Latest News

Filters

Filter by tags: Nuclear fission United States Los Alamos National Laboratory Clear all tag filters

15 news articles found


Kairos Power says its Engineering Test Unit (ETU) in Albuquerque has become the largest FLiBe system in the world. Kairos commissioned the plant in partnership with Materion Corporation to produce high-purity fluoride salt coolant – known as FLiBe – a eutectic mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride.

Date: Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newskairos-claims-operation-of-worlds-largest-flibe-system-11315280

With nuclear technology set to underpin new developments in space travel, NASA has awarded Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation a contract to manufacture and test fuel and develop the design of a nuclear thermal propulsion engine for near-term missions. Separately, Space Nuclear Power Corporation has partnered with Lockheed Martin Corporation and BWX Technologies for the US Space Force/Air Force's JETSON nuclear electric propulsion demonstration project, while Framatome has announced the creation of a new brand, Framatome Space.

Date: Saturday, 21 October 2023
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Nuclear-companies-sign-up-for-space-technology-mis

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed its final environmental impact statement (FEIS) on Kairos Power’s application for a permit to build a test version of the company’s Hermes advanced reactor design in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. NRC staff recommended that the permit should be issued. The staff will submit the FEIS and the final safety evaluation report (FSER), which was completed in June, to the Commission for the mandatory hearing phase of the licensing process. Following the hearing, expected to take place later this year, the Commission will vote whether to authorise the staff to issue the permit.

Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-nrc-issues-final-environmental-impact-statement-for-hermes-test-reactor-11090256

An electric-powered prototype of one of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Marvel microreactors has been installed at a manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania and is gearing up for testing. The non-nuclear prototype, which is a full-scale replica of microreactor, stands 12 feet tall and weighs 2,000 pounds. The installation was completed by Creative Engineers Inc (CEI).

Date: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-does-marvel-microreactor-prototype-prepares-for-testing-10881408

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted an application from X-Energy Reactor Company subsidiary, TRISO-X, for a fuel fabrication facility which will use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). Anticipating the decision, TRISO-X, in October, broke ground and began construction of the facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility (TF3) is expected to create more than 400 jobs and attract investment of approximately $300 million. TF3 is set to be commissioned and operational by 2025.

Date: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-nrc-accepts-triso-xs-application-for-fuel-fabrication-facility-10451681

TRISO fuel pebbles for the Hermes demonstration reactor will be produced at the New Mexico lab's Low Enriched Fuel Fabrication Facility (LEFFF) under a newly announced agreement. This is the first nuclear iteration in Kairos Power's "rapid iterative approach" to nuclear fuel development as well as the first nuclear fuel development campaign for LEFFF.

Date: Saturday, 10 December 2022
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Kairos-Power,-Los-Alamos-collaborate-to-make-TRISO

US Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) said on 24 August that it was expanding modelling software to support nuclear safety and regulatory activities related to advanced reactor designs. Nuclear power is a significant source of steady carbon-neutral electricity, making the design and construction of new and next-generation nuclear reactors critical for achieving US green energy goals, SNL noted.

Date: Friday, 27 August 2021
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-sandia-labs-develop-modelling-software-to-support-advanced-reactor-safety-9032634

In order to help the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) evaluate the safety of the next generation of nuclear power reactors, fuel cycle facilities and fuel technologies, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have been expanding their severe accident modelling computer code, called Melcor, to work with different reactor geometries, fuel types and coolant systems.

Date: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Sandia-extends-computer-modelling-code-to-advanced

An artist’s rendition of KiloPower reactors powering a human habitat on Mars. Courtesy SpaceNukes/NASA/Los Alamos. The US government’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has signed an agreement to licence its Kilopower space reactor technology to Space Nuclear Power Corporation (SpaceNukes), a move it says will speed up a nuclear reactor technology that could be used to fuel deep-space exploration and possibly power human habitats on the Moon or Mars.

The Kilopower technology was developed at the laboratory in partnership with NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Patrick McClure, who served as project lead for Kilopower at Los Alamos and is now a partner in SpaceNukes, said that by creating a new company, Kilopower’s founders are hoping to be able to reach potential new sponsors “who will want to take this technology to the next level and put it into space”.

Kilopower is a small, lightweight fission power system capable of providing various ranges of power depending on the need. For example, SpaceNukes offers low-kilowatt reactors to power deep space missions, middle-range reactors in the tens of kilowatts to power a lunar or martian habitat, and much larger reactors in the hundreds of kilowatts that could make enough propellant for a rocket to return to Earth after a stay on Mars.

Date: Saturday, 07 November 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/new-us-company-to-develop-los-alamos-kilopower-reactor-11-5-2020