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Germany Achieves First Capture of Argon Nuclei at 30% Speed of Light with Electron Cooling

On August 3, researchers at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany successfully decelerated and captured fully ionized argon ions (^36Ar^18+) for the first time using the HITRAP highly charged ion trap facility. These ions, having lost all their electron shells, can be regarded as bare nuclei, with an initial velocity of approximately 30% of the speed of light. The research findings have been published in the journal Physical Review X. The interior of the radiofrequency resonator that slows down the ions is where highly charged ions are typically produced via particle accelerators and formed under strong electric fields and high-energy conditions. Since these ions are generated at extremely high velocities, they must first be stopped, captured, and cooled before precision physics measurements can be conducted. The research team stated that this experiment achieved, for the first time, the entire process from producing highly charged ions to storing them in a special trap for at least 11 seconds.

2026-08-04

China's installed nuclear power capacity reaches 135 million kW

According to the National Energy Administration: As of now, there are a total of 120 nuclear power units in operation and approved for construction in mainland China, with an installed capacity of 135 million kW, maintaining the world's largest overall scale. Among them, 62 units are in operation with an installed capacity of 66.14 million kW, ranking second in the world and accounting for 1.6% of the country's total installed power capacity; 58 units are approved for construction with an installed capacity of 69.51 million kW, ranking first in the world. In recent years, the share of nuclear power generation in China's national energy structure has remained stable at around 5%. In 2025, the national nuclear power generation reached 485.2 billion kWh, accounting for 4.6% of total electricity generation. The "15th Five-Year Plan Carbon Peak Action Plan" specifies that by 2030, the installed capacity of nuclear power in operation should reach approximately 110 million kW. To address more...

2026-08-04

Moscow Cable Company Shield to Supply 4 km of Busbar Trunking for Units 3 and 4 of Leningrad NPP Phase II

Moscow Cable Company (Shield) will supply four kilometers of transmission lines for the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant. The company will manufacture 10 kV and 24 kV generator voltage transmission lines for Units 3 and 4 of Leningrad NPP Phase II. These transmission lines meet the highest reliability and safety requirements of the nuclear industry and are equipped with current transformers and voltage transformers produced by Cable Shield Company. The transmission lines will be manufactured at the enterprise in the city of Kovrov, where new production capacity for cable trays was built last year. Currently, the plant's annual production capacity reaches 12,000 meters of cable trays. According to statistics, over 400,000 meters of transmission lines produced by the company have been put into operation...

2026-08-04

Pre-Startup Review (PSUR) for Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 Completed

From July 15 to 30, the Pre-Startup Review (PSUR) for Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 was conducted at the Sanmen nuclear power plant site. The review was organized by the Shanghai Office of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), and the review team consisted of 21 experts from the WANO Shanghai Office, WANO Tokyo Center, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. Leaders of Sanmen Nuclear Power Company and personnel from relevant fields participated in this activity. The review aimed to systematically and comprehensively evaluate the readiness of Unit 3 prior to startup, identify areas for improvement, analyze causes, and propose improvement recommendations. Through site inspections, work observations, document package reviews, and personnel interviews, the WANO review team conducted a thorough assessment of...

2026-08-03

Rosatom Expects Revenue of $43.2 Billion in 2026

Rosatom expects its revenue to reach $43.2 billion in 2026, driven primarily by new products, international operations, and expansion in nuclear energy, technology, and logistics. The company plans to continue scaling up in the coming years, targeting consolidated revenue of approximately $50.8 billion by 2028, with businesses related to new technologies expected to grow by about 50%. To support this growth target, Rosatom will maintain an investment program exceeding $11.4 billion, focusing on projects that yield the best financial returns. Rosatom is actively implementing cost control and efficiency improvement measures, aiming to increase productivity by 12% annually and achieve a 10% wage increase...

2026-08-03

Spain's two major nuclear power holders, Iberdrola and Endesa, paid approximately €360 million in taxes and fees for nuclear power in the first half of the year

Spain's two major nuclear power holders disclosed to the CNMV: Iberdrola's expenditure on the "production tax on spent fuel and radioactive waste derived from power generation" in the first half of 2026 was €52 million (compared to €56 million in the same period last year), plus €117 million in Enresa radioactive waste management fees (levied based on each unit's monthly gross nuclear generation) (compared to €118 million in the same period last year), totaling €169 million. Endesa paid €56 million in nuclear tax items during the same period (up €3 million year-on-year), and €135 million in radioactive waste treatment fees (up €7 million year-on-year). Due to its controlling stake in Catalan nuclear units, it also paid €76 million in the Catalan environmental tax, totaling €267 million; the two companies' combined nuclear-related taxes and fees for the first half of the year amounted to approximately €336 million (text...

2026-08-03

First Experimental Result Published from the High-Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility

Recently, the research team from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators, successfully produced and identified the rare isotope hafnium-153 using the High-Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF). This is the first physics result obtained during the commissioning of HIAF, demonstrating that China's new-generation high-intensity heavy-ion research facility is capable of exploring unknown nuclides and expanding the nuclear chart. It marks the official commencement of HIAF's scientific discovery journey. The result was published as a short communication in *Science Bulletin*. Figure: Position of hafnium-153 on the nuclear chart; the blue line indicates the boundary of known nuclides. Image | Hu Houyu, Li Hongfu. Atomic nuclei are composed of protons and neutrons, and different combinations of proton and neutron numbers form the diverse world of nuclides. Exploring unknown nuclides and investigating the boundaries of nuclear existence are important frontiers in nuclear physics. Hafnium-153 is located in the neutron-deficient heavy-mass region and is an important subject for studying the evolution of nuclear structure and the limits of nuclear stability. It had not been reported prior to this experiment. The discovery and precise measurement of this nuclide will help test nuclear theory models and deepen our understanding of nuclear structure regularities.

2026-08-03

Japanese research team experimentally confirms full-gap spin-triplet superconductivity in UBe13

On July 30, 2026, Kobe University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced that a research team led by Professor Hideki Higashibata of the Graduate School of Science at Kobe University, along with Shoko Minami, who was a master's student at the time of the research, in collaboration with Yoshinori Haga, Research Director at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and researchers from Osaka University, experimentally confirmed for the first time the existence of a spin-triplet superconducting state with full-gap characteristics in the intermetallic compound UBe13. The findings were published in the Journal of the Physical Society of Japan on June 26 and were selected as an Editor's Choice paper. Since its discovery in 1983, UBe13 has been regarded as an important candidate material for spin-triplet superconductivity. Unlike conventional spin-singlet superconductivity...

2026-08-03

JAEA Develops 3D-Printed Disposable Aerosol Particle Size Classification Device

On July 30, 2026, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced the development of a palm-sized, 3D-printed disposable device named µSPLIT (micro splitter) that can separate airborne particles by particle size on-site and collect them onto filters for subsequent or direct measurement. The disposable classification and measurement device µSPLIT (left) separates aerosols by particle size through controlled intake flow rate, with particles collected on filters. (Right) The main unit can be directly connected to a radiation detector via a thin film. According to reports, µSPLIT measures approximately 12 cm × 3 cm × 3 cm and is integrally molded from transparent resin using stereolithography 3D printing technology...

2026-08-03

DUNE Prototype Detector Undergoes 300 kV Pressure Test at CERN

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), an international collaborative project led by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy, is conducting pressure tests on the prototype detector ProtoDUNE at CERN's Neutrino Platform to verify the long-term stability of the relevant detection technology under extreme operating conditions. DUNE is designed as a large-scale neutrino research experiment aimed at studying the properties of neutrinos and their role in the evolution of the universe. The experiment will install large liquid argon time projection chamber detectors approximately one mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, USA. Once the detectors are filled with liquid argon and sealed, internal components will be difficult to access for extended periods...

2026-08-03

Bulgaria Approves Decommissioning Licenses for Units 3 and 4 of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant

On August 1, the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) issued a 10-year license to the State Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management (SERAW), authorizing it to carry out the decommissioning of Units 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. The license was presented to SERAW Deputy Executive Director Elizabeth Mladenova by NRA Chairman Tsanko Bachiski. The license is held by SERAW's specialized department responsible for the decommissioning of Units 1 to 4 of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. SERAW Management Board Chairman Sergey Tsochev attended the license award ceremony. According to the license requirements, the decommissioning of Units 3 and 4 must comply with Bulgaria's Law on the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy and relevant implementing regulations.

2026-08-03

Unit 3 of the Huaneng Changjiang Nuclear Power Phase II project—Hainan Province's first "Hualong One" nuclear power project—has been connected to the grid and is generating electricity

On August 1, Unit 3 of the Huaneng Changjiang Nuclear Power Phase II Project, the first large-scale pressurized water reactor nuclear power project under controlling construction by China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd. and the first "Hualong One" nuclear power project in Hainan Province, was connected to the grid, generating Huaneng's first kilowatt-hour of pressurized water reactor nuclear power. This marks that the unit has officially gained the capability to transmit power to the grid, taking a key step toward the goal of commercial operation. The project plans to build two 1.2-million-kilowatt nuclear power units, equipped with China's independently developed third-generation pressurized water reactor nuclear power technology, the "Hualong One." It vigorously promotes the independent design of nuclear power and the localization of equipment manufacturing, and adopts a safety design concept combining active and passive systems, which can significantly improve the reliability and safety of the nuclear power plant. ...

2026-08-03

Germany's eROSITA Second Data Release Unveils Nearly Two Million X-ray Sources

On July 31, the German eROSITA consortium, led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics with participation from the University of Bonn, released its second major public dataset, eROSITA Data Release 2 (DR2). Built from the first three all-sky survey observations conducted by the eROSITA telescope aboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission, this dataset is considered one of the most sensitive and comprehensive X-ray catalogs currently available to the public. The DR2 main catalog covers the 0.2–2.3 kiloelectron-volt (keV) band in the western hemisphere, containing nearly two million X-ray sources. Among these, over 1.9 million are point-like sources, primarily consisting of stars and actively accreting supermassive black holes; approximately 64,000 are extended sources,...

2026-08-01

Buried Cesium-137 Sealed Source Discovered by Texas Patrol Officer Near Roadside in Midland County

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, a corporal with the department recently discovered a buried cesium-137 sealed radioactive source with an activity of 100 millicuries during a routine patrol near a roadway in Midland County. The incident resulted in no injuries or radiation contamination, and public safety was not threatened. On July 24 local time, the corporal, assigned to the department's Radioactive/Nuclear Threat Detection Section, was patrolling near South County Road 1210 when the vehicle-mounted radiation detection system activated. He then used other detection equipment to survey the surrounding area and traced the radiation signal to an underground location. To ensure safe disposal, he requested assistance from local, state, and federal...

2026-08-02

Units 3 and 4 of Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant to Undergo Joint Maintenance of Shared Systems

Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant staff will initiate a planned extended outage for Unit 4 on the evening of August 1, while Unit 3 will remain in its outage state. Both units will be offline simultaneously in August, and the plant will use this window to conduct comprehensive inspections, maintenance, and modernization of the shared facilities of Units 3 and 4. Bohdan Zronek, member of the Board of Directors of ČEZ Group and head of the nuclear energy division, stated that the simultaneous shutdown of Units 3 and 4 at Dukovany will place the plant under an intensive work schedule over the coming weeks. Experts from ČEZ and its suppliers will handle hundreds of tasks, and the effectiveness of the outage work depends on precise coordination across all stages. According to...

2026-08-01