Duke Energy has announced it will seek second 20-year renewals of the operating licences for all of its nuclear reactors, starting with the three-unit Oconee plant for which it expects to submit a renewal application in 2021. The company says the units are key to it achieving its carbon emissions goals.

A project to demonstrate the production of hydrogen in integrated energy systems at US nuclear power plants is one of three selected by the US Department of Energy to receive a share of USD15 million in its latest announcement of project selectees. At the same time, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has awarded USD15 million in grants to support the development of the country's future nuclear workforce.

Lead test assemblies of Westinghouse EnCore fuel rods containing uranium silicide fuel pellets have been loaded into a commercial nuclear power plant for the first time. The fuels, developed through the US Department of Energy's accident tolerant fuels programme, were loaded into Exelon's Byron unit 2 during a scheduled refuelling outage.

The US Administration is committed to reviving and revitalising the nuclear industry and is leading by action, not just words, according to US Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette.

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".