I just received my copy

Palisades nuclear plant officially returned to operational status today after receiving appropriate approvals from the NRC. This is the first plant to officially transition from decommissioning status back to operational. Truly blazing a trail for other restarts to follow.

I was honored to be part of the planning committee for the recent @nationalacademies.org workshop Pathways for New Nuclear Deployment. There are new opportunities for building next-generation reactors to produce reliable, clean energy. However, significant, but solvable, barriers remain.

How do you make pie charts worse? By making them hexagons instead! Sorry EPRI, great report, but this is a chart crime.

A first PPA by a utility for power from a Gen IV nuclear plant was announced today. @kairospower.bsky.social will sell power to TVA for use by Google. The Hermes 2 project will change to a single reactor and increase to 50 MWe, operational in 2030. kairospower.com/external_upd...

Thanks to @kbrigham.bsky.social for letting me help with this article. There is a lot of optimism right now and announcements. Those announcements still have challenges ahead before they turn into reactors. The market should expect some to drop out, just like other sectors.

Ho Nieh is nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Neih was the former Director of the NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, and is currently working for Southern Company and INPO. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Commissioner Caputo resigned from the NRC a year before her term ends. This is a loss as her votes were substantive, and she was willing to identify issues that others were not and push for improvements, rather than simply accepting the status quo. thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...

🏗️Trilled to finally introduce ACTION, to accelerate nuclear energy deployment. It is a milestone-based program to address the root causes of project risk for advanced nuclear energy projects. 🔌💡

🚨New paper out on reconsidering the radiation protection model at the NRC. The paper discusses what science indicates, what it cannot demonstrate, and how policy is separate but informed by science. We recommend a pragmatic, tiered approach that aligns with other hazards. 🔌💡

Returning Palisades and a few other nuclear power plants to operation is technically feasible, the lowest possible environmental impact, the fastest path to clean firm power, and a regulatory pathway is being constructed. 🔌💡 www.eenews.net/articles/mot...

The projected date to finish the Construction Permit for the first TerraPower reactor is now the end of 2025, 8 months early. This demonstrates both the slack in the existing NRC process, and the potential to improve efficiency while not "cutting corners" on the technical review

Major changes were made to the NRC FY 2025 fee recovery rule to implement reduced fees for advanced reactors, based on our substantive comments and several others.

The Breakthrough Institute and Good Energy Collective support the renomination of David Wright to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/the-wright...

The NRC prevailed on the Interim Storage of spent fuel. The Supreme Court found that Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals did not meet the standard of an aggrieved party and overturned the decision of the 5th Circuit court.

Update since last night, David Wright was renominated. It's unlikely that the Senate could process his nomination before his term ends, which will lead to a gap. Typically, commissioners will wait on votes if a colleague is expected to return, slowing down the commission.

The unprecedented step to remove Commissioner Hanson from the NRC could upend the current bipartisan support for nuclear energy. A return to partisan polarization will almost certainly cripple efforts to make progress. thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...

The NRC accepted X-Energy's application for a construction permit for the first facility at Dow's Long Mott site. 18 months, 28,500 staff hours totalling $9.2M at $323/hr, and $1.3M in outside support. The review uses an environmental assessment instead of an EIS. www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2515/...

LNT and ALARA, two polarizing terms in nuclear energy. The NRC was tasked with reconsidering both the LNT radiation model and ALARA requirement by a recent executive order. But, many misunderstand what LNT and ALARA are, and what pragmatic evidence-based solutions are available 🔌💡

Meta purchases the output +30MW uprate of Clinton nuclear plant in IL from Constellation with a 20 year PPA starting in 2027. Previously slated for retirement for being barely more expensive than fossil generation, nuclear now gets a premium price. 🔌💡 www.wsj.com/business/ene...

As I said earlier, the nuclear plants were not the cause of the outage

The NRC published the Standard Design Approval for the NuScale US460 plant design, which uses up to 6 of the uprated 77 MWe modules. A standard design approval is primarily a safety evaluation for a generic design and can be referenced in site specific applications www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2512/...

Will Trump’s dreams of quadrupling U.S. nuclear capacity be fulfilled? It all depends on the project sites. @zeitlin.bsky.social and @kbrigham.bsky.social report, feat. @astein.bsky.social and @beazyrampezy.bsky.social.

Recent nuclear related executive orders are intended to drive change. There is some positive and negative. Some saying the quiet part out loud, acknowledging tradeoffs, and benefits to society. The key will be implementation and a broader strategy www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/can-trump-...

Four executive orders related to nuclear energy were signed today. There are a lot of good provisions that move toward the nation's original vision, for atomic energy to "make the maximum contribution" to benefit society. Short thread to come... thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...

Correcting seven misconceptions about building new nuclear energy. Some people are very entrenched on a few of these misconceptions. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/seven-more...

Would the end of the IRA credits end all hope of building new nuclear energy? Instead of hot takes, Deric Tilson and I walk through the substance behind this question. 🔌💡 www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/does-nucle...

Executive orders for nuclear energy are being considered www.npr.org/2025/05/09/n...

GE Hitachi receives approval to build the first BWRX-300 from the Province of Ontario and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) at the Darlington nuclear site in Ontario, Canada. vernova.is/3GVWrca

Kairos has started safety-related construction of their Hermes demonstration reactor! This is an important milestone for any nuclear energy facility. It is also an important milestone for advanced nuclear energy in the U.S. 🔌💡 kairospower.com/external_upd...

Google and Elementl team up to find 3 sites that each can support 600 MW of advanced nuclear power. This continues the trend of off-takers leading deployment and requires a different solution. Conventional wisdom won't always be useful. 🔌💡 subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

TVA submitted an environmental report to support a NRC construction permit application for a GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at the Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. TVA requested a 24-month timeline 🔌💡 www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2511/...

This case raises important questions but misses the broader legal issues. It could also fragment nuclear energy regulation at the state level without achieving better efficiency. www.wired.com/story/nrc-la... by @mollytaft.com

Is this the moment for nuclear energy at the World Bank? Let's hope so. I had the opportunity to talk to Adva Saldinger about the issue in this informative article that includes many other experts. Here is one quote www.devex.com/news/is-this...

If you think that to build more nuclear power we need to just - abolish the NRC, build large light water reactors, or eliminate LNT - this article is for you! (Or you just like South Park... don't worry the post explains it) www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/nuclear-un...

Progress on abandoned uranium mine remediation! The NRC accepted an application for review for a new process to remediate inactive and abandoned mines from Disa Technologies with a 6-month review time. This is a potentially huge step for mine remediation, which has been stalled for decades. 🔌💡

A push for more coal mining and generation while blocking worker protections against black lung because it isn't 'deregulation' and cutting the workforce needed to review and finalize the rule. This is in who's best interest? subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

Good article in why Amazon chose to partner with X-Energy and challenges that remain “If we want the power, we need to address the shortfall in the market, which is capital for development, licensing, and construction” www.latitudemedia.com/news/inside-...

The Small Modular Reactor episode just aired on Energy Switch @pbs.org I was honored to have the opportunity to help a wide audience understand advanced reactors. We covered a lot of topics in one episode. Thanks to Scott Tinker and Jose Reyes for a great discussion. 🔌💡 www.pbs.org/video/small-...

I'm at @cmu.edu today to give one of my favorite lectures of the year. This will be my 7th year discussing nuclear power with the Energy Policy and Economics class. It is always full of great discussions and outstanding students

X-Energy submitted a construction permit application to the NRC for the project in partnership with DOW in Seadrift, TX. This project is part of the DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. x-energy.com/media/news-r...

Just a thought. Simply working at SpaceX at some point, doing something, isn't an automatic qualification to build a microreactor. Also, combining folks with experience instead of spreading them out across 50 microreactor startups might help get down the learning curve faster.

I dislike academic journal paywalls. They are a very expensive barrier to knowledge exchange and discourse. In most cases, the authors hate them too! #energysky #climatesky

DOE plans to move forward with the LPO loan to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. The $57M disbursement is the loan progressing as intended, not a significant change. Palisades is currently expected to restart in late 2025. I'm quoted in www.eenews.net/articles/doe...

Long ago I could promote all my @thebti.bsky.social colleagues' great work--now it's far harder to keep up. In one month our nuclear policy team has published eight amazing pieces.🧵 @astein.bsky.social and Kyle Danish weighed on risks of legal challenge to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission...

I appreciate the invitation to provide a perspective on restarting Palisades and other reactors in decommissioning at the NRC regulatory information conference today.

Support for new nuclear under this Administration may not be able to overcome the uncertainty created by a rapidly changing policy landscape. Spencer Toohill and I try to lay out the opportunities and challenges clearly. 🔌💡https://www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/opportunities-and-uncertainty-in

“New York has been working on this plan for quite a while, but they intentionally accelerated it and created a blueprint to try to not miss the moment of extreme demand growth" 🔌💡https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/new-york-seeks-lead-advanced-reactor-deployment-2025-02-20/

The NRC proposes to revise fees for FY25 as required by section 201 of the ADVANCE Act 1) the professional hourly rate will be $323 2) a reduced hourly rate for advanced nuclear reactor applicants and pre-applicants of $146 www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

A good suggestion if you are using AI to write responses to interview exercises. I have received responses from applicants that were written entirely by AI with many fake references. One even cited me as an author to a paper that doesn't exist!