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Czech nuclear safety officials say domestic nuclear power plants have sufficient cooling water for both existing and new units

Droughts across parts of Europe are affecting the operation of some nuclear power plants. Due to low water levels and flow rates in the Danube River, two reactors at Romania's Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant have been shut down, and Hungary's Paks Nuclear Power Plant also faces the risk of a complete shutdown. Štěpán Kochánek, Chairman of the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety (SÚJB), stated that plant operators should not be allowed to continue operating units at full power when cooling water is insufficient, and that related shutdown measures are conservative actions predefined in operating procedures. Kochánek explained that reactor shutdowns are not an unusually rare operation. Unit shutdown typically involves gradually reducing reactor power, inserting control rods, and bringing fission reactions to a minimal level or complete cessation. After shutdown, the reactor still requires cooling, but the demand for cooling water volume and capacity is significantly lower than during full-power operation. He noted that this process shares similarities with planned outages such as refueling overhauls and is a standardized procedure that operators should master.

2026-08-05

Shimane Nuclear Power Station Unit 2 scheduled inspection completion date moved up to September 16

Chugoku Electric Power Co., Inc. announced on August 5 that the schedule for the 18th periodic utility inspection of Shimane Nuclear Power Station Unit 2 has been revised, with the inspection completion date moved up from September 17, 2026 to September 16, and the power generation resumption date moved up from August 19 to August 18. Shimane Nuclear Power Station Unit 2 is a boiling water reactor unit with a rated electrical output of 820 MW. The unit was shut down on February 9, 2026 and entered its 18th periodic utility inspection. The reason for this adjustment is that, during the reactor start-up preparation work, the procurement of the nitrogen gas source used to fill the reactor containment vessel was completed earlier than planned, allowing the related work to be advanced accordingly...

2026-08-05

Brazilian nuclear industry company starts fuel production for Angra 2's 22nd refueling

Brazilian Nuclear Industries (INB) has started production of nuclear fuel required for the 22nd refueling of Unit 2 at the Angra Nuclear Power Plant (Angra 2). On July 28, INB completed the assembly of the first fuel assembly at the Nuclear Fuel Factory (FCN) in Resende, Rio de Janeiro State; on July 30, the fuel assembly passed all established quality inspections in the production process and was certified. According to the plan, INB will manufacture a total of 52 fuel assemblies for this refueling. The assembly work is expected to be completed in December 2026 and delivered to Eletronuclear in March 2027. Recently, INB has made progress in several key stages of the nuclear fuel manufacturing chain. On July 28, approximately 240 tons of enriched...

2026-08-05

US Oak Ridge National Laboratory Advances New Process to Boost Californium-252 Production

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), under the US Department of Energy, is advancing a new Californium-252 (Cf-252) separation process to address growing market demand. The laboratory stated that this process, developed over nearly a decade of research, is expected to shorten the Cf-252 production cycle by about one week, significantly improving processing efficiency without altering product quality. Californium-252 is a neutron-emitting radioisotope used in nuclear reactor startup, fuel testing for new reactors, as well as in oil well logging, coal analysis, port security, fuel rod scanners, and instrument calibration. ORNL noted that it is the only producer of Cf-252 in the Western world...

2026-08-05

ÚJV Řež completes irradiation testing of cable samples for CERN, verifying material radiation resistance

On August 3, the Radiation Chemistry and Environmental Qualification Department of ÚJV Řež stated that it had completed irradiation testing of cable samples for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) research team within a relatively short period, and submitted the test results required for subsequent research. The purpose of this testing was to confirm whether the relevant material samples could maintain reliable performance under high-radiation environments. ÚJV Řež has long been engaged in environmental qualification and cable lifetime management, with capabilities in radiation aging, thermal aging simulation, and testing of material mechanical and electrical properties. Through these tests, researchers can assess the tolerance limits of materials in harsh environments, providing a basis for equipment selection, operation and maintenance, and subsequent experiments...

2026-08-05

TRISO-X Expands Oak Ridge Nuclear Fuel Campus with Approximately 70 Additional Acres

TRISO-X, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Energy, Inc., announced on August 4 that it has acquired approximately 70 acres of land near its commercial nuclear fuel campus in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to support the continued construction and long-term expansion of its fuel manufacturing facility. Following the acquisition, TRISO-X's total campus footprint in the area has expanded to approximately 180 acres. The land acquisition was announced at a meeting of the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board. The newly acquired land comprises two separate parcels and will provide additional space for utility access, equipment staging, fuel storage, and future...

2026-08-05

IsoEnergy and DISA to Form DISA Uranium, Advancing U.S. Uranium Recovery and Processing Platform

IsoEnergy Ltd. and DISA Technologies, Inc. have entered into a definitive agreement to jointly establish DISA Uranium™ Corporation, building a technology-driven U.S. uranium production, processing, and remediation platform. The platform will combine conventional uranium mining assets, uranium recovery operations, and DISA's proprietary High-Pressure Slurry Ablation processing technology (HPSA™) to serve U.S. domestic nuclear fuel supply needs. Under the agreement, IsoEnergy will transfer its portfolio of licensed and previously producing uranium mine projects located in Utah, U.S., to DISA Uranium, including the Tony M Mine, Daneros Mine, Rim Mine, Sage Plain Project, and Flatir...

2026-08-05

Fuel assembly replacement launched at Unit 2 of Beznau Nuclear Power Plant

Swiss energy company Axpo launched fuel assembly replacement work at Unit 2 of the Beznau Nuclear Power Plant (KKB) on August 4, with the related outage expected to last approximately two weeks. As planned, plant technicians will replace 20 of the 121 fuel assemblies in the reactor core during the outage, while also carrying out routine inspections and system tests. More than 560 employees of the Beznau Nuclear Power Plant will be involved in the related work, supported by approximately 150 external experts on site. The fuel assembly replacement and related operations are supervised by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI). Previously, the relevant units at the Beznau Nuclear Power Plant had been shut down due to elevated water temperatures in the Aare River. According to available information,...

2026-08-05

Japan Nuclear Security System Introduces SmartHR to Advance Centralized HR Data Management

On August 5, SmartHR Inc. announced that Japan Nuclear Security System Co., Ltd. has adopted its back-office system SmartHR for personnel and organizational management, to promote paperless HR operations and centralized employee information management. Japan Nuclear Security System, headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, provides comprehensive security services for nuclear-related facilities, particularly nuclear power plants, through a combination of mechanical security and personnel security. One of the direct reasons for introducing the new system is that the company's existing HR system has ceased support, necessitating the selection of a replacement. Previously, ...

2026-08-05

KHNP and Aboitiz Power Sign MOU on Nuclear Power Cooperation

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) announced on August 5 that it recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on nuclear power business cooperation with Aboitiz Power Corporation, a major private energy company in the Philippines, at its headquarters in Gyeongju, Korea. The two parties will strengthen cooperation around the development of nuclear power projects in the Philippines, advancing the exchange of nuclear technology information and preliminary studies for new nuclear power plant construction. At the signing ceremony, Choi Il-kyung, Head of Business Operations at KHNP, and Carlos Ramon Aboitiz, Head of Corporate Support at Aboitiz Power, signed the document on behalf of their respective companies. Also present at the ceremony were Danel Aboitiz, President of Aboitiz Power, and Philippine Energy Secretary Sharon...

2026-08-05

South Korea Launches Emergency Safety Inspection of Nuclear Facilities Amid Heatwave

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) of South Korea announced on August 5 that, due to the ongoing nationwide heatwave, it will conduct an emergency inspection of the safety status and emergency response preparedness of nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants. The inspection was conducted via video conference, with participation from personnel of the NSSC's six regional offices, safety regulatory agencies, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP). The inspection focused on the potential impact of rising seawater temperatures used for cooling nuclear power plants. The NSSC verified the performance of relevant measuring instruments and heat exchangers, and examined KHNP's on-site emergency response status and handling procedures. The design temperature limits for seawater intake at South Korea's nuclear power plants range from 31 to 36.1 degrees Celsius. Due to climate change, the risk of high seawater temperatures is gradually emerging. In 2024, seawater temperatures in the waters off all South Korean nuclear power plants, except for the area around Shin-Hanul Units 1 and 2, reached record highs.

2026-08-05

Colorado State University produces first ultracold neutral plasma with electron temperature below 1 kelvin

Researchers at Colorado State University have, for the first time, produced an ultracold neutral plasma by combining laser cooling techniques with strong magnetic fields. Measurements show that the electron temperature in this plasma is less than 1 kelvin above absolute zero, making it one of the lowest electron temperatures ever measured in a plasma. The research was published in Physics of Plasmas. The new method proposed in the paper helps test plasma theories under more controllable experimental conditions and improve computational models of plasma behavior in extreme environments. The researchers believe this achievement could contribute to future fusion energy...

2026-08-05

UC Santa Barbara and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Collaborate to Accelerate Fusion Plasma Simulations with AI

The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are launching a new collaboration to bring artificial intelligence into extreme plasma simulations, accelerating critical computations in nuclear fusion and high-energy-density physics research. Neel Sankaran (left), a doctoral student of UCSB Professor Haewon Jeong, poses with LLNL scientist Min Sang Cho (right). The project is led by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Santa Barbara...

2026-08-05

Two Core Indicators of Beijing Huairou High Energy Photon Source Meet Design Requirements

Key progress has been made in the construction of the High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) in Beijing Huairou Science City. The latest tests show that the facility's brightness and storage ring beam orbit stability have both met design requirements, bringing it one step closer to full operation. These two indicators directly determine whether the light source can provide stable, high-quality X-ray beams for scientific users, and are also core parameters in facility performance evaluation. Since the accelerator met acceptance indicators on September 29, 2025, the project team has continuously calibrated equipment and optimized beam conditions during trial operation. After approximately nine months of improvements, the facility's key performance has been significantly enhanced. The storage ring can be understood as a circular track for high-energy electrons, with a total circumference of approximately 1,360 meters. 177...

2026-08-05

Zhang Yiming, Chairman of HTA: Tackling the "Last Mile" of Nuclear Pharmacy Network Delivery to Bring Domestic Radiopharmaceuticals to Patients in Western and County-Level Regions

On July 28, the 2026 Radiopharmaceutical Innovation and Development Conference was held in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Zhang Yiming, Party Committee Secretary and Chairman of HTA, told reporters that the company is restructuring its short half-life radiopharmaceutical delivery system through "regional layout + standardized logistics + grassroots empowerment," striving to ensure that cancer patients in western and county-level regions can access domestically produced radiopharmaceuticals within the drug's effective half-life window. Currently, multi-dimensional policy dividends are being continuously released, and China's radiopharmaceutical industry is entering a critical window of opportunity. Alpha nuclide drugs represent the future direction of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. Zhang Yiming introduced that HTA has already made early arrangements for drug research in this field, jointly conducting research on actinium-225 labeled...

2026-08-05