of nuclear waste, there is still widespread debate around how safe these methods are and the potential long-term impact of waste disposal and storage.

In the United Kingdom, the government has put nuclear power back on the agenda, after decades with no new nuclear developments; however, managing nuclear waste continues to be a major barrier to development. 

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European nations dumped 200,000 barrels of radioactive waste in the ocean, and humans might soon pay the price

A team of scientists has found 3,355 barrels of radioactive waste at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery was made at a depth of 13,000 feet, and hundreds of miles offshore from France. This is only a tiny part of the actual number of barrels filled with nuclear waste scattered at the bottom of the sea. Between 1946 and 1990, over 200,000 such barrels were dumped by European nations, assuming it was the best way to keep people on land safe. This was done under the supervision of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), a body comprising 34 countries that is tasked with ensuring nuclear safety and waste management. But now there are fears that this waste can reach humans via the food chain. Scientists have warned that this radioactive material could be absorbed by marine life, which can enter sea creatures and then humans who eat the contaminated seafood. This could cause long-term health issues, damage tissues, and increase the risk of cancer.

The barrels are not capable of holding the contents inside them forever. They were designed to release the radioactive material slowly, but surely. They had a life span of 20 to 26 years, and that time is already gone. So what next? The French scientists are on a mission to understand what would happen to these barrels. In the first leg, they used sonar and the autonomous underwater robot UlyX to map the Abyssal Plains. They said that most of the radioactive material in these barrels is weak and does not pose any immediate risk to humans since it is deep inside the ocean. However, this does not mitigate the long-term effects, which include contaminating marine life and entering the food chain. About one-third of the material in these barrels was tritium, which is considered insignificant. The rest are beta and gamma emitters, which lose radioactivity, with about two per cent being alpha radiation.

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Russian Nuclear Power Plant Damaged In Ukrainian Drone Attack, IAEA Monitors Radiation

In another dangerous escalation, Russia has accused Ukraine of launching a drone strike on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, which sparked a fire and damaged an auxiliary transformer, resulting in a 50% reduction in the output of reactor number three.

Several other energy facilities were also reportedly targeted during the overnight strikes, involving likely hundreds of drones. Russia’s military said that it intercepted nearly one hundred of them across various locations in the south.

Kursk Nuclear Power Plant’s news service reported that the fire was quickly brought under control and with no injuries. Radiation levels remained normal, according to local reports.

However, the press service also noted that two other reactors are currently not generating power, though one of them is undergoing scheduled maintenance. Reuters additionally details, “Ukraine launched a drone attack on Russia on Sunday, forcing a sharp fall in the capacity of a reactor at one of Russia’s biggest nuclear power plants and sparking a huge blaze at the major Ust-Luga fuel export terminal, Russian officials said.”

Kursk region’s acting governor, Alexander Khinshtein, swiftly condemned the “threat to nuclear safety and a violation of all international conventions.” The site lies some 40 miles from the Ukrainian border.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) weighed in on the Sunday attack, saying the agency is monitoring the situation and that radiation levels around the Kursk plant remain normal.

The IAEA statement, however, did not mention expressly that the damage was due to a Ukrainian drone attack. It only said it “is aware of media reports that a transformer at the Kursk NPP in Russia has caught fire due to military activity. While the IAEA has no independent confirmation of these reports, [Director General] Rafael Grossi stresses that ‘every nuclear facility must be protected at all times.'”

In a separate incident, a fire broke out at the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s Leningrad region, where a major fuel export terminal is located – after some 10 Ukrainian drones that were shot down in the area, resulting in dangerous falling debris.

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Pentagon backs X-energy’s mini nuclear reactor to boost military energy resilience

The US Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of the Air Force have signed an agreement with X-energy Reactor Company to advance the development of its commercial microreactor.

The agreement has been made with the goal of deploying advanced nuclear technologies at DoD installations to support national security. It aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive order issued in May 2025.

It will support the design and development of X-energy’s XENITH microreactor under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program, which DIU leads in partnership with the Department of the Air Force.

The program aims to accelerate the deployment of next-generation microreactor technologies to provide power at military installations.

It enables government agencies to engage with private companies under a flexible contracting mechanism that allows for faster development and deployment of commercial nuclear systems.

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Startup Says It Can Transform Mercury into Gold

A Californian startup, Marathon Fusion, aims to produce gold through nuclear fusion by converting mercury-198 into gold-197 using neutron radiation from fusion reactors. Unlike particle accelerators like CERN’s Large Hadron Collider—which produce negligible amounts of gold at enormous costs—Marathon Fusion proposes using a standard fusion reactor fuel mix (deuterium and tritium) to create the necessary neutron flux, theoretically enabling substantial gold production. Their estimates, derived from a fusion reactor’s “digital twin,” suggest a plant could yield several tons of gold annually per gigawatt of thermal power. However, the feasibility of this process remains untested, as no commercial fusion reactors exist, and the gold produced would initially be radioactive, requiring careful management. Significant scientific, technological, and economic challenges must be addressed before this ambitious concept can lead to a modern-day gold rush.

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Radioactive Wasp Nest Discovered Near South Carolina Nuclear Weapon Facility

A radioactive wasp nest has been discovered near a former nuclear weapon manufacturing facility in South Carolina.

The nest was found by workers at the Savannah River Site in Aiken County, according to a report from the Department of Energy.

According to reports, the contaminated nest was found on July 3, just before 2 p.m., by Radiological Control Operations workers during routine inspections.

Located on a stanchion near a tank in the F-Area tank farm, the nest registered a staggering 100,000 disintegrations per minute (dpm), a level described as “moderately high” radiation.

Workers promptly sprayed the nest to eliminate the wasps, which were then bagged and disposed of as radiological waste.

The Associated Press reports:

The report said there is no leak from the waste tanks, and the nest was likely radioactive through what it called “onsite legacy radioactive contamination” from the residual radioactivity left from when the site was fully operational.

The watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch said the report was at best incomplete since it doesn’t detail where the contamination came from, how the wasps might have encountered it and the possibility there could be another radioactive nest if there is a leak somewhere.

Knowing the type of wasp nest could also be critical — some wasps make nest out of dirt and others use different material which could pinpoint where the contamination came from, Tom Clements, executive director of the group, wrote in a text message.

Thankfully, no contamination was detected in the surrounding ground or area, but the very presence of radioactive insects highlights the persistent threats from “onsite legacy contamination” tied to the site’s history of producing plutonium and tritium for nuclear bombs during the Cold War era.

“I’m as mad as a hornet that SRS didn’t explain where the radioactive waste came from or if there is some kind of leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of,” Clements told AP.

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Bombing Iran: From the Libya Model to the North Korea Model

Before the U.S. struck Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities in an unprovoked and illegal bombing, a diplomatic settlement to the nuclear standoff was on the table. Retired ambassador and former Iranian nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian says that he has been told by an informed Iranian source that “the key elements of the deal between [Trump’s special envoy] Witkoff and [Iran’s foreign minister] Araghchi were agreed upon.”

“Iran would accept maximum nuclear inspections and transparency,” including implementing the International Atomic Energy Agency Additional Protocol. They would either convert or export their stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, cease high-level enrichment and cap their enrichment at the 3.67% needed for a civilian energy program. Finally, Iran would fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in resolving any outstanding technical ambiguities. In return, Iran would be permitted to have its civilian nuclear program, and the U.S. would lift all nuclear-related sanctions.

Such a deal would satisfy Iran’s demand to exercise its “inalienable right to a civilian [nuclear] program” and America’s demand to ensure that Iran’s program never become weaponized. But before it could be signed, U.S. President Donald Trump succumbed to pressure and undermined the talks by demanding the Libya model. That demand killed any hope for a diplomatic resolution.

The Libya model is code for zero enrichment and the complete abandonment of Iran’s civilian nuclear program: a demand that Iran will never agree to.

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