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Rosatom Technical Academy Launches Development of Training Programs for Uzbekistan NPP Personnel

Rosatom Technical Academy has launched the development of training programs for personnel of the planned nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan. The foundation ceremony for this project was held in June this year, and training preparations will be aligned with the NPP construction schedule and subsequent operational requirements. Currently, Academy experts are developing teaching materials, refining training methodologies, and formulating course plans coordinated with the NPP construction phases for this new project. The training content will also be adapted to the characteristics of the small modular reactor technology adopted for the project to meet new technical requirements. At the Novovoronezh branch alone, about 50 experts are already involved in developing training programs for Uzbek personnel...

2026-08-12

Kyoto Fusioneering and Oak Ridge to Build World's First Fusion Blanket Verification Facility UNITY-3

Kyoto Fusioneering (KF), a Japanese fusion energy engineering company, announced that it will jointly build a facility named UNITY-3 with the U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to verify the breeding blanket technology required for commercial fusion power plants. The project is described as the world's first facility dedicated to breeding blanket demonstration, and KF will also relocate its U.S. business base to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The project has received support from the U.S. Department of Energy's relevant roadmap, Tennessee's nuclear energy supply chain investment fund, and the DOE, indicating that the fusion industry is shifting from purely plasma physics breakthroughs toward engineering, system integration, and supply chain development. The breeding blanket is a critical component for deuterium-tritium fusion power...

2026-08-12

Novovoronezh NPP Transfers New Equipment to On-Site Fire and Rescue Unit

A ceremony was held in Novovoronezh, Russia, marking the 40th anniversary of the Federal Fire Service Special Directorate No. 72 of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM of Russia), which is responsible for fire protection at multiple Russian nuclear power plants. During the event, Novovoronezh NPP Director Vladimir Povarov (Владимир Поваров) presented certificates for a new minibus and a batch of firefighting technical equipment to Fire and Rescue Unit No. 14, which provides fire protection for the plant. The NPP stated that this equipment will further strengthen the unit's material and technical base. Novo...

2026-08-12

French heatwave cuts nuclear output, day-ahead power prices surge 22%

A new heatwave in France is hitting its nuclear power supply, with effects quickly transmitting to the electricity market. On Tuesday morning local time, LSEG data showed French day-ahead power prices rose as much as 21.8% to €142.5 per megawatt-hour, equivalent to approximately $164.39. The direct cause of the price surge is that operators expect nuclear output to be constrained during the midday peak demand period on Wednesday. Data from French utility EDF shows that due to this week's heatwave, France's nuclear generation capacity on Wednesday is expected to be reduced by 7.3 gigawatts, equivalent to 12% of total installed capacity. This marks at least the fifth time France has experienced extreme heat since June. For a country where about 70% of electricity comes from nuclear power, nuclear...

2026-08-12

Balakovo NPP Completes Pre-Audit of Quality Management System

Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant in Russia recently completed a pre-audit of its quality management system, confirming its readiness to undergo the official certification audit within the year. The audit covered multiple international quality standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 9004, and ISO 19443. Balakovo NPP has previously conducted several audits in accordance with ISO 9001 with favorable results. This time, the plant will undergo audits against the ISO 9004 and ISO 19443 standards for the first time, making it one of the earlier nuclear power plants to be audited against these standards. The pre-audit is a key stage before the official certification audit, primarily aimed at assessing the plant's preparedness, checking the effectiveness of existing processes, documentation status, and staff understanding of the standard requirements...

2026-08-12

Scheduled Maintenance Launched for Units 3 and 4 of Kursk Nuclear Power Plant

Starting August 11, 2026, Russia's Kursk Nuclear Power Plant launched scheduled routine maintenance on Units 3 and 4. On the same day, the plant also commenced annual maintenance and preventive upkeep of the heat network at the standby boiler house. The operations are scheduled to continue until August 22. Due to the maintenance schedule, hot water supply in the city of Kurchatov has been temporarily interrupted. The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant stated that this is the first time in nearly 50 years of plant operation that local hot water supply has been temporarily suspended due to related maintenance. Hot water supply to Kurchatov will be restored after the maintenance is completed. Alexey Leonov, Deputy Chief Engineer for Operations of the main building at Kursk NPP, said that the plant is currently undergoing significant changes, including the decommissioning of units that have reached their design service life and the commissioning of new units. These changes are transforming the ways thermal energy is produced and delivered to consumers, and also require modernization of the plant and related city infrastructure. He noted that this maintenance cycle is relatively short, and the schedule has been arranged to minimize impact on residents' daily lives. In recent years, the plant has taken measures to avoid scheduling maintenance on Units 3 and 4 during the winter season.

2026-08-12

Solaris Invests in Deployable Energy, Pushing "Unity" Transportable Microreactor Toward Commercial SMR

Houston-based advanced nuclear startup Deployable Energy (CEO Bobby Gallagher, former Australian Army/offshore drilling background) has reached a strategic partnership with NYSE-listed U.S. energy infrastructure company Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. (NYSE: SEI): Solaris will take an equity stake in Deployable and leverage its own experience in grid construction and operations under harsh conditions (defense bases, heavy industry, data centers) to help the latter bring the Unity Nuclear Battery—a roughly 1 MWe-class, container-sized, portable microreactor that fits in a pickup truck bed for highway transport—to commercial deployment. The Unity reactor has already achieved...

2026-08-12

Deep Fission Details 'One-Mile-Deep PWR' Roadmap at Canaccord Conference, Targeting First Commercial Operation by End of 2027

On August 11, Deep Fission (FISN) unveiled a differentiated nuclear commercialization pathway at Canaccord Genuity's 46th Annual Growth Conference: rather than reinventing nuclear fission technology, the company aims to deploy mature pressurized water reactors in underground boreholes approximately one mile deep. CEO Liz Muller emphasized that the core approach is to change where reactors are deployed, not to adopt an entirely new reactor physics model. Given that PWR technology has been used in commercial nuclear power for decades, the company hopes to shorten the validation cycle by leveraging mature technology and avoid the new fuel, new material, and new design licensing hurdles faced by some advanced nuclear projects. According to the company's plan...

2026-08-12

Sophelio Launches Fusion Equilibrium Challenge, Opening DIII-D and MAST Experimental Datasets

On August 11, Sophelio launched the Fusion Equilibrium Challenge. The competition has been accepted into the 2026 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) competition track, making it the first fusion energy-related challenge to enter this track. The challenge is co-organized by Sophelio together with the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) FAIR-MAST project, and the Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) at the University of Texas at Austin, with data hosted on the Hugging Face platform. Open to the global machine learning community, the competition re...

2026-08-12

TVA Preserves Bellefonte Nuclear Plant Site for SMR Development, Accelerates Negotiations with GE Vernova Hitachi

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is preserving the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Jackson County, Alabama for potential future development. Based on current progress, TVA is accelerating negotiations with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, and if the two parties ultimately reach an agreement, this long-idle nuclear plant site could be used to deploy multiple BWRX-300 small modular reactors. TVA spokesperson Scott Fiedler stated that the agency's current goal is to protect and preserve the Bellefonte site for future energy development. Small modular reactors are one of the technologies TVA is considering when evaluating potential power generation options, but no final decision has been made yet...

2026-08-12

Nuclea Signs MOU with Utah Office of Energy Development to Advance Microreactor Testing at USREL

Nuclea Energy USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of advanced nuclear technology developer Nuclea Energy Inc., recently announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Utah Office of Energy Development to explore the possibility of deploying a nuclear test reactor at Utah's San Rafael Energy Laboratory to advance the development and commercialization of Nuclea's Morpheus microreactor. This collaboration is seen as an important step for Nuclea's micro modular reactor moving from technology validation toward actual deployment. According to the MOU, Nuclea and the Utah Office of Energy Development will evaluate test reactor siting, coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and...

2026-08-12

GAO: DOE Nuclear Cleanup "End-State Contract Model" Exceeds Budget by $500 Million in Six Years and Misses Goals

A report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on July 29 shows that the Office of Environmental Management (EM) at the U.S. Department of Energy has accumulated over $500 million in cost growth on nuclear waste cleanup contracts since 2020, yet the agency cannot fully explain the reasons for these increases. EM is responsible for cleaning up 15 sites in the United States contaminated by nuclear weapons production and energy research. To address long-standing contract management problems, EM adopted the End-State Contract Model (ESCM) starting in fiscal year 2020, breaking cleanup work into smaller task orders under larger master contracts, with the goal of improving cost predictability, accelerating cleanup progress, and enhancing performance outcomes...

2026-08-12

New Progress in Containment Construction of Unit 1 at Egypt's El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant

The Egyptian Nuclear Power Plants Authority announced that the fourth-layer concrete pouring of the containment inside the reactor building of Unit 1 at the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant has been completed. This construction milestone raised the reactor building height from 24.4 meters to 34.0 meters above ground level, marking continued progress of Egypt's first nuclear power plant toward the key equipment installation phase. The pouring operation lasted 30 consecutive hours, utilizing 5 concrete pump trucks with placing booms and pouring approximately 1,608 cubic meters of concrete. During construction, about 80 professionals participated in each of the day and night shifts, with an additional 20 personnel ensuring round-the-clock stable operation of construction equipment and machinery, demonstrating the high-intensity advancement of the project in organizational scheduling and on-site coordination...

2026-08-12

Romania's Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant to Shut Down Completely Due to Low Danube Water Levels

Affected by persistent drought and low Danube water levels, the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant in Constanța County, southeastern Romania, is expected to be completely shut down within the next 48 hours. Sorin Lindasu, a representative of Romania's water utility company Apele Române, stated that based on current hydrological forecasts, the shutdown of the nuclear power plant is unavoidable and there is no other solution. On Tuesday local time, the Danube's flow rate at its Romanian estuary dropped to 1,370 cubic meters per second, below the previous historical low of 1,450 cubic meters per second. Meteorological forecasts indicate no significant rainfall in the Danube basin over the next five days. Cristian Bușoi, State Secretary of the Romanian Ministry of Energy...

2026-08-12

South Korea Designates Small Modular Reactors and Nuclear Fusion as Key Future Growth Technologies

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will chair a briefing session on the "Seven Seeds for Future Growth Engines" at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on the afternoon of August 12, focusing on the development pathways for advanced technologies including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and nuclear fusion, as well as related industrial ecosystems and supply chain security measures. According to Cheong Wa Dae, the meeting aims to jointly study advanced technology deployment with the science and industry communities, support artificial intelligence (AI) transformation, and strengthen South Korea's future industrial foundation capabilities. The seven areas designated as priorities include Small Modular Reactors, nuclear fusion, renewable energy, quantum technology, aerospace, advanced biotechnology, and advanced materials and component supply chains....

2026-08-12