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Finland Launches Its First IAEA International Assessment of Radiation Emergency Preparedness

Finland has recently launched its first international assessment of radiation emergency preparedness. At the invitation of Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, an international expert team assembled by the International Atomic Energy Agency began assessing Finland's preparedness for radiation emergency response on August 25, with the work continuing through September 1. The assessment is coordinated by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland. This authority also serves as the IAEA contact point and participates in this review as one of the assessed entities. The coordination group designated by Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is chaired by Karim Peltonen from the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland. The assessment employs the IAEA's Emergency Preparedness Review mechanism,...

2026-08-26

Finland's Olkiluoto 3 unit reduces power output due to main coolant pump fault

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said on August 17 that Unit 3 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant (OL3) will continue to operate at a stable power output of approximately 1,300 MW, about 84% of full capacity, for the coming weeks due to technical faults in two main coolant pumps in the nuclear island. The unit's rated generating capacity is approximately 1,600 MW. TVO stated that the faults were discovered during this summer. Since then, the unit has reduced its output power and investigations have been conducted into the causes of the faults and corrective measures. Under the latest arrangement, OL3 will continue operating at a reduced power level to monitor the effectiveness of corrective actions until the unit begins its scheduled annual outage on September 10, 2026. TVO...

2026-08-18

Finland's Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor reduces output by 450 MW due to fault

Finland's largest nuclear reactor, Olkiluoto 3 (OL3), is currently operating at a reduced power level of approximately 300 MW. The unit's normal net power output is around 1,600 MW, and its generation accounts for about 14% of Finland's total electricity demand. According to Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), as reported by Tekniikka & Talous, the power reduction is due to a fault in one of the reactor-side circulation pumps. The damaged circulation pump has been repaired and is under monitoring, and the power level of Unit 3 is expected to return to normal on August 18. The circulation pump's function is to circulate cooling water through the reactor core. Meanwhile, Olkiluoto 2 has also been operating at a reduced power level of approximately 155 MW since mid-July...

2026-08-14

Finland's Onkalo Spent Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Facility Expected to Receive Operating License by Year-End

Finland's spent nuclear fuel final disposal project has entered the critical stage of operating license review. The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland (STUK) issued a statement saying that the design and emergency response procedures of the Onkalo final disposal facility meet the safety requirements for granting an operating license. The Finnish government is expected to decide whether to approve the facility's operation before the end of the year. Onkalo is located on Olkiluoto Island in southwestern Finland. "Onkalo" means "cave" in Finnish. If licensed and operational, the facility will become the world's first deep geological final disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants, serving as a reference for other countries considering similar facilities...

2026-08-14

Study Reveals Three-Dimensional Pore Networks Inside Uranium-Zirconium Metallic Nuclear Fuel

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL), conducted three-dimensional imaging studies on irradiated uranium-10 zirconium metallic fuel, revealing the internal pore networks within the fuel and their relationship with chemical changes and fuel-cladding interactions. The researchers believe these results will help improve metallic fuel performance models, providing references for extending the operating cycles of certain reactors and for the design of next-generation sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel systems. Uranium-10 zirconium (U-10Zr) is a uranium-zirconium alloy metallic fuel containing 10% zirconium, which has been extensively tested in sodium-cooled fast reactors such as Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) and the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). As advanced reactor research and development progresses, this type of metallic fuel has regained attention, but the details of pore formation, swelling, heat transfer, and interactions with cladding materials under reactor irradiation conditions still require further clarification.

2026-08-13

Finland's Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant Launches Turbine Island Upgrade to Support Operation Until 2050

Finnish utility Fortum has launched a large-scale modernization project for the turbine island at the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant. The project aims to increase the plant's electrical output and ensure the continued, safe, and reliable operation of both units through the end of 2050 under the new operating licenses. The Loviisa plant consists of two VVER-440 pressurized water reactor units and is Finland's first nuclear power plant, currently supplying more than 10% of the country's electricity. Unit 1 entered commercial operation in 1977, followed by Unit 2 in 1981, and the Finnish government approved the extended operating licenses in February 2023. The core of this upgrade is the modernization of the low-pressure turbines, which is the largest single undertaking in the Loviisa turbine island upgrade...

2026-08-12

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

Finland's Olkiluoto Spent Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Facility Passes Regulatory Safety Assessment

The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland (STUK) released a safety assessment report on August 4, concluding that Posiva's spent nuclear fuel encapsulation plant and final disposal facility at Olkiluoto, Finland, meets the safety requirements for an operating license. This conclusion brings the project, regarded as the world's first industrial-scale geological final disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel, one step closer to obtaining government approval for operation. The facility is located on Olkiluoto Island in the municipality of Eurajoki, southwestern Finland, and is designed to dispose of spent nuclear fuel generated by the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant units of Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) and the Loviisa nuclear power plant units of Fortum. Posiva submitted its operating license application in December 2021...

2026-08-05

Global nuclear power generation hits record high in 2025, with net growth mainly driven by China

According to the latest release of the Statistical Review of World Energy, global nuclear power generation reached 2,845 TWh in 2025, an increase of approximately 30 TWh from 2024, up 1.3% year-on-year, setting a new record. Among this, China's nuclear power generation increased by more than 34 TWh, becoming the primary source of net global nuclear growth. This record needs to be viewed within a longer timeframe. The previous peak in global nuclear power generation occurred in 2006, when it reached 2,803 TWh. In other words, although 2025 global nuclear power generation has surpassed the previous peak, the cumulative increase over 19 years is only about 1.5%, which does not indicate rapid expansion on a global scale. Over the past decade, global nuclear power generation has risen from 2015...

2026-08-03

Annual maintenance outage begins at Finland's Loviisa nuclear power plant, spanning August 2 to October 18

The annual maintenance of Finland's Loviisa nuclear power plant began on August 2. Energy company Fortum stated that this annual maintenance will be carried out from August 2 to October 18. During the maintenance period, several modernization projects related to extending the plant's service life will also be launched. The maintenance will first be carried out on Unit 2, followed by Unit 1. Fortum stated that while one unit is under maintenance, the other unit will continue normal power generation. The maintenance of Unit 2 is a large-scale annual inspection conducted once every eight years, which includes removing fuel from the reactor for inspection and pressure testing of the reactor vessel, as well as replacing...

2026-08-03

Crusoe and Aalo Atomics Forge Strategic Partnership: First Nuclear-Powered AI Facility Planned

U.S.-based Crusoe and Aalo Atomics have reached a strategic partnership aimed at deploying the first nuclear-powered artificial intelligence facility. This commercial collaboration builds on Aalo's recent criticality achievement, underscoring U.S. leadership in AI and energy. Crusoe's Spark modular AI data centers will be co-located with Aalo Atomics' nuclear reactor buildings at Idaho National Laboratory. The project aims to validate the effectiveness of nuclear energy for AI workloads. Cully Cavness, co-founder, president, and chief strategy officer of Crusoe, stated that next-generation AI infrastructure requires reliable, abundant, clean, and scalable power, and Aalo's reactors are designed precisely for that purpose. Crusoe's core value is "bending the energy arc toward sustainability," guided by the principle of leveraging its market position to support and accelerate energy innovation...

2026-07-31

U.S. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Develops New Vacuum Attachment for Nuclear Fallout Collection

Nuclear nonproliferation researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have invented a specialized attachment compatible with commercial handheld vacuum cleaners, designed to safely and efficiently collect radioactive fallout generated after a nuclear explosion. The intense heat from a nuclear blast lifts ground debris into the atmosphere, where it melts and cools into radioactive glass beads less than 1 millimeter in diameter that fall back to the ground. In the past, nuclear experts undergoing training could only collect samples using brooms, dustpans, and ordinary household battery-powered vacuum cleaners, making manual containment difficult and posing extremely high radiation exposure risks. The INL team began producing prototypes with a thermoplastic 3D printer in 2017, and after multiple rounds of iteration, has now commissioned a company in American Falls, Idaho, to mass-produce the attachment using industrial-grade 3D printing, significantly improving durability.

2026-07-31

Sun Jinlong, Party Leadership Group Secretary of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, visits Gansu Province to inspect ecological and environmental protection work.

From July 19 to 22, Sun Jinlong, Party Leadership Group Secretary of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, visited Lanzhou, Tianshui, and Longnan in Gansu Province to inspect ecological and environmental protection work.General Secretary Xi Jinping has

2026-07-27