The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified the Korean-designed Advanced Power Reactor 1400. The certificate states that the NRC finds the APR-1400 design fully meets US safety requirements.

Holtec International has completed its acquisition of the shut-down Pilgrim nuclear power plant from Entergy Corporation. The plant is the second US decommissioning project to be acquired by Holtec.

The control room for the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Facility at the US Department of Energy's Hanford site in Washington State has been commissioned. The facility is one of four major facilities that together will form the Waste Treatment and Immobilisation Plant, which will process and stabilize radioactive and chemical waste stored at the Hanford Site.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a revised schedule for its review of the first subsequent licence renewal for a US nuclear power plant because it is taking more staffing hours than originally expected. It still expects to complete the process within its original 18-month timescale.
 

The US Department of Energy has launched the National Reactor Innovation Center. The facility will provide private sector developers access to US national laboratory assets and infrastructure to support the testing and demonstration of reactor concepts and assess their performance, helping accelerate licensing and commercialisation.

Canadian and US nuclear regulators have signed a first-of-a-kind Memorandum of Cooperation that will see them collaborate on the technical reviews of advanced reactor and small modular reactor technologies. Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy has awarded funds to build SMR simulators at three US universities.

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has signed a USD600 million contract with Cray Inc to build its first exascale supercomputer, El Capitan. The computer will be housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Holtec International's HI-STAR 100MB transport package has been certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The company says the cask is "destined to become America's workhorse for transporting used nuclear fuel".

GSE Systems Inc has completed delivery and commissioning of three additional full-scope simulators at Southern Nuclear's Vogtle, Hatch and Farley nuclear power plants. Southern has described the project as the largest single nuclear simulator project in the USA in the past 30 years.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued for public comment the draft supplemental environmental impact statement on Exelon Generation Company's application for an additional 20 years of operation for Peach Bottom units 2 and 3. This would be a second licence renewal for the Pennsylvania plant and, if granted, would enable it to operate for 80 years.

The US Department of Energy has formally announced the preparation of an environmental impact statement for the construction of a Versatile Test Reactor to test fuels and materials for use in advanced civilian nuclear power reactors.

Peninsula Energy Ltd has completed the regulatory process for the use of low pH in-situ uranium recovery at the Lance uranium projects in Wyoming, becoming the only operator authorised to use the technique in the USA.