Final Investment Decision Approved for Six 77 MW NuScale SMRs in Romania
US Pledges $9 Billion Investment for Armenia SMRs
Centrus Taps Fluor as EPC for Expansion of Uranium Enrichment Plant
Solstice Plans Expansion of UF6 Conversion Capacity
NRC Licenses TRISO-X LLC Fuel Fabrication Facility in Tennessee
Project Omega to Recycle Spent Nuclear Fuel
NGO Coalition Wants to Slam the Lid on Spent Fuel Reprocessing
Inertia Fusion Raises $450 million in Series A Funding
Helion Heats Up Fusion Progress with Tritium Fuel
NuScale Power and ORNL Use AI to Reduce Nuclear Fuel Costs
ORNL to Give SMRs a Competitive Edge with Digital Twin Software
Final Investment Decision Approved for Six NuScale SMRs in Romania
(WNN and additional sources) The shareholders of Romanian nuclear operator Nuclearelectrica have approved the Final Investment Decision for the small modular reactor project in Doicesti, Romania. According to a Reuters report Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said Romania’s plan for a 460 MW small modular nuclear reactor plant would cost up to $7 billion and it will take time to devise a funding plan for such a big investment.
The Prime Minister cautioned that the investment decision would not result in immediate action to break ground. “The investment will be made once a funding formula will be found. Given the very large amount of money, the complexity of such projects and the technology being in early days, I estimate we will not see the investment immediately.”
Romania’s small modular reactor (SMR) project calls for 462 MWe installed capacity, using NuScale technology with six 77 MW modules at the former coal plant site at Doicesti – about 100 miles northwest of Bucharest. The proposed timeline for the first module to be in commercial operation is 2033.
Bogdan Ivan, Romania’s Minister of Energy, said: “The Final Investment Decision for the SMR project in Doicesti marks the transition from the analysis phase to the implementation phase, consolidating Romania’s position at the forefront of the new European nuclear industry. We are replacing 600 MW from a former thermal power plant with 462 MW of clean, stable, and predictable energy.”
In December the energy ministry said that after “discussions with the project company’s shareholders, the solution for the full financing of the current development stage” had been identified and that “based on the conclusions of the feasibility study, we will open the project to investors.” It also said it was exploring the possibility of developing further SMR projects in Romania but did not specify a timeline for them.
Romanian news media reported that a key condition that is part of the investment decision is that building a first of a kind (FOAK) unit and testing it will take place before the other five are given a green light. The project would proceed with the remaining five SMR units if the trial is successful. RoPower would take responsibility only for the first reactor. The construction of the other five will depend on potential additional commitments from Romanian utilities, support from the government, U.S. export financing, and private investors.
Another key element is the mix of grid and private wire arrangements for the six SMRs. Given Romania’s commitment to large PHWRs, it is likely that one or more of thesix SMRs could be targeted at power market segments that include data centers, large indusrtrial users, and other customers that need 24X7/365 reliable power.
Project company RoPower Nuclear – owned jointly by Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power & Gas, which is part of E-INFRA – said that it would, by May 2026,
complete geotechnical investigations,
continue the licensing process;
complete contract negotiations;
negotiate contracts for long-lead items;
define supply chains for materials and equipment; and
prepare the organization for the pre-EPC and the EPC phases, extension of the technology license agreement with NuScale; and
conduct environmental impact assessment agreements.
Project Development History
The partnership between the USA and Romania on SMRs began in March 2019 with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between state-owned nuclear power corporation Nuclearelectrica and NuScale to study potential developments.
In 2021, NuScale and Nuclearelectrica signed a teaming agreement to deploy a NuScale VOYGR-6 power plant in Romania by the end of the decade. In June 2022, the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to begin conducting engineering studies, technical reviews, and licensing and permitting activities for the project.
NuScale Power and RoPower Nuclear – owned jointly by Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power & Gas – completed Phase 1 of a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study in late 2023, which analyzed the preferred site of the first VOYGR-6 SMR power plant.
The FEED 2 study has also been completed. It’s scope carried out by Fluor Corporation and RoPower Nuclear provided the design and engineering services required for the implementation of the project, including an updated cost estimate and schedule as well as the safety and security analyses needed for the final investment decision.
The US Export-Import (Exim) Bank approved in 2024 a $98 million loan for pre-project services, and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Exim also issued Letters of Interest for potential support of up to $1 billion and $3 billion, respectively, for project deployment. In short, the U.S. government commitment covers about $4 billion of the expected $7 billion in project costs.
Current Nuclear Plants in Romania
Nuclearelectrica has two 706 MW PHWR reactors that use Canadian CANDU technology, owned by AtkinsRealis, formerly known as SNC-Lavalin group, accounting for a fifth of Romania’s power production.
In 2024, it signed a 3.2 billion euro ($3.80 billion) main engineering contract to build an additional two 700 MW PHWR nuclear reactors by 2032 with a consortium of four firms including U.S. Fluor Corp and Sargent & Lundy.
It has also signed the main engineering contract to extend the life of its first reactor three decades, which was connected to the national grid in 1996,at a cost of about 1.9 billion euros.
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US Pledges $9 Billion Investment for Armenia SMRs
(NucNet contributed to this report) US vice-president J.D. Vance signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Armenia, pledging as much as $9 billion in potential investment. It included a 123 Agreement and commitments of financial support for construction of U.S. supplied small modular reactors.
The vendor for the SMRs was not named in press statements. The deal involves $5 billion covering initial US exports of SMRs to Armenia and an additional $4 billion to cover long-term fuel and maintenance costs.
The legal accord, known as a Section 123 agreement, establishes the legal framework for US companies to export nuclear technology, fuel and services to Armenia and opens the door for US firms to compete for a deal to replace the Soviet-era Armenian nuclear power station.
VP Vance said at a briefing in Yerevan,“It’ll pave the way for American and Armenian companies to strike deals on civil nuclear projects. That means up to $5 billion in initial US exports, plus an additional $4 billion in long-term support through fuel and maintenance contracts.”
Armenia has relied on Moscow for both energy and security since independence from Russia in 1991. The Armenian nuclear facility is operated by Russia’s state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom and nuclear fuel for the plant is imported from Russia.
The Armenian nuclear power station has a 416-MW VVER, Armanian-2, that went into commercial operation in 1980. Another unit, Armanian-1, was permanently shut down in 1989. Both units were supplied by Russia.
Last year the Armenian government established a company that will evaluate options for new reactor construction in the country. The company will look into technology vendors’ proposals on the possible design and cost of a new nuclear unit in Armenia, with the goal of having a development plan for the new capacity by the middle of 2026.
Regional Politics Play a Role
The visit by VP Vance comes just six months after Armenian and Azerbaijani officials signed an agreement to resolve hostilities which have sporadically roiled relations between the two countries over the past four decades. Both sides said they will no longer use military forces to seek resolution of their disputes.
What’s in it for the US is the creation of a major rail and road transit corridor through Armenia with connections in Azerbaijan. VP Vance said the transit corridor would help promote trade in the region.
Azerbaijan is a major oil producing country which uses a pipeline through the region to reach an oil export terminal in Turkey. The Baku-Tibllisi-Ceyhan pipeline from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Ceyhan, Turkey, bypasses Armenia and picks up output from producing oil wells in Georgia and Turkey. (map) The Caspian Sea oil fields lie above one of the world’s largest collections of oil and gas fields. Baku, Azerbijan, is a port city on the Caspian Sea.
Russia Reacts to US Entry into its Market
Reuters reports senior Russian officials have challenged the viability of U.S. proposals to build a nuclear power plant in Armenia. The wire service reported this response as a sign of Moscow’s concern about the risk of losing a lucrative energy deal in a country it sees as part of its sphere of influence.
Reuters noted that the selection of a U.S. proposal would deal a significant blow to Russia, whose state corporation Rosatom is a global leader in building nuclear power plants.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, on a visit to Armenia this week, poked the Russian bear by saying an agreement to build SMRs in Armenia “is a new chapter in the deepening partnership between Armenia and the United States.”
It is clear from the experiences in Romania and Armenia that the U.S. government has finally figured out that exports of nuclear reactors, large and small, are tools of geopolitical influence.
Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, pointed tried to throw some technical shade on the deal by claiming the SMRs would be at risk from seismic faults. He said on on 02/12/26 that Soviet technology had enabled Armenia’s existing nuclear plant to withstand a devastating 1988 earthquake.
“Armenia, as we know, is a seismically active region,” state news agency RIA quoted Shoigu as saying.
“If the construction of small reactors using American technology in Armenia moves into the practical phase, we, like all other states in the region, and the people of Armenia itself, will be forced to consider these nuclear safety risks.”
According to Reuters, other senior Russian officials have weighed in on the issue this week with offers of financial aid and cost containment. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Izvestia newspaper that Rosatom could move ahead very quickly in Armenia on attractive financial terms. On 02/11/26 Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that the U.S. was offering Armenia untested designs that were likely to exceed cost estimates.
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Centrus Taps Fluor as EPC for Expansion of Uranium Enrichment Plant
Centrus Energy (NYSE:LEU) announced that its subsidiary, American Centrifuge Operating, LLC, has agreed to a strategic collaboration with Fluor (NYSE:FLR) to serve as its Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor as Centrus proceeds with its previously announced multi-billion-dollar expansion of its uranium enrichment capacity in Piketon, Ohio.
Under the multi-year contract, Fluor will lead engineering and design of the expanded capacity in Ohio, manage the supply chain and procurement of key materials and services, oversee construction at the site, and support the commissioning of the new capacity.
The expansion project includes large-scale production of Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) (U235 at 3-5%) to address its substantial commercial LEU enrichment contingent backlog of $2.3 billion and growing demand from existing reactors.
The company also recently announced that it is planning on building capacity to produce 12 metric tons of High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) for next-generation reactors.
In December 2025, Centrus launched centrifuge manufacturing to support this expansio. Last month the Department of Energy selected Centrus for a $900 million HALEU task order. Also, Centrus announced that it is investing $560 million in its advanced centrifuge factory in Oak Ridge, TN.
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Solstice Plans Expansion of UF6 Conversion Capacity
(WNN) Solstice – which was spun-off from Honeywell in October last year – said it has invested in removing bottlenecks from uranium enrichment and conversion projects at Metropolis Works following its 2023 restart in response to strong customer demand for uranium hexafluoride (UF6). The company’s expansion efforts, it said, are underpinned by its backlog of more than $2 billion in orders from long-term customers many of which are domestic utility companies
Backed in part by the Department of Energy (DOE), Solstice said it is “actively exploring additional projects” to increase production at its Metropolis Works facility. The company has also retained a leading engineering, procurement and construction firm to conduct an initial engineering analysis for new capacity expansion investments and, at the same time, has initiated long-term supply discussions with customers.
Metropolis was built in the 1950s to meet military conversion requirements, and began providing UF6 for civilian use in the late 1960s. Original nameplate capacity was up to 15,000 tU per year, but this was reduced to 7000 tU per year in 2017 in light of global demand.
Honeywell announced in November 2017 the temporary suspension of UF6 production at Metropolis pending an improvement in business conditions. The decision was a result of “significant challenges” faced by the nuclear industry at that time, including a worldwide oversupply of UF6. The plant was restarted in July 2023.
ConverDyn, a partnership between Solstice and General Atomics, serves as the exclusive marketing agent for all UF6 produced at the Metropolis Works facility, which holds a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that is valid until 2060.
Uranium must be converted from uranium oxide – the “yellowcake” that is shipped from uranium mines and mills – to gaseous UF6 before it can be enriched in fissile uranium-235 for use in nuclear fuel. In addition to Metropolis, commercial conversion plants are also in operation in Canada, China, France and Russia.
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NRC Licenses TRISO-X LLC Fuel Fabrication Facility in Tennessee
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a license to TRISO-X, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-energy, LLC, authorizing the commercial fabrication of nuclear fuel for advanced reactors known as tristructural isotropic fuel. This license marks the first-ever U.S. approval of a category II fuel fabrication facility. The license is good for 40 years.
“Commercial-scale production of this fuel is key to enabling the deployment of advanced reactor designs,” said NRC Chairman Ho K. Nieh.
“This license represents an important milestone that supports the Department of Energy’s program to accelerate deployment of nuclear technologies and deliver more power to the grid.”
The license allows TRISO-X to possess and use special nuclear material at a facility that is under construction on the 110-acre Horizon Center Site, a greenfield site in Oak Ridge, TN.
TRISO fuel is composed of small spheres of enriched uranium that are coated with multiple layers of carbon and ceramic materials, forming a robust shell that can withstand high temperatures.
Compared to the fuel used by the operating fleet, high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, or HALEU, has a higher percentage of U-235, the form of uranium that is able to sustain a chain reaction. Enriched uranium is one form of special nuclear material, which is defined based on its ability to fission.
The NRC’s review of the license application included a safety and security review and an environmental review. The application was approved three months ahead of the published schedule due to multiple efficiencies applied in the staff’s review processes.
A safety evaluation report documenting the technical review will be made public within 30 days. The final environmental impact statement was published on Feb. 12, 2026.
TRISO-X submitted its license application April 5, 2022, and its environmental report Sept. 23, 2022, then supplemented the application on Dec. 30, 2024.
X-Energy said in its press statement about the license that X-energy and TRISO-X’s first fuel facility, TX-1, is currently under construction at the Oak Ridge Horizon Center, and is part of X-energy’s participation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.
TX-2 is currently in the design phase, and would significantly scale TRISO fuel production capacity to support X-energy’s 11 GW commercial pipeline, equivalent to 144 Xe-100 small modular reactors as well as other SMR developers.
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Project Omega to Recycle Spent Nuclear Fuel
Firm claims its core technology has been successfully demonstrated in a laboratory setting
Project Omega, an advanced nuclear fuel recycling company, emerged from ‘stealth mode’ to announce its mission to rebuild America’s nuclear fuel cycle end-to-end. It says it will do this by developing and deploying technologies and processes to recycle spent nuclear fuel into long-duration, high-density power sources, and to produce critical materials for the nuclear industry. Its first offering is a power source that could resemble AA, AAA or smaller batteries for use by the military.
The business Project Omega, developed with Chris Hanson, former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, plans to make batteries that convert radiation from isotopes into electricity using semiconductors. The battery technology generally offers longer lifespans but lower power output than traditional lithium-ion batteries.
Project Omega is led by founder and CEO Stafford Sheehan, a cofounder and former chief technology officer of Air Company, which turned atmospheric carbon dioxide into ethanol-based products, including jet fuel and vodka. Sheehan brings to his current role high tech entreprenurial experience in three startups and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Yale University.
Project Omega raised an oversubscribed $12 million seed round. The round was led by Starship Ventures with participation from Mantis Ventures, Decisive Point and Slow Ventures. The government is involved through a contract from ARPA-E (the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy).
The company says its efforts to recycle spent nuclear fuel will extract key isotopes using proven spent fuel chemical processing techniques to develop new products that will create new revenue streams for the nuclear economy.
The firm did not disclose details of its spent fuel reprocessing method, how or where it would be carried out, nor indicate its had received any expressions of interest from any branches of the military for its planned product offerings.
For a detailed description of various methods of spent fuel reprocessing, see this web page at the World Nuclear Association
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NGO Coalition Wants to Slam the Lid on Spent Fuel Reprocessing
US campaign puts case for disposal, not reprocessing, of used fuel
(WNN and other sources) The Nuclear Scaling Initiative (NSI), which is a collaboration of the Clean Air Task Force, the EFI Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, says is objective is to “build a new nuclear energy ecosystem that can quickly and economically scale to 50+ gigawatts of safe and secure nuclear energy globally per year by the 2030s.”
Despite the non-governmental organization’s (NGO) expressed interest in “building a new nuclear ecosystem,” the organization’s leadership is dead set against spent nuclear fuel reprocessing and has the expressed objective of slamming the lid on this sector of the nuclear industry.
Its work was recently energized by a $3.5 million million philanthropic commitment from the Bezos Earth Fund “to accelerate the responsible deployment of nuclear energy in the United States as a source of secure, clean, reliable power.”
The grant by the Bezos Fund will directly support NSI’s effort to facilitate an orderbook — a model that brings together multiple buyers to commit to building the same reactor design — for new large reactor builds of mature design in the United States. The press statement about the funding is silent about the efforts of several of its 16 member advisory board to curtail spent fuel reprocessing.
NSI, whose global advisory board is chaired by former US Secretary of State John Kerry. He says that all forms of energy production produces waste, and says that in nuclear’s case, directly storing and “eventually disposing of intact spent fuel” underground “is a safe, straightforward process that uses existing expertise and infrastructure.”
Neutron Bytes Commentary
As an aside – John Kerry is back wearing his anti-nuclear hat. Readers may recall that in the 1990s during the Clinton administration, then U.S. Senator Kerry led the effort in the Senate to kill the Integral Fast Reactor.
It’s difficult to reconcile Kerry’s opposition to spent fuel reprocessing with his board role at NSI that supports building new nuclear plants. The reality is that all PWRs, BWRs, PHWRs, and various types of advanced reactors will produce plutonium as an outcome of the nuclear fisson process.
Managing it for its commercial energy potential requires extracting it from spent fuel. There are multiple methods for carrying out spent fuel reprocessing which, with appropriate controls, will prevent diversion to bomb making purposes.
Had Kerry and the other boad members that agree with him focused on international controls of fissile materials rather than burying them, the entire effort would be seen as less conflicted than it does now with two policy positions at 180 degrees of difference under the same NGO roof. It is just not plausible, or freankly credible, to on one hand promote an “order book” for new nuclear reactors and at the same time advocate a policy of the “once through” practice of disposition of spent fuel in geologic repositories.
Burying it in a permanent geologic repository removes forever the opportunity and advantages of applying it to peaceful usess for energy security and for fission processes that produce heat and power without CO2 emissions.
NSA board member former Deputy Secretary of Defense and Under Secretary of Energy John Deutch echoed Kerry saying, “Reprocessing is not a reasonable option: it threatens security, is not cost-effective and will slow our ability to scale nuclear energy.”
Nuclear Scaling Initiative (NSI) Executive Director Steve Comello said: “Making smart fuel management choices today, that acknowledge that reprocessing technologies today are not economically viable and pose security and waste management risks.”
NSI’s public campaign to spike efforts to reprocess spent fuel arrive at the same time the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy awarded $19 million to five US companies to research and develop recycling technologies for used nuclear fuel.
Nuclear reactor develper Oklo has plans to build a $1.68 billion nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Oak Ridge, TN, using plutonium some of which is expected to be sourced from reprocessing spent fuel. As noted in the previous story, a new startup believes it can develop a novel process for turning spent nuclear fuel into long lasting AA and AAA size batteries for military and civilian applications.
The Department of Energy noted in its funding announcement that less than 5% of the potential energy in the nation’s nuclear fuel is extracted after five years of operation in a commercial reactor. It says recycling used nuclear fuel could increase resource utilization by 95%, reduce waste by 90%, and decrease the amount of uranium needed to operate nuclear reactors. Additional benefits to nuclear fuel recycling include the recovery and extraction of valuable radioisotopes for medical, industrial, and defense purposes.
Some years ago U.S. Representative Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who’s congressional district includes the Idaho National Laboratory, said in a public speech that failing to reprocess spent nuclear fuel was like mining gold and then throwing nine pounds out of every ten back in the ground.
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Inertia Fusion Raises $450 million in Series A Funding
Inertia Enterprises, a commercial fusion energy company, announced a new Series A $450 million investment to bring clean energy to the world. The Series A round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, GV (Google Ventures), Modern Capital, Threshold Ventures, Neo, Uncork Capital, Long Journey Ventures, WndrCo, IQT, and others.
Founded in 2024, Inertia said it will build a fusion pilot plant based on the physics proven at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
The milestone-based funding will advance Inertia’s plans to build the world’s most powerful laser, Thunderwall, and a production line to mass manufacture fuel targets at scale. These technical tracks lay the foundation for Inertia to deliver grid-scale energy through a phased commercialization roadmap.
According to a report by TechCrunch, the startup’s reactor relies on a form of fusion known as inertial confinement. In Inertia’s flavor of inertial confinement, lasers bombard a fuel target, compressing the fuel until atoms inside fuse and release energy. The technique is based on NIF’s designs, in which laser light is converted into X-rays inside the target. The X-rays are what ultimately heat and compress the fuel pellet.
Techcrunch also reported that the startup’s reactor relies on a form of fusion known as inertial confinement. In Inertia’s flavor of inertial confinement, lasers bombard a fuel target, compressing the fuel until atoms inside fuse and release energy. The technique is based on NIF’s designs, in which laser light is converted into X-rays inside the target. The X-rays are what ultimately heat and compress the fuel pellet.
Co-founder Dr. Annie Kritcher has served as the lead designer of fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) dating back to 2017, and more than 20 years at LLNL. She led the development of the “Hybrid-E” inertial confinement fusion integrated physics design, including the hohlraum, capsule, and laser specifications and experimental design.
In December 2022, that design enabled the first controlled fusion experiment to achieve net target energy gain, more energy produced from fusion than went into the experiment. Under a first-of-its-kind agreement, Dr, Kritcher was able to co-found Inertia and act as its Chief Scientist while continuing to serve in her role at LLNL, applying her expertise to advance inertial fusion energy toward the power grid.
“In just three years, we’ve gone from the first experiment to ever produce more fusion energy than was delivered to the target, to repeating that result many times and pushing the target gain higher. We’re now focused on translating physics we know works into a pathway toward commercial-scale fusion energy, and the real benefits it can deliver for people and the planet,” said Kritcher.
According to the press statement, the company’s “thunderwall” fusion machine is expected to have performance which will be 50 times as powerful (measured in average power) as any prior laser of its type. Coupled with mass manufacturing of targets based on Kritcher’s breakthrough design approach and a system that can feed those targets into chambers hit by the lasers in fractions of a second, Inertia will design and build a commercially viable, grid-scale fusion power plant.
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Helion Heats Up Fusion Progress with Tritium Fuel
Geekwire reports from Seattle, WA, that Helion Energy announced in a press statement two milestones for the company and commercial fusion sector: reaching a plasma temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius and being the first private venture to test its fusion device with a radioactive fuel called tritium.
Helion is highlighting its use of tritium in combination with deuterium as a fusion fuel. Both are forms of hydrogen, but deuterium is nonradioactive, so most companies run experiments with that isotope alone as it’s safer to handle and more abundant. Helion’s commercial fuel mix will be deuterium and helium-3, which requires higher plasma temperatures for fusion but is more efficient for electricity production.
The Everett, Wash.-based company is part of the global race to solve the physics and engineering challenge of harnessing fusion reactions to generate usable energy. Though its technology has yet to reach that milestone, Helion last summer broke ground on a commercial power facility in Eastern Washington. The firm says it plans to have a working fusion device in 2028. Geekwire notes that this ambitious goal has many skeptics.
Running tests with tritium provided insights into how the helium-3 could perform and allows the company to demonstrate its ability to manage the fuel through its entire system. As construction on the plant proceeds, the company is continuing tests on its seventh-generation device, Polaris, which achieved the new temperature and fuel benchmarks.
Helion’s objective is produce fusion using magneto-inertial, pulsed operation, field-reversed configuration devices. What that means is the system sends a pulse of energy into the fusion device where magnetic fields compress the plasma and fusion occurs. As the plasma pushes against the field, it creates a current that sends electricity back into the system. The ultimate goal for the device is to hit 200 million degrees C.
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NuScale Power and ORNL Use AI to Reduce Nuclear Fuel Costs
NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR) announced that it will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to utilize an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled nuclear design framework for a 12-NuScale Power Module (NPM) configuration to strategically explore how fuel could be even more efficiently and effectively managed across multiple reactors at a single site.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative awarded funding to ORNL to collaborate with NuScale in this innovative research program. GAIN provides technical, regulatory, and financial support needed to advance nuclear technology towards commercialization. This is part of the first round of GAIN Vouchers awarded in fiscal year 2026.
Methods for optimizing the management of nuclear fuel for a single reactor are well-known. As part of this study, NuScale will partner with ORNL to use the power of AI to explore potential options for reducing fuel costs across multiple reactors.
NuScale uses proven, off-the-shelf fuel PWR type assemblies, and unlike large reactors, NuScale’s multi-module architecture offers an opportunity to enhance fuel efficiency in up to 12 reactors with a single shared fuel pool and a significant number of fuel options.
By sharing fuel across modules, NuScale said it may find ways to improve overall plant fuel efficiencies beyond what can be normally achieved in a single reactor plant, ultimately reducing costs. ORNL will share their expertise in AI, machine learning, fuel management, and computational resources to help drive this important research.
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ORNL to Give SMRs a Competitive Edge with Digital Twin Software
ORNL’s new digital twin technology models small modular reactors to improve performance, reduce downtime and cut costs.
Advanced nuclear is within reach — and a new digital twin reveals how smarter plant operations can enhance the economic viability and safety of small modular reactors, or SMRs.
In collaboration with the University of Tennessee and GE Vernova Hitachi, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently published innovative research on a new risk-informed digital twin designed to enhance operational decision-making for the GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR design.
SMRs are compact nuclear systems designed to be easier and more less expensive to build than traditional reactors. A digital twin — a virtual model that adapts with real-time data — can improve their competitiveness by using probabilistic risk assessment to determine the likelihood of potential failure events.
The ORNL digital twin tracks SMR equipment health and performance to inform decision-making and decrease the likelihood of unplanned shutdowns, which drive higher operational costs. The technology can also support today’s reactors and future designs.
“This research moves the needle for SMRs, providing a vital tool to make smarter, faster decisions while keeping costs down,” said ORNL’s Michael Muhlheim.
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