The contents of a failed waste barrel at the WIPP underground disposal site were "chemically incompatible", said the Department of Energy's technical report today, with a certain brand of cat litter playing a major role in the incident.

A new Department of Energy initiative on radioactive waste disposal could "finally bring some progress the nation's long-neglected nuclear waste management policy," said Marv Fertel, the head of US trade body the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Public support for nuclear energy in the USA is increasing with more than two-thirds of citizens favourable towards it, according to a new survey commissioned by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).

Clean energy sources, including small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), must make up at least 25% of the energy consumed by US federal agencies by 2025 under an executive order on federal sustainability issued by President Barack Obama.

The US Nuclear Regulation Commission (NRC) has found no significant environmental impact from a proposed expansion of capacity for the Urenco USA uranium enrichment facility with the flexibility to use depleted uranium feedstock.

Researchers from General Atomics and the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have made a major breakthrough in understanding how potentially damaging heat bursts inside a fusion reactor can be controlled.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved Westinghouse's testing approach for its small modular reactor design. Approval is a significant step toward design certification and will reduce the time ultimately needed to license the Westinghouse SMR, the company said yesterday.

Centrus Energy has announced its first quarterly results since emerging from the restructuring of USEC last year, which interim president and CEO John Castellano said was "a year of transition."

The Uranium Processing Facility project in Tennessee has celebrated its first major milestone with the completion of site readiness work, the National Nuclear Security Administration has said.

South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) now plans to complete the two AP1000 reactors under construction at VC Summer in South Carolina in 2019 and 2020 amid rises in capital costs. These costs have, however, been partly offset by favourable financial conditions, the company said.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will prepare a supplement to the Department of Energy's environmental impact statement on the proposed geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The public were informed yesterday via a notice in the Federal Register.

The head of the USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has vowed the agency will provide an effective and efficient service for years to come.