Developing new nuclear technologies requires overcoming considerable financial and regulatory hurdles, as the promise of clean, efficient electricity remains essential to US energy policy, the Nuclear Energy Institute said, following a meeting on 11 December of a House Science Committee.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has formally issued a solicitation for federal loan guarantees worth up to $12.5 billion to support advanced nuclear energy projects.

A large structural component - the CA05 module - has been installed at the VC Summer unit 2, the first of two Westinghouse AP1000s under construction at the site in South Carolina.

An inspection of an underground pipe at a US nuclear power plant has been successfully completed using GE Hitachi's Surveyor robot. Previously, such examinations have usually involved excavation work.

Exelon has applied to the US regulator for a 20-year licence extension for its two-unit La Salle nuclear power plant in Illinois.

Rolls-Royce's Spinline modular digital instrumentation and control (I&C) platform has been approved for use in US nuclear power plants by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The US House of Representatives has passed legislation to authorize Department of Energy research on whether low-dose ionizing radiation poses a risk.

Updated figures for Uranium Energy Corp's Burke Hollow project in South Texas see inferred resources increase by 77% to 5.12 million pounds U3O8 (1969 tU) at an average grade of 0.09% U3O8.

No uranium processing campaigns are likely to take place in 2015 at the USA's only conventional uranium mill, White Mesa, after the current campaign finishes in March, according to operator Energy Fuels.

The construction licence for the partially-built mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has been extended by ten years at the request of its builder.

US energy secretary Ernest Moniz has announced major funding packages to support high performance computing projects - $325 million to build new supercomputers at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, plus $100 million for R&D into "extreme scale" supercomputing technologies.

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is to award over $8 million of funding to push forward two projects aimed at securing a domestic supply of the molybdenum-99 without using highly enriched uranium.