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Funding is in place for the first five years of a seven-year project to build a demonstration Natrium reactor in Wyoming - subject to the completion of the legislative process - and a location will be selected by the end of the year, representatives from TerraPower and PacifiCorp told the state legislature’s Joint Minerals Committee last week. Amendments to existing state laws could further improve the prospect of building the demonstration reactor.

Westinghouse, the UK National Nuclear Laboratory and Terrestrial ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß have announced a partnership in the UK to advance the industrial scale up and commercial supply of enriched uranium fuel for use in Terrestrial's Integral Molten Salt Reactor. An agreement between the three defines the process for delivering IMSR fuel for commercial use, concurrent with schedules for commercial operation of IMSR power plants.

Small modular reactor developer NuScale Power has signed a memorandum of understanding with Xcel ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Inc to explore the feasibility of Xcel ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß serving as a plant operator at NuScale plants. Portland, Oregon-based NuScale is seeking an experienced nuclear plant operator to provide potential customers with operational support.

Testing of the steam turbine using non-nuclear steam has been completed at the demonstration high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant at Shidaowan, in China's Shandong province. The twin-unit HTR-PM is scheduled to start operations later this year.

Nuclear safety regulators in Canada and the US have completed their first collaborative project on licensing of SMRs. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have issued a joint report to provide feedback to X-energy on the manufacturing codes it proposes to use in both countries for the reactor pressure vessel of its Xe-100 design.

Rusatom Overseas has been licensed as competent to construct Russia's first SMR power plant on land. The plant, based on the RITM-200 reactor design, is scheduled to operate in the Russian Arctic town of Usk-Kuyga from 2028.

The Japan Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Agency has resumed operation of the High-Temperature Test Reactor in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture. The small prototype reactor becomes the first Japanese gas-cooled reactor to restart following the introduction of new safety regulations.

The UK government today published a Call for Evidence that sets out its suggested approach to building the first advanced modular reactor demonstrator. This will specifically explore high temperature gas reactors as the most promising model for the demonstration programme, which ministers are investing GBP170 million (USD237 million) into delivering by the early 2030s.

Rosatom and a subsidiary of Kaz Minerals have signed for power supply to the new Baimskaya copper mining project in the Chukotka region of eastern Siberia. Rosatom proposes to use three floating nuclear power plants each employing a pair of the new 55 MWe RITM-200M reactors, a version of which is in service powering icebreakers. A fourth unit would be held in reserve for use during repair or refuelling. The first reactors are already under construction by Atomenergomash. The companies said that they would conclude a long-term take-or-pay contract for the electricity by April 2022.

Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems now expects to build six 77 MWe NuScale Power Modules on a site at Idaho National Laboratory, rather than 12 units as previously planned. A 2030 start-up date for the plant - known as the Carbon Free Power Project - is still envisaged.
 

Samsung C&T Corporation has committed to making an equity investment in NuScale to support deployment of its small modular reactor and is developing a business collaboration agreement with NuScale's engineering, construction and procurement partner Fluor Corporation. The announcement comes days after Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction increased its investment to support deployment of NuScale's SMR.

The deployment of microreactors in the short-to-medium term could support energy markets not available to large nuclear plants, but some significant challenges must be overcome for them to capture new market shares. In the longer term, they will be able to contribute to decarbonisation efforts. These are amongst the findings of a recently published technical report from the US Department of ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß's Idaho National Laboratory.