The US Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded contracts to BWX Technologies Inc, Westinghouse Government Services and X-energy LLC to each begin design work on a mobile nuclear reactor prototype. The engineering design phase of the project will last up to two years, after which one of the three teams may be selected to build and demonstrate a prototype reactor.

The US Department of Defense is seeking public comment on a proposal to construct and demonstrate a prototype advanced mobile nuclear microreactor to support its domestic and operational energy demands. This is expected to be a small advanced gas reactor using high-assay low enriched uranium tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel and air cooling.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has made its first submittals to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for the vendor design review of its BWRX-300 small modular reactor. The submittals are for the combined first two phases of the three-phase process and address eight of the 19 VDR focus areas.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has agreed to collaborate with USNC-Power, a subsidiary of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC), on research in support of USNC's Micro Modular Reactor. The project will also include preliminary activities to explore the feasibility of siting a manufacturing facility for USNC's fuel at CNL's Chalk River campus.
 

VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland has today announced the launch of a project to develop a small modular reactor for district heating. Most of the country's district heating is currently produced by burning coal, natural gas, wood fuels and peat, but it aims to phase out its use of coal in energy production by 2029.

The US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority are to collaborate on the economic feasibility of potentially licensing, building, operating and maintaining one or more advanced nuclear reactors - such as a small modular reactor - at TVA's Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Idaho National Laboratory is to provide Oklo Inc with access to recovered material from used nuclear fuel to develop and demonstrate the Oklo Aurora - a micro-reactor that can be used in remote or off-grid locations to generate power. Jacob DeWitte, Oklo co-founder and CEO, said the award paves the way for an important demonstration of the first Aurora plant, as well as the "ability of advanced reactors to convert used nuclear fuel, that would otherwise be treated for disposal, into clean energy".

NuScale Power and Ukraine's State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety have announced the signature of an agreement to start work on the evaluation of national regulatory and design processes related to the implementation of NuScale small modular reactor technology in Ukraine.

Regulators must explore the possibility of harmonising international requirements for advanced and small modular reactor design evaluation and licensing, says Rumina Velshi, CNSC president and CEO.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Czech utility ČEZ have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on examining the economic and technical feasibility of potentially constructing a BWRX-300 in the Czech Republic. ČEZ operates two nuclear power plants which generate about one-third of the country’s electricity. The Czech government plans substituting aging coal plants with new nuclear build and renewables in the near future.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has officially started the regulatory licensing process for its BWRX-300 reactor design. On 30 December, the company submitted the first licensing topical report for the small modular reactor to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The company expects such reports to serve as a foundation for the development of a Preliminary Safety Analysis Report that could potentially be submitted to the NRC by a utility customer.

South African utility Eskom yesterday published a request for an Expression of Interest in reviving all or parts of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor project. It is seeking investors to take stakes in PBMR Ltd, the development and deployment of the reactor design, and in TRISO fuel manufacturing.