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Norway and Sweden Sign Long-Term Agreement for Cross-Border Processing of Spent Fuel from Decommissioned Research Reactors

Recently, the Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND) and the Swedish nuclear technical service provider Studsvik formally signed a landmark agreement in Halden valid until 2055, under which the latter will take full responsibility for the cross-border transport, inspection, oxidation treatment, and interim storage of spent nuclear fuel from the former research reactors at Halden and Kjeller in Norway. It is understood that Norway has accumulated approximately 16.5 tonnes of spent research reactor fuel over the past 60 years, including metallic uranium fuel, aluminum-clad fuel, and various experimental fuels, the vast majority of which cannot be directly subjected to long-term safe disposal. Under the agreement, Studsvik will transport this spent fuel to its licensed facility outside Nykoping, Sweden, for oxidation and other key processing, after which it will be temporarily stored in Sweden until it is returned to Norway in the future for final geological disposal.

2026-10-17

U.S. Plans Massive Funding to Restart Three Decommissioned Nuclear Power Plants to Meet AI Computing Demand

Recently, the United States is experiencing an unprecedented wave of nuclear power restarts, with plans to revive three commercial nuclear power plants that have been shut down, in order to meet surging electricity demand and the computing power needs of large data centers. The three nuclear power plants are the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, the Crane Clean Energy Center at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will provide up to $4.4 billion in loan guarantees to restore a total of 2.25...

2026-10-17

Exploring the Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant: "Hualong One" Leads the Iterative Upgrade of China's Nuclear Power Technology

Recently, the "Nuclear Power Media Research Tour" organized by the National Energy Administration visited the Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant of China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) in Huidong County, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province. The plant is planned to house six "Hualong One" third-generation nuclear power technology units, with construction proceeding in phases: Units 1 and 2 of Phase I have been completed and put into operation; Units 3 and 4 of Phase II have entered the peak period of civil construction; and Units 5 and 6 of Phase III officially received approval from the State Council in July this year and are in full preparation for construction. In terms of responding to extreme weather, Units 1 and 2 of the Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant withstood a direct hit from a severe typhoon this summer and maintained safe and stable operation, verifying the...

2026-10-17

Rosatom and Indonesia Reach Historic Agreement to Implement First Floating Nuclear Power Plant Power Supply Export Project

Rosatom State Corporation and Indonesian state-owned enterprise PT Pembangkit Listrik Nuklir have reached an agreement to supply electricity generated by floating nuclear power units to electricity customers in North Maluku Province in eastern Indonesia. The agreement was signed on October 16, 2026, in Moscow during Russian Energy Week (REW), marking an important milestone in bilateral energy cooperation between Russia and Indonesia. Under the project plan, Rosatom State Corporation will deploy two FPU-...

2026-10-17

Namibia Accelerates Its Path to Nuclear Energy, Formally Appoints First Nuclear Commissioner

Recently, the Office of the Prime Minister of Namibia announced the formal appointment of John Titus, Director of the Energy Directorate in the Ministry of Industrialisation, Mines and Energy, as Namibia's Nuclear Commissioner, tasked with comprehensively coordinating all preparatory work for the country's nuclear energy development and leading the Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organization (NEPIO) Secretariat. It is understood that Namibian Prime Minister Titunga Ilya Ngurare also established the NEPIO Management Committee, aimed at providing high-level policy coordination and strategic oversight for the long-term nuclear power programme. The committee is composed of executive directors from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Industrialisation, Mines and Energy, the Ministry of International Relations and...

2026-10-16

Jia Electric's subsidiary signs a RMB 620 million nuclear main pump contract to supply two "Hualong One" units at Taipingling

After market close on October 12, according to an announcement by Jia Electric (SZ000922), its controlling subsidiary Harbin Electric Power Equipment Company Limited (the Power Equipment Company) signed the "Taipingling Project Units 5 and 6 LOT120F Reactor Coolant Pump Supply Contract" with China Nuclear Power Engineering Company Limited, with a contract price (including tax) of RMB 619.88 million. The contract was concluded on October 11, with the scope of work covering the design, manufacturing, and services of shaft-seal-type reactor coolant pumps, and delivery is scheduled for completion on October 15, 2031. The project is located in Huidong County, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, and plans to build 2 "Hualong One" Version 2.0 units. The Taipingling Project Units 5 and 6 were approved by the State Council on July 31, 2026, and are currently in...

2026-10-13

Beloyarsk NPP BN-600 Unit 3 Reaches Full Power After Maintenance, New Liquid Sodium Electromagnetic Pump Commissioned

Recently, Unit 3 of the Beloyarsk NPP equipped with the BN-600 reactor reached 100% power after scheduled maintenance. More than 1,000 employees participated in the maintenance, from the nuclear power plant's maintenance department, Uralatomenergoremont, and other contracting organizations. It is understood that the main work during the outage included: completing the refueling of 120 fuel assemblies containing nuclear fuel, performing major overhaul of the reactor facility and replacing 9 guide tubes of the control and protection system, as well as performing major overhaul of generator No. 6. One of the most important modernization efforts was the replacement of the electromagnetic pump (EMN, electromagnetic pump) used for transporting liquid metal sodium in the secondary loop.

2026-10-13

World's First Nuclear Power Integration into Ultra-High Voltage Project Commissioned, Yantai-Weihai 1000 kV Project Opens Up the "Main Artery" for Nuclear Power Transmission from Jiaodong

On October 10, 2026, the Yantai-Weihai 1000 kV UHV project was officially completed and put into operation. This project is not only the first newly built UHV AC project commissioned during the national "15th Five-Year Plan" period, but also the world's first benchmark project to achieve direct integration of nuclear power into a UHV AC grid, marking the full completion of the ultra-large-scale baseload transmission corridor for the Jiaodong Peninsula nuclear power base. As the core cluster of Shandong's nuclear power development, the coastal areas of the Jiaodong Peninsula, including Yantai and Weihai, host the vast majority of Shandong's nuclear power units. With the advancement of major nuclear energy projects such as Haiyang Nuclear Power, the Yantai-Weihai region has rapidly transformed from a traditional power receiving end into a province-level strategic power sending end for nuclear energy and new energy, with the maximum surplus power transmission demand expected to exceed 30 million kilowatts by the end of the "15th Five-Year Plan"...

2026-10-11

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

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

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

Germany Launches Fusion Milestone Program: Plans to Invest €2.5 Billion to Support Fusion Companies Toward Commercialization

On October 7, 2026, the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND), on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), officially launched the Fusion Milestone Program. The program is an important component of Germany's High-Tech Agenda (HTAD), aiming to promote fusion startups and young companies from technology R&D toward demonstration power plant construction through funding support linked to technological progress and commercialization outcomes, further shortening the distance from laboratory research to commercial application of nuclear fusion. According to the program arrangements, the German government will provide funding support through the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality (SVIK), with plans to invest...

2026-10-09

Laser Fusion Startup Xcimer Receives Up to $30.5 Million in Milestone-Based Funding from U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. excimer laser inertial confinement fusion company Xcimer Energy recently announced that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive up to $30.5 million in funding support through the DOE's Milestone-based Fusion Development Program. The funds will be disbursed in installments based on the progress achieved toward predetermined R&D milestones. Previously, in June 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy formally approved the preliminary conceptual design and technology development roadmap milestones for Xcimer's fusion power plant architecture, Athena. The Athena architecture is specifically designed for continuous operation, industrial-scale capacity, and a self-sustaining fuel cycle...

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

The Qualitative Leap from "Able to Build" to "Adept at Building": An In-Depth Analysis of the Technological Breakthrough and Industrial Restructuring of the "Hualong One Version 2.0"

In September 2026, with the convening of the high-quality commencement mobilization meeting for the first batch of demonstration projects—the Phase II project of Zhejiang Jinqimen Nuclear Power Plant—and the full-scale launch of site leveling and excavation work, Hualong One Version 2.0 officially sounded the clarion call for its march from technological R&D to engineering practice. As a third-generation pressurized water reactor nuclear power model with fully independent intellectual property rights, Hualong One has undergone a decade of tempering, with 12 units in commercial operation and 35 units approved for construction, bringing the total number of units to the top of the world's third-generation nuclear power rankings and making it a globally shining national calling card. However, as nuclear power powers in Europe and America find themselves mired in supply chain degradation, runaway construction schedules, and investment black holes, and as the global small modular reactor (SMR) concept remains stuck in the tug-of-war between PowerPoint presentations and early-stage demonstrations...

2026-09-27