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A recently published study has outlined a technology that could significantly improve the ability to extract uranium from seawater – a process that's far from commercial viability now but could provide future supplies of the reactor-powering element, should land-based resources become constrained...

A graduate student at Oregon State University recently patented a concept for using gamma rays from spent nuclear fuel to sterilize medical equipment and other products. Marketed as G-Demption, the technology would place fuel assemblies or portions of them into a container engineered to isolate their...

Leading climate scientists, including the outgoing head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, recently published a paper asserting that nuclear power has the potential to prevent millions of pollution-related deaths and is a superior tool for fighting climate change compared to natural gas...

Areva announced Wednesday that regulators have approved the use of its Arcadia core simulator system in the U.S. The code system helps designers and researchers evaluate core designs and conduct safety analyses. According to an Areva release, the system has access to a worldwide validation database and...

The Department of Energy announced Monday that it is taking applications for the second portion of $452 million set aside for the development and licensing of small modular reactors. Babcock & Wilcox and Bechtel received a grant for up to half of that amount in November to pursue B&W's mPower...

Babcock & Wilcox is a step closer to building the country's first small modular reactor at Tennessee's Clinch River site after announcing an agreement Wednesday with the Tennessee Valley Authority to pursue licensing of the plant. Specifically, B&W and TVA have signed a contract to prepare...

(Please visit the site to view this video) A closed fuel cycle that uses existing recycling technology for nuclear fuel could provide thousands of years worth of power using only the uranium mined to date. To that end, scientists at Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago are refining a technique...

A technology center in Virginia plans to install a simulator that will allow researchers to study Generation III+ power reactor systems and how operators interact with them. Areva announced this week that it will provide the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research with a high-fidelity simulator...

A developer is trying to find a new home for an industrial Van de Graaf generator at Westinghouse's former Pennsylvania research center – a historical landmark in the development of nuclear power. Washington, D.C.-based investor Gary Silversmith recently purchased a suburban Pittsburgh site...

Registration opens today for 2013 limited-availability public tours of the Savannah River Site. The former Cold War site and laboratory complex will host 22 tours in 2013 for up to 1,100 people. Dates can be found here , with check-in for each tour beginning at 12:30 p.m. at the Center for Hydrogen...

In the mid-1990s, Idaho became the first and only state in the country to reach a binding settlement requiring the federal government to move nuclear waste out of the state by a specific date. But since then, Idaho has also consolidated its position as home to the country's premiere research center...

The stresses endured by reactor pressure vessels and other nuclear components go beyond the heat and pressure that metal experiences in other industrial settings. Fission produces energetic particles that can alter metal at the molecular level, sometimes impregnating it with tiny helium bubbles that...

(Please visit the site to view this video) In this TEDx talk posted online Monday, Ohio State University physics Professor Gordon Aubrecht makes a compelling case for more nuclear power in the face of climate change and the existing slate of technologies to meet growing energy demand. In the long term...

The Department of Energy recently announced $13 million in funding for researchers to pursue a new light water reactor concept and potential improvements to reactor fuel. The three new Integrated Research Projects fall under DOE's Nuclear Energy University Programs. The projects, each funded for...

About 30 small reactors at educational institutions around the country allow researchers to conduct experiments in a range of scientific fields. Only Reed College in Portland, Ore., though, offers the regular operation of its research reactor to undergraduates. (Please visit the site to view this...

Martin Fleischmann — whose cold fusion experiment briefly made him a household name in 1989 before it was debunked by his fellow scientists — died Aug. 3 at the age of 85. He earned his PhD from Imperial College London in 1950 and went on to hold teaching and research positions in the UK...

Four activists participating in a mock “foreclosure” of the Lawrence Livermore national lab in California were arrested without incident Sunday. They were part of a protest commemorating the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. While the lab was established in 1952, well after...

Engineers at NuScale Power now have a more realistic picture of what it would be like to operate a small modular reactor, following the completion of a simulated control room. In a release, NuScale said the recently commissioned simulator is the first of its kind for SMRs and allows operators to study...

Two schools announced funding awards totaling $749,000 from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday to benefit nuclear education programs. Colorado State University announced grants worth about $600,000. According to a release from CSU, a grant will be used to hire a radiochemist researching the movement...

Since Westinghouse teamed up with Ameren to compete for federal funding supporting small modular reactor development, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has found no shortage of local support for the potential project at the Callaway nuclear plant. In a speech this weekend at the University of Missouri in Columbia...

The Department of Energy's Savannah River Site recently produced a video offering a broad outline of its partnership with companies developing small modular reactors. (Please visit the site to view this video) Three companies have entered public-private partnerships with Savannah River that...

A test facility billed as the first of its kind is now operational in Virginia to study the mPower small modular reactor design. In a release Wednesday, Babcock and Wilcox announced its Integrated System Test facility in Bedford County, Va., has achieved full operating conditions. “Technology validation...

Research published Monday suggests that river flows reduced by climate change could cause problems for nuclear plants in the coming decades. The study in the journal Nature Climate Change modeled future hydrological conditions, water temperatures and power production to estimate the effects of warming...

Two new names joined the periodic table this week, with the christening of two elements with names honoring Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. According to a LLNL release, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has granted official approval...

After several years of promising research into efficient, Brayton-cycle turbines for power generation, scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are close to beginning the conceptual design phase for a 10 megawatt demonstration plant. The lab has been in discussions with potential industry partners...