Framatome recently signed a "multi-million dollar" contract with US utility Dominion Energy to support the long-term operation of its nuclear power plant fleet. The five-year contract covers nuclear power plant outage and maintenance work, including steam generator services, refuelling services and inspections.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by Energy Northwest, Grant County Public Utility District and X-energy to form a partnership to support the development and commercial demonstration of the USA's first advanced nuclear reactor. The TRi Energy Partnership aims to construct a plant based on X-energy's Xe-100 reactor design at Energy Northwest's existing Columbia site in Washington.

Japanese engineering, procurement, and construction firm JGC Holdings Corporation has agreed to invest USD40 million in small modular reactor developer NuScale Power. It will also partner with Fluor Corporation - NuScale's majority investor - on the deployment of NuScale power plants.

US President Joseph Biden yesterday announced a USD2 trillion jobs, infrastructure and clean energy plan to reshape the country's economy. Among the proposed investments to tackle climate change, the American Jobs Plan calls for funding for the development of advanced nuclear reactors and for a clean electricity standard to leverage and incentivise more efficient use of the USA's existing fleet of reactors.

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's DIII-D National Fusion Facility have released a new concept for a compact fusion reactor design they say can help define the technology necessary for commercial fusion power. The Compact Advanced Tokamak concept enables a higher-performance, self-sustaining configuration that holds energy more efficiently, allowing it to be built at a reduced scale and cost.

Framatome is to supply PROtect enhanced accident tolerant fuel technology and ATRIUM 11 fuel for the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant in Monticello, Minnesota under a contract signed with Xcel Energy. This will be the first delivery of prototype EATF rods under the PROtect programme to a boiling water reactor, Framatome says.
 

Lightbridge Corporation has decided to prioritise developing fuel for future small modular reactors rather than fuel for large reactor designs, President and CEO Seth Grae said in a business update ahead of a webcast and conference call to discuss the company's financial results. The company is also contemplating a zirconium-plutonium version of its fuel.

The Strategic Capabilities Office of the US Department of Defense has selected BWXT Advanced Technologies and X-energy LLC to develop a final design for a prototype mobile microreactor under the Project Pele initiative.
 
 

Nuclear energy is the key to making climate commitments work and will play a critical role in meeting the Biden Administration's ambitious climate goals, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Maria Korsnick told the organisation's annual State of the Nuclear Energy Industry event yesterday.

Lightbridge Corporation and Framatome have agreed to dissolve their Enfission joint venture. Launched in January 2018, Enfission was to develop, license and sell nuclear fuel assemblies based on Lightbridge's innovative metallic nuclear fuel technology.

The USA's first production facility for high-assay low-enriched uranium is expected to begin production early next year, Centrus Energy has announced. The facility is under construction at Piketon, Ohio.

The US Department of Defense's project to develop a mobile reactor - Project Pele - is on track for full power testing of a mobile reactor in 2023, with outdoor mobile testing at a Department of Energy installation in 2024, DOD's Jeff Waksman told the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 33rd Regulatory Information Conference last week.