Plans to construct a Natrium reactor demonstration project at a retiring coal plant in the US state of Wyoming were announced yesterday by TerraPower, PacifiCorp and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. The companies are evaluating several potential locations in the state for the plant, which will feature a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor combined with a molten salt energy storage system that can boost the system's output to 500 MWe for more than five-and-a-half hours when needed. They expect to announce the selected site by the end of 2021.

The US Department of Energy's budget request for fiscal year 2022 includes "historic" investments to lay the foundations of a clean energy economy and ensure the USA reaches net-zero carbon emissions by 2035, the DOE has said. The Biden-Harris Administration's budget, which focuses on the post-pandemic recovery as well as investments in clean energy, was sent to the US Congress on 28 May.

The sale of the Indian Point Energy Center by Entergy Corporation to subsidiaries of Holtec International has been completed. The plant, which shut down at the end of April after 45 years in operation, is the third project in Holtec's decommissioning fleet.

France and the USA are united in the ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and will work together on new technologies, including innovative and advanced nuclear, to contribute significantly to zero-carbon generation solutions, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and French Minister for Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili said in a joint statement on 28 May.

Groups representing academics, activists, engineers, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, unionists, and concerned citizens have written to Illinois lawmakers urging them to pass a bill that would create carbon mitigation credits for four nuclear plants - including two that are at risk of closure - before the current legislative session ends on 31 May.

The largest waste disposal site at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory has received its final shipment of radioactive waste, meaning work can now begin on the closure of the facility. Separately, the DOE Office of Environmental Management has announced the award of a USD6.4 billion cleanup contract for INL's site near Idaho Falls.

Japanese heavy-industry engineering and manufacturing company IHI Corporation is to invest in small modular reactor developer NuScale Power and become a strategic supplier for NuScale plants under a new commercial agreement between the two companies. Separately, NuScale has announced it is working with public electric utility Grant County Public Utility District to explore the deployment of nuclear energy in central Washington state.

Work has begun on a major overhaul of a test reactor at the heart of the USA's nuclear energy research infrastructure. This will be the sixth time the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory, which began operations in 1967, has undergone the process to enable it to continue its essential function for at least another decade.

The final canister containing used fuel has been removed from the storage pool of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey, USA, and placed in an on-site dry storage facility. Holtec International said the plant's defuelling - completed in just 32 months following the plant's permanent shutdown - has set a new world record.

The US Department of Energy yesterday announced up to USD40 million in funding for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy programme that will limit the amount of waste produced from advanced nuclear reactors. Reducing such waste, it says, will help in the development and commercialisation of such reactors.

As multiple advanced reactor vendors enter the licensing process to build first-of-a-kind demonstration projects, issues with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's current user fee cost recovery model could slow innovation and raise regulatory costs, according to a report published yesterday by the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA). Reliance on applicant fees limits the ability of the NRC to hire and train staff ahead of expected applications, reducing regulatory efficiency, the report says.

The USA will need its existing nuclear power plants to help meet the Biden Administration's net zero by 2035 pledge, White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said yesterday during a webinar held by Columbia University Centre on Global Energy Policy. Last month, President Joe Biden announced a target to cut US emissions by 50%-52% from 2005 levels by 2030.