The US Department of Energy has launched its Versatile Fast Neutron Source project to provide fast neutron testing capability to aid US development of advanced nuclear reactor technology. The Versatile Test Reactor, as it is also known, could be completed by 2026.

The USA risks losing a substantial portion of its nuclear power capacity unless it takes policy action, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol told the US Senate yesterday.

Uranium Energy Corp has been issued a radioactive material licence for its Burke Hollow in-situ leach project in Texas, the last of the four major permits needed for uranium extraction.

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has selected four companies to begin negotiations for potential new cooperative agreement awards for the supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) without using highly enriched uranium.

"Significant progress" during 2018 with the construction of Vogtle 3 and 4 means Southern Company expects the two AP1000 units to be completed on schedule and to budget, the company said during its fourth quarter results call.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on its environmental review of proposed cleanup work at the former Northeast Church Rock uranium mine in New Mexico. The proposal would allow mine owner United Nuclear Corporation to transfer contaminated soil from the mine for disposal at the former Church Rock uranium mill.

A strong domestic industrial base is vital to enable US companies to compete overseas, nuclear industry executives told President Donald Trump at a meeting on 12 February.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a request by CB&I Areva MOX Services to terminate the construction authorisation for the partially built mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at Savannah River in South Carolina.
 

Advanced nuclear reactors are part of a "critical subset" of technologies deemed to have very high breakthrough potential for the USA to transition to a "clean energy ecosystem", according to a new report. Meanwhile, a resolution introduced in both the US House and Senate proposes a framework for meeting 100% of the country's power demand through clean, renewable and zero-emissions energy resources.

Enrichment company Urenco USA has announced a new programme covering the production of high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU), and is considering the construction of a dedicated HALEU unit at its US uranium enrichment facility.

Work to stabilise a 1688-foot (515-metre) long tunnel containing contaminated equipment from historic plutonium production activities at the US Department of Energy's Hanford site in Washington State is over 75% complete.

Exelon has thanked its employees for "braving the cold" to keep its nuclear power plants in Illinois, New Jersey and New York operating at full power as extreme weather conditions hit the USA last week.