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South Korea Designates SMR as National Strategic Technology, Tax Incentives to Drive New Investment in Nuclear Supply Chain

The South Korean government's inclusion of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) in its national strategic technology support scope signals that its energy and industrial policies are extending from traditional large-scale nuclear power plants to next-generation nuclear technologies. SMRs feature modular manufacturing, relatively shorter construction periods, and higher site flexibility, making them a key direction for South Korea in balancing energy security, low-carbon transition, and advanced manufacturing upgrades. This policy has gained support from South Korea's nuclear industry, with the key being that national strategic technology status typically entails tax credits and other incentives for corporate R&D, equipment investment, and related capital expenditures. For companies involved in nuclear equipment, castings and forgings, control systems, engineering design, and fuel-related businesses...

2026-08-10

U.S. Navy Decommissions Nuclear Submarine USS San Juan; Kittery Shipyard in Maine Helped Extend Its Service Life

The U.S. Navy recently held a decommissioning ceremony for the USS San Juan, as the Los Angeles-class fast attack nuclear submarine officially departed the fleet at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State after nearly four decades of service. Named after the capital of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, the San Juan was commissioned on August 6, 1988, and its decommissioning coinciding with its commissioning anniversary carries notable symbolic significance. The San Juan had an important connection with Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Approximately 15 years ago, the submarine entered the shipyard for a major engineering overhaul, completing critical overhaul work between 2010 and 2012. Photographs released by the U.S. Navy in 2011 showed shipyard workers completing the submarine's undocking one day ahead of schedule, reflecting the maintenance progress and shipyard support capabilities at the time.

2026-08-10

Unit 3 of Japan's Ohi Nuclear Power Plant Automatically Shuts Down

Kansai Electric Power Co. announced in the early hours of the 9th that Unit 3 of the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant, located in Ohi Town, Fukui Prefecture, Japan, automatically shut down during operation. The unit has a generating capacity of 1.18 million kilowatts. According to Kansai Electric Power, at around 23:56 on the 8th, an alarm was triggered at the unit, indicating that the generator had lost the conditions required to produce a magnetic field. Subsequently, the generator automatically stopped operating, and the reactor also automatically shut down. Preliminary information suggests that the anomaly may involve the exciter, a device used to establish the magnetic field for the generator. Kansai Electric Power stated that no radioactive material leakage occurred as a result of this incident, and there was no radiological impact on nearby personnel or the environment. The cause of the malfunction...

2026-08-10

SPIC Archives Management Project Selected for National Archives Administration AI Application Pilot

On July 29, the National Archives Administration issued the "Notice on Announcing AI Application Pilot Projects." The archives management AI application pilot project submitted by State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) stood out from 253 pilot projects and was successfully selected, thanks to its solid digitalization foundation for archives, clear AI integration implementation roadmap, and distinctive application scenarios characteristic of central energy enterprises, becoming an important practical vehicle for digital transformation of archives in central enterprises. In April this year, to safely, steadily, and orderly promote the application of AI in the archives industry, the National Archives Administration issued the "Notice on Carrying Out AI Application Pilot Work," requiring pilot efforts in five aspects: computing power, models, data, scenarios, and security...

2026-08-10

First Concrete Pour (FCD) Successfully Completed for the Conventional Island of Unit 2 at Guangxi Bailong Nuclear Power Plant

At 10:06 on August 9, after 38 hours and 46 minutes of continuous effort, the First Concrete Pour (FCD) for the conventional island of Unit 2 at the SPIC Guangxi Bailong Nuclear Power Plant was successfully completed, marking the full commencement of the main construction phase for the conventional island. The basement floor slab of the conventional island of Unit 2 adopts an integral raft foundation, divided into 9 construction zones using the sequence method. This concrete pour covered Zone 1, starting at 19:20 on August 7, with a cumulative pour of 1,732 cubic meters of concrete, conducted safely and orderly throughout the process. Since July, Typhoon Maysak directly struck Fangchenggang, bringing successive storms, followed by days of high temperatures at the Bailong nuclear site, posing significant challenges to on-site construction. In response...

2026-08-10

U.S. Department of Energy Selects SHINE Technologies for Genesis Initiative, AI to Optimize Reprocessing of 95,000 Tons of Spent Nuclear Fuel

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected SHINE Technologies to participate in the Genesis mission, advancing the application of artificial intelligence in the nuclear industry. The core objective of the project is to develop an AI-assisted design system for engineers to plan more efficient spent fuel reprocessing facilities. The United States currently has approximately 95,000 tons of accumulated spent nuclear fuel, which has historically posed long-term storage and disposal challenges. The new approach seeks to recover still-valuable components from this material, reducing waste volume and improving resource utilization. The key to this project lies in transforming traditional engineering design methods. In the past, metrics such as throughput, final product quality, and waste volume in nuclear fuel reprocessing processes were typically evaluated separately...

2026-08-09

Low Danube Water Level Tests Bulgaria's Nuclear Operations, Energy Minister Says Kozloduy Plant Can Sustain Operations for About a Week and a Half

Bulgarian Energy Minister Iva Petrova said on August 7 that if the Danube River water level remains at its current level, the Kozloduy nuclear power plant can continue normal operations for about a week and a half. She described the situation facing the plant as difficult and dynamically changing, while emphasizing that the plant is currently operating stably with no direct failures affecting power generation. The Kozloduy nuclear power plant is a critical facility in Bulgaria's power system, and the high attention paid to Danube water level changes is mainly related to the cooling conditions required for plant operations. Persistently low water levels may increase operational dispatch pressure and require the energy sector to more frequently assess safety margins and subsequent response measures.

2026-08-08

Kazakhstan's National Nuclear Center Advances Full-Chain Nuclear Talent Development

On August 7, the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NNC RK) presented the status of its human resource development system in the field of atomic energy. Alua Mirzagazkyzy Kabdrakhova, scientific secretary of the center, stated that the modern nuclear energy industry is highly dependent on scientific research and engineering capabilities, and that talent development must begin with early career guidance and continue throughout higher education, research practice, and professional career development. According to the center's plan, nuclear talent development is first directed at secondary school students. The National Nuclear Center holds an annual summer school for young physicists and organizes student visits to research and technical facilities, helping high school students understand modern science,...

2026-08-09

Another access control irregularity at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station: exit gate fails to intercept unauthorized passage

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced on August 7 that an irregularity related to access control occurred at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station. An operator improperly used his own ID card to allow a colleague who had left his ID card in the central control room to pass through the gate and exit. TEPCO stated that the access control system failed to display an error message at the time and was unable to prevent this unauthorized passage. According to disclosed information, the incident occurred during the exit process and involves management matters related to nuclear material protection. TEPCO has not yet publicly disclosed the specific date of the incident, the identities of the personnel involved, the detailed reasons why the system failed to trigger an alarm, or subsequent disciplinary actions and preventive measures. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa...

2026-08-08

"AI-Based Automated Authenticity Verification System for Quality Certificates" — Diao Long, Deputy Chief Engineer of Engineering Quality Assurance, CGN Huizhou Nuclear Power Co., Ltd.

On November 14, 2025, Diao Long, Deputy Chief Engineer of Engineering Quality Assurance at CGN Huizhou Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., delivered a keynote report titled "AI-Based Automated Authenticity Verification System for Quality Certificates" at the "AI+Nuclear Innovation Application Scenario Roadshow" of the Shenzhen Nuclear Expo. The presentation introduced Huizhou Nuclear Power's AI-based automated authenticity verification system for quality certificates, designed to address issues such as low manual verification efficiency, error-proneness, difficulty in traceability, and diverse counterfeiting methods. The system achieves batch, high-speed, and traceable authenticity verification through certificate upload, QR code recognition, web scraping, large model key information comparison, and report generation, and has identified anomalies in multiple real-world counterfeiting cases...

2026-08-08

Russia's First Domestic 3D Scanner Helix Included in National Product Registry, Rosatom Completes Additive Manufacturing Technology Chain

The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade has included the first domestically produced 3D scanner, the RangeVision Helix, in the Unified Register of Russian Electronic Products and the confirmed register of Russian-made industrial products. The registration was carried out in accordance with Russian Government Resolutions No. 878 and No. 719. Thus, the Helix has become the first and currently the only 3D scanner in Russia to be included in the aforementioned national registers. The RangeVision Helix was developed and manufactured by RangeVision, an additive manufacturing partner of Rosatom. Since 2025, the company has become the only Russian 3D scanner manufacturer included in Rosatom's additive manufacturing ecosystem...

2026-08-08

Finland's Onkalo Repository to Be Commissioned, Experts Say 100,000-Year Safety Assessment Still Faces Uncertainties

Finland's Olkiluoto is about to commission the world's first permanent deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel — Onkalo. The facility is designed for long-term underground containment of spent fuel, with a design safety period of up to 100,000 years. There remains debate within the nuclear industry over whether such facilities can remain safe over such an immense timescale. Dmitry Pripachkin, head of the Department of Radiation Physics and Nuclear Technology Safety at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), stated that modern science does not yet possess tools capable of reliably predicting the state of such facilities after 100,000 years. Science can study the evolution of geological formations over long historical periods, but...

2026-08-09

Eagle Nuclear Energy Advances 47-Hole Pre-Feasibility Drilling at Aurora Uranium Project

Against the backdrop of rebuilding a domestic U.S. uranium supply chain, newly listed Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp. has entered the industry spotlight with what it claims to be the largest conventional measured+indicated uranium resource in the country. Its flagship Aurora uranium project, located on the Oregon-Nevada border, contains 32.75 million pounds of indicated resources and 4.98 million pounds of inferred resources under S-K 1300 standards. The company has submitted permit applications for a pre-feasibility drilling program comprising 47 holes totaling approximately 27,000 feet, with work slated to begin upon federal and state approvals and pre-feasibility study completion targeted for the second half of 2027. On the technical front, the company recently added Yukuskokon Professional Services and expanded its collaboration with BBA USA and SLR I...

2026-08-08

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to Raise Spent Fuel Pool Water Levels to Mitigate Power Outage Risks

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that the operator of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has decided to raise the water levels in the spent fuel pools on site to enhance safety buffer capacity in the event of a prolonged loss of external power. The primary purpose of raising the water levels is to extend the time before water in the spent fuel pools begins to boil and evaporate under extreme conditions where external power to the plant is interrupted for an extended period, diesel reserves are depleted, and emergency diesel generators can no longer supply power to the cooling systems. Spent fuel pools are used to store used nuclear fuel underwater, typically for at least five years, allowing its radioactivity and residual heat to gradually decay, making continuous cooling a critical element of nuclear safety. All six units at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant...

2026-08-08

228 Research Reactors Worldwide in Operation, Supporting Medical Isotope Production and Neutron Science Innovation

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency on August 7, research reactors continue to drive innovation in science, medicine, and industry worldwide. Currently, 228 research reactors are in operation across 54 countries, with another 23 under construction or in the planning stage. Unlike nuclear reactors used for power generation, these reactors primarily produce neutrons to support medical, industrial, agricultural, geological, forensic, and nuclear science research. A research reactor pool photographed from above. (Photo: IAEA) In the medical field, research reactors are a vital source of medical radioisotopes. Among them, technetium-99m is widely used for diagnosing cancer and diseases of the heart, brain, and bones; a large number of medical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures worldwide rely on this isotope. Other radioisotopes such as iodine-131 are also used in the treatment of cancer and thyroid diseases. The IAEA states that radioisotopes produced by research reactors serve millions of patients globally and are an essential component of modern nuclear medicine systems.

2026-08-09