The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is to develop new emergency preparedness regulations for small modular reactors (SMRs) and other new technologies such as non-light-water reactors (LWRs) and medical isotope production facilities.

A group of companies has filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia seeking to overturn the state's 33-year-old uranium mining moratorium.

US president Barack Obama's newly revealed plan to reduce carbon emissions from power plants misses an opportunity by failing to recognize the carbon-abatement value of existing nuclear units, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).

A new target date is to be set for the resumption of waste emplacement operations at the USA's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) transuranic waste disposal facility after the Department of Energy determined that the previously announced target of March 2016 is no longer viable.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced funding to support the research, development and demonstration of advanced reactor concepts. In partnership with industry, the department will fund two awards worth up to $6 million each in the 2015 financial year.

A claim for $7.6 billion has been made against Japan's Mitsubishi for damages resulting from the early closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California.

Two significant construction milestones have been reached at VC Summer unit 2 with the installation of the CA01 'super module' and the installation of the first course of shield building panels, South Carolina Electric and Gas announced.

Unistar Nuclear Energy's withdrawal of its combined construction and operation licence (COL) application for Calvert Cliffs unit 3 has been formally accepted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

EnergySolutions announced yesterday the successful completion of the first large commercial reactor vessel segmentation in the USA. ZionSolutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of EnergySolutions, completed the segmentation of the reactor vessel of unit 2 of Zion nuclear power plant in late June.

A new study by economists at the Brattle Group has found that the nuclear industry contributes $60 billion per year to the USA's gross domestic product (GDP) in addition to limiting carbon emissions and other economic and societal benefits.

The module that will house the reactor pressure vessel of the second AP1000 unit under construction at the VC Summer site in South Carolina has been installed. Meanwhile, the reactor vessel itself has been delivered to the site.

The would-be builders and owners of the first NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) have confirmed they plan to submit a design certification application to US regulators by the end of 2016 and an application for a combined construction and operation licence (COL) in late 2017 or early 2018.