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3-meter-wide hole found at bottom of Unit 3 reactor pressure vessel at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: molten nuclear fuel burned through the base plate, TEPCO advances evaluation of debris removal project

The latest investigation data released by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) shows that an irregular circular hole with a maximum diameter of 3 meters exists at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of Unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Fukushima No. 1 NPP). This is the first time since the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake triggered a tsunami and caused core meltdown that TEPCO has determined the specific shape and dimensions of the damaged bottom of the pressure vessel among the three reactors that experienced meltdown. The conclusion is based on image data obtained by a technical team in March this year using palm-sized micro-drones to conduct 21 flight surveys inside the containment vessel of Unit 3. Based on the multi-angle...

2026-10-11

Preparations Underway for First Nuclear Fuel Loading at San'ao Nuclear Power Project Unit 2

On October 7, it was learned from CGN Cangnan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. that San'ao Nuclear Power Project Unit 2 is carrying out preparatory work before its first nuclear fuel loading. Once fuel loading is completed, the unit will enter the stage of nuclear commissioning of the primary system with nuclear fuel. During the National Day holiday, personnel at key positions of the San'ao Nuclear Power Project stayed at the front line to fully advance the pre-loading preparations. A relevant person in charge of the Fuel Management Section of the Technical Support Department of CGN Cangnan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. stated that in order to ensure the high-quality completion of Unit 2's first fuel loading and core photography operations, the project working group strictly implemented relevant regulations and management requirements for nuclear material control, and coordinated the advancement of various pre-loading tasks including the submission of first loading information and the approval request for fuel assembly transfer.

2026-10-08

Urenco Officially Commissions Uranium Oxide Storage Facility at Gronau, Germany: Deepening Long-Term Safe Management of Depleted Uranium By-Products

Global nuclear fuel enrichment services giant Urenco recently announced the official commissioning of a specialized uranium oxide storage facility located at its Gronau enrichment plant site in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The formal commissioning of this facility marks the completion of a key piece in Urenco's layout for the full lifecycle harmless disposal of depleted uranium tails and strategic resource reserves. The construction permit for this storage facility originated from the expansion approval issued by the North Rhine-Westphalia nuclear regulatory authority to the Gronau enrichment plant in 2005, which authorized the plant's annual enrichment capacity ceiling to reach 4.5 million separative work units (SWU). As a precondition for environmental and nuclear safety regulatory approval, the state government explicitly...

2026-10-08

German Research Team Completes First Phase Analysis of Chernobyl "Hot Particles": Nuclear Fuel Crystal Structure Still Exhibits Unexpectedly High Chemical Stability After 40 Years

Nearly 40 years after the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident, a research team from Leibniz University Hannover and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany has completed the world's first synchrotron radiation X-ray-based precision crystal phase analysis of 6 micron-sized highly radioactive fragments (commonly known in the industry as Hot Particles) ejected from the destroyed reactor. The related breakthrough research findings have been officially published in the top-tier journal in environmental and radioecology, the Journal of Hazardous Materials.

2026-10-07

Second Batch of Nuclear Fuel for Bangladesh's Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Arrives at Shahjalal International Airport

Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant construction recently reached a key milestone, as a Russian cargo plane carrying a new batch of enriched uranium nuclear fuel landed smoothly late Friday night at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Officials confirmed that the nuclear fuel, under tight security escort, has departed for transport to the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) project site in the Pabna region. M. Rashiduzzaman Millat, State Minister of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism of Bangladesh...

2026-10-04

General Matter Submits HALEU License Application to U.S. NRC

Paducah, Kentucky, USA — General Matter submitted a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on September 28, 2026, for the construction and operation of a nuclear facility. The project aims to produce High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) to meet the growing domestic demand for advanced nuclear reactor fuel in the United States. General Matter plans to build a dedicated HALEU production...

2026-09-29

Rosatom has developed the first batch of nuclear fuel assemblies for the MBIR multi-purpose fast reactor, successfully passing factory acceptance testing

At the site of the Fuel Technology Division of the State Scientific Center — Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (NIIAR, Dimitrovgrad), under the Scientific Division of Rosatom, the first batch of 3 pilot nuclear fuel assemblies (Fuel assemblies / ТВС) for the multi-purpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor (MBIR) successfully completed comprehensive factory acceptance tests. The professional acceptance committee conducted a thorough review of the maturity and completeness of the fuel production process line for this batch as well as all technical performance parameters of the trial-manufactured assemblies, and completed high-precision geometric dimension and quality re-verification measurements item by item. This acceptance review brought together the expertise of multiple core research and manufacturing institutions in the Russian nuclear industry, including the Dollezhal Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering (NIKIET), the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE), and the Machine-Building Plant Joint Stock Company (MSZ, Elemash).

2026-09-27

Main Building of X-energy's TRISO-X Nuclear Fuel Plant TX-1 Completed

TRISO-X, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. advanced nuclear developer X-energy, announced that the main building of its TX-1 advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has been officially completed. The building covers an area of 214,000 square feet (approximately 20,000 square meters), marking that the first commercial-scale advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing project of its kind in the United States has fully transitioned into the phase of interior mechanical and electrical fit-out, installation and commissioning of specialized fuel fabrication process equipment, and related supporting infrastructure construction. According to capacity planning, once fully operational, the TX-1 plant will be capable of producing approximately 700,000 TRISO-X fuel pebbles per year, equivalent to an annual uranium equivalent output of about 5 tonnes, with the capability to...

2026-09-27

US Department of Energy Study Shows: Deep Borehole Disposal Option Can Significantly Reduce Nuclear Fuel Cycle Back-End Waste Disposal Costs

Results from a three-year US Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project show that Deep Boreholes technology can provide a safe and low-cost permanent disposal pathway for radioactive waste remaining after Nuclear Fuel Recycling. Deep Isolation Nuclear conducted a systematic assessment of multiple recycling waste disposal scenarios, and the results showed that the estimated costs for all tested scenarios were below the project's control target of "0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity generation." Long-term safety modeling also confirmed that under normal expected conditions, all options meet...

2026-09-24

Framatome of France Secures First U.S. High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium Nuclear Fuel Contract

French nuclear company Framatome announced that it has signed a commercial contract to supply one operating nuclear reactor in the United States with the world's first nuclear fuel with uranium-235 concentration higher than the industry standard of 5%, for use in replacing reactor fuel. Under the agreement, as part of the Advanced Fuel Management (AFM) program, Framatome will use AFM technology to supply higher-concentration fuel in batches starting in early 2028. The agreement includes the supply of a range of fuels to support long-term use of AFM fuel in the reactor, and includes additional fuel supply options for the future. The company did not disclose the name of the reactor that will use the fuel. Uranium-235...

2026-09-23

The "Weaponized" Nuclear Power Plant: Dual Narratives and Governance Dilemmas in the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Crisis

The "Weaponized" Nuclear Power Plant: Dual Narratives and Governance Dilemmas in the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Crisis

2026-09-17

Canada's Cameco Signs Exclusive Offtake Agreement to Lock Up All Future Output from U.S. Paducah Laser Enrichment Plant

Canadian nuclear fuel giant Cameco has signed a new exclusive offtake agreement with Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), under which Cameco will purchase all nuclear fuel products from the future production of the Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) that GLE plans to build in Kentucky, United States. This major agreement was formally announced by Australia's Silex Systems. GLE was founded in 2007 to develop and commercialize laser-based uranium enrichment technology in the United States. The company is currently 51% owned by Silex Systems, the developer of SILEX laser enrichment technology, and 49% by Cameco. Silex Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Mike...

2026-09-17

Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp. Expands Government Affairs and Uranium Advisory Capabilities to Support the U.S. Domestic Nuclear Fuel Supply Chain

On September 9, Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp., a next-generation nuclear energy company that owns one of the largest measured and indicated conventional uranium deposits in the United States, announced in Reno, Nevada, that it has engaged LSN Partners (LSN) to provide government affairs, strategic advisory, and stakeholder communications services. The company also announced the appointment of Blake Steele as a strategic advisor. As a government affairs consulting firm, LSN will assist Eagle in advancing its public-sector development objectives at the federal and state levels. The collaboration will focus on U.S. domestic uranium production, advanced nuclear technology, critical minerals policy, energy...

2026-09-16

Nusano Selected for U.S. Nuclear Energy Launch Platform Program to Advance Advanced Nuclear Fuel Production Line

Nusano, Inc., a physics company based in West Valley City, Utah, that has made breakthroughs in radioisotope and nuclear fuel production, has been selected by the U.S. Nuclear Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to participate in the development of a HALEU (high-assay low-enriched uranium) nuclear fuel production line as part of the Nuclear Energy Launch Platform program. The program is a federal government initiative aimed at accelerating innovative nuclear technologies from concept to commercial deployment. Through this program, Nusano will receive authorization process support from the U.S. Department of Energy, expertise from national laboratories, infrastructure, technical resources, and project support, thereby accelerating the development of advanced nuclear technologies...

2026-09-15

Russia's Second Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Plant Officially Commissioned, Uranium Conversion Capacity Expected to Double

The depleted uranium processing facility at the Zelenogorsk Electrochemical Plant in Krasnoyarsk Krai has been officially commissioned recently. According to a statement by Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom, the commissioning of this new facility has doubled Russia's capacity for depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUHF) processing. This is also the second such DUHF processing plant built in Russia, with an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes, while the first plant of the same type previously operating at the same site had already been commissioned earlier. In his statement, Likhachev said that the commissioning of the new depleted uranium hexafluoride processing facility is of great significance for the Electrochemical Plant, Rosatom's fuel division...

2026-09-14