Search Results

US MARVEL Microreactor Approved for Criticality Testing, Testing Expected to Begin by End of 2026

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho Operations Office has formally approved the final safety analysis report for the MARVEL microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This key regulatory approval authorizes the reactor to proceed with configuration preparations for dry criticality testing, marking a breakthrough for the project following the approval of the preliminary safety analysis report in March of this year. The MARVEL (Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation) project is a sodium-potassium alloy-cooled microreactor test platform with a design thermal power of 85 to 100 kilowatts and a net electrical power of approximately 20 kilowatts. The facility is designed to help private companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and GE Vernova test micro...

2026-10-10

Russia Completes Qualification Tests of ITER First Wall Tungsten Lining, Advancing Development of Key Components for International Thermonuclear Fusion

The Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus (NIIEFA), a subsidiary of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, recently successfully completed the qualification testing phase of tungsten materials for the first wall lining of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). This testing aimed to verify the feasibility of the selected technical solution. The expert team completed vacuum rapid brazing of the tungsten lining, robotic ultrasonic inspection, and rigorous thermal cycling tests, laying a solid foundation for subsequent mass production of key components. As the physical boundary between the scorching plasma and the main reactor equipment in a tokamak device, the first wall lining must protect the equipment from high-energy particle bombardment while...

2026-10-10

Radiology Institute Joins Hands with Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Tianyi Keyuan to Win Gold at National Invention Exhibition: Novel Medical Radiation Protection Materials Achieve Scaled Translational Application

At the recently held 30th National Invention Exhibition · Belt and Road & BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition, the project "Key Technologies for Brachytherapy Radiation Protection Materials and Series of Radiation Protection Products," jointly applied for by the Institute of Radiation Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Radiology Institute), Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Peking Union Medical College Hospital), and Tianjin Tianyi Keyuan Technology Co., Ltd. (Tianyi Keyuan), stood out from numerous competing projects and won the Gold Award by virtue of key technological breakthroughs in the field of medical radiation protection. The award-winning project focuses on the long-standing radiation protection pain points in the clinical frontline of interventional therapy and brachytherapy. Through cross-disciplinary collaborative research by the three parties of medicine, research, and enterprise, it has systematically developed a series of innovative product matrices covering scenarios such as occupational health protection for medical staff, protection of normal tissues during radiotherapy for tumor patients, and specialized protection for scar radiotherapy.

2026-10-09

Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Data Governance Application Project Selected as an Innovative Practice Case at the 2026 Global Data Management Summit

From August to September 2026, the Greater China Region of the International Data Management Association (DAMA) held an open exchange activity on innovative technologies in data management and artificial intelligence, soliciting data governance innovation practice cases from across the country. Recently, at the 2026 Global Data Management Summit held in Hangzhou, the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Data Governance Application Project was successfully selected as a data governance innovation practice case. This selection is an important achievement of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power's close integration of national strategy and industry development requirements, focusing on the pain points of nuclear power production and operations, and deepening data governance and application. The project revolves around nuclear power production and operations, establishes and improves a data governance system, consolidates the data foundation, and achieves the aggregation and sharing of production and management business data...

2026-10-09

CGN Begood's Two Self-Developed CT Security Inspection Devices Obtain CAAC Use License

The BGCT-0824 medium-sized CT security inspection device and the BGCT-1050S large-sized CT security inspection device, independently developed by CGN Begood Technology Co., Ltd. (CGN Begood), have recently officially obtained the "Civil Aviation Administration of China Security Inspection Equipment Use License." The acquisition of this qualification marks that CGN Begood has officially entered the core field of civil aviation passenger checked baggage security inspection, achieving a key access breakthrough in the high-end equipment field of civil aviation aviation security. Both devices certified this time are X-ray computed tomography (CT) explosive detection security inspection devices for passenger checked baggage. Prior to certification, both models had successfully passed the full-process on-site rigorous qualification testing conducted by the Aviation Security Research Institute of the China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology (CAST)...

2026-10-09

Startorus Fusion Completes 20 K Cryogenic Rapid Discharge Test of Central Solenoid Model Magnet (CSMC) for Spherical Tokamak Device

Startorus Fusion (HTS) recently announced that its independently developed central solenoid (CS) model magnet for a spherical tokamak device (tokamak) successfully completed a 6350 A cryogenic current-carrying and rapid discharge test under harsh cryogenic conditions. Test results showed that the magnet achieved a maximum magnetic field of 10 T and a magnetic field change rate of up to 63 T/s, setting a new record for the magnetic field change rate of known fusion superconducting magnets. This test was conducted at 20 K (-253 °C). The magnet not only successfully reached a maximum magnetic field strength of 10 T, with a central magnetic field of 7.6 T, but also smoothly completed the rapid discharge test required for tokamak ohmic discharge. As a...

2026-10-09

Global Major SMR Project Progress Review

As of now, global SMR competition has already formed several different tiers: Linglong One is advancing pre-operational testing, Darlington and Russia's land-based projects have entered the construction phase, Clinch River has just crossed the threshold for a U.S. commercial SMR construction permit, Long Mott is still under licensing review, and representative projects in the UK and South Korea are mainly advancing design and regulatory approval. In subsequent comparisons of these projects, the most valuable indicators will be first fuel load, first criticality, first grid connection, commercial operation, and whether construction can be replicated after the first-of-a-kind unit. Project progress: China's Linglong One is one of the more advanced projects among land-based SMR commercial demonstration projects. In December 2025, the project completed non-nuclear steam testing, verifying the functions of conventional island-related systems; public information in early 2026 shows that the project is still conducting pre-operational testing. The project adopts a 125 MWe pressurized water reactor design, mainly targeting applications such as power generation, heating, industrial steam, and seawater desalination.

2026-10-09

Controversy Over U.S. Nuclear Waste Repository Siting Draws Renewed Attention: Historical Decision Alleged to Have Relied Excessively on Cost Estimates

The issue of siting a U.S. nuclear waste repository has once again drawn attention. A reanalysis of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) 1986 candidate site evaluation report points out that the key factor determining the priority siting of a nuclear waste repository at that time was not fully verified differences in long-term safety performance among the sites, but mainly estimates of repository construction and operating costs and spent fuel transportation costs. This analysis argues that the relevant cost data had considerable uncertainty, yet played a decisive role in the final ranking, causing the technical evaluation to present a clearer ordering of advantages and disadvantages than the actual evidence supported. The debate over U.S. nuclear waste repository siting has lasted for decades. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy...

2026-10-09

Installation of First Steam Generator Begins at Egypt's El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant, Total Capacity to Reach 4,800 MW

Recently, the Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) of Egypt issued a statement announcing that installation of the first steam generator for Unit 1 of the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant has begun, coinciding with Egypt's celebration of the 53rd anniversary of the October War victory. This is part of the main equipment installation work for the reactor facility. It is understood that the steam generator is one of the main components of the VVER-1200 nuclear reactor system, serving as the thermal connection device between the primary loop and the secondary loop, transferring reactor heat to the secondary loop cooling water through the primary loop coolant while maintaining isolation between the two loops...

2026-10-09

"Power-Hungry Beast" Reshapes the Logic of Power Asset Revaluation: Can Tech Giants' 20-Year Long-Term Agreements Fundamentally Resolve the Nuclear Power Economics Dilemma?

On October 6, 2026, Constellation Energy (Nasdaq ticker CEG, the largest commercial nuclear reactor operator in the United States) and Google announced the signing of a 20-year strategic clean energy cooperation agreement. Following the announcement, Constellation Energy's stock price rose approximately 12% that day. The capital market's excitement is understandable. But an easily overlooked detail is that the true structure of this deal differs considerably from the "1 billion dollars" in media headlines. Bloomberg's initial report of "at least 1 billion dollars" was the figure at the time the deal first came to light, while the officially announced agreement amount is 4.3 billion dollars. The essence of the 4.3 billion dollars is Constellation Energy's capital investment to upgrade its 11 nuclear power units, with Google providing revenue certainty for this investment through a 20-year power purchase agreement.

2026-10-09

When the Water Runs Dry, the Reactors Stop: Behind Romania Losing One-Fifth of Its Electricity, Heavy-Industry Reactor Designs Are Suffering a Fatal "Cold Source Asphyxiation" — Examining the Physical Interrogation of High-Water-Consumption Baseload Plants by Extreme Drought Through the Prolonged Paralysis of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant

For a long time, nuclear power has been regarded as the unwavering backbone of round-the-clock baseload electricity, immune to weather conditions, cloud cover, or lulls in wind. However, the nearly two-month total shutdown of Romania's Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant is breaking this industry paradigm in an extreme and brutal manner. Because the Danube River has experienced a historically rare drought exceeding warning thresholds and a cliff-edge collapse in water levels, the country's only nuclear power plant—which safeguards one-fifth of its electricity supply—has been paralyzed by the loss of cooling water assurance, with no prospect of near-term restart. This extreme case not only tears open a massive gap in winter energy security for Romania and even Southeastern Europe, but also sounds an alarm for the global energy community: in the face of increasingly...

2026-10-08

China Becomes First to Achieve Operation of a Thorium-229 Nuclear Optical Clock, Bringing Quantum Precision Measurement into the Atomic Nucleus Scale

Recently, the team of Ding Shiqian, associate professor in the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University, published important results online in the international academic journal Nature, announcing the successful development of a thorium-229 nuclear optical clock and the achievement of its stable operation. This work was completed independently in the same period as that of a European team, making China the first internationally to achieve operation of a thorium-229 nuclear optical clock, marking the successful extension of the time measurement standard from electronic transitions to nuclear transitions. It is understood that a nuclear optical clock uses the internal transition of the thorium-229 atomic nucleus as a time-frequency reference. Ding Shiqian, one of the corresponding authors of the paper, introduced that the pendulum of an old-fashioned wall clock swings about once per second, whereas a nuclear optical clock uses the beat of the atomic nucleus as its "pendulum," with a beat frequency of up to about 2 quadrillion times per second. Because the size of the atomic nucleus is only a few tens of thousandths of the electron cloud outside the nucleus...

2026-10-08

CNNC Southern Geological Exploration Center Holds the 2026 Quality Experience Feedback Exchange Meeting

In order to further implement the Group's key work deployments, strengthen the quality awareness of all staff, and improve quality management standards, the CNNC Southern Geological Exploration Center recently held the 2026 Quality Experience Feedback Exchange Meeting. Various departments shared excellent quality work practices based on their actual work, and conducted exchange discussions on typical quality issues, transformation of experience and achievements, and other topics. The meeting pointed out that quality management is a systematic task that concerns the long-term development of the Southern Center and the vital interests of employees. All employees must firmly establish quality awareness, adhere to the principles of "quality first" and zero tolerance for quality issues, improve the management system, strengthen process control, prevent various quality risks from the source, and promote the common development of the Center and its employees through high-quality results...

2026-10-09

Large-Scale Nuclear Emergency Exercise Held at Russia's Beloyarsk NPP: Simulating Response to Concurrent Dual-Reactor Accident

The Beloyarsk NPP in Russia's Sverdlovsk Region launched a two-day comprehensive nuclear emergency exercise on October 6, 2026. The exercise is based on a hypothetical scenario of a natural disaster compounded by a reactor safety system failure, with a focus on emergency response and cross-departmental coordinated handling capabilities when two nuclear reactors experience severe accidents simultaneously. The exercise is being conducted simultaneously at the Beloyarsk NPP site and the neighboring city of Zarechny, and is the largest annual comprehensive nuclear emergency drill in the Russian nuclear industry system and the Ural Federal District. Beloy...

2026-10-08

GE HealthCare Plans $945 Million All-Cash Acquisition of Sofie Biosciences: Full-Scale Positioning in the "Final Mile" Delivery of Positron Radiopharmaceuticals and CDMO Capacity

GE HealthCare, the Chicago-based medical imaging and radiodiagnostics giant, has announced that it has entered into a definitive acquisition agreement to acquire radiopharmaceutical company Sofie Biosciences in an all-cash deal valued at $945 million from private equity firm Trilantic North America. The transaction is expected to complete all regulatory approvals and closing procedures by July 2027, and is expected to be accretive to GE HealthCare's revenue growth and adjusted earnings in the first full fiscal year following closing. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, Sofie Biosciences has built a broad radiopharmaceutical production and distribution network across the United States...

2026-10-08