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Decarbonising nuclear fuel
18 April, 2024
Enrichment company Urenco has published its net zero strategy setting out its very ambitious plans for Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions reductions. Chris Pye tells NEI about the challenges and early successes in its bid to reduce emissions.

UK sets out nuclear revolution plans
17 April, 2024
The UK government wants to provide an investment environment that will bring forward a pipeline of new nuclear projects. To do so it is willing to sweep away some longstanding industry assumptions.

The complexities of irradiated graphite
11 April, 2024
Since the world’s first reactor, graphite has been used as a moderator in multiple nuclear plant designs so that today the world has accumulated a quarter of a million tonnes of irradiated graphite. It’s a major waste management challenge.

Russia bets big on small reactors
10 April, 2024
Rosatom already commands a substantial slice of the GW-scale nuclear power plant export market. Now it is focusing on the small and micro reactor sector too where it intends to become the only nuclear vendor in the world capable of meeting demand for plants of any size.

Learning from valve safety experience
04 April, 2024
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published ‘lessons learned’ from its inspection programme of power operated valves in US nuclear plants.

The Dalton Nuclear Institute: A winning collaboration between industry and academia
03 April, 2024
The Dalton Nuclear Institute is a longstanding UK partnership between industry and academia focussed on decommissioning. Its director Francis Livens talks to NEI about why it works.

Training a nuclear workforce
28 March, 2024
Launching a new Power Generation Group brings renewed focus on training and development for the nuclear generation sector. NEI discovers why this is key to the Net Zero transition.

INPRO: Supporting reactor innovation
27 March, 2024
Innovative Nuclear Reactors & Fuel Cycles (INPRO), an IAEA programme, was established in 2000 to ensure that nuclear energy contributes to global energy needs until the end of the 21st century and beyond. Here we explore INPRO’s achievements.

Mesh, robots and radioactivity
21 March, 2024
The increasing use of sensor carrying robots in nuclear environments mean even momentary drop-offs in wireless signals can mean productivity loss and risk worker safety. Withstanding a nuclear plant’s notoriously radioactive and hazardous environment means adopting a new solution to keep operations constantly moving.

SMR buildout needs a new Marshall Plan
20 March, 2024
SMRs remain the most economically viable, and often the only practical, option for replacing coal. If pursuing net-zero is a genuine goal, the world requires an initiative akin to the Marshall Plan to assist the most carbon-intensive regions in the transition.

Kazatomprom facing acid test
15 March, 2024
Supply chain issues are set to dog uranium production in Kazakhstan and elsewhere as sulphuric acid shortages begin to bite.

Stripping liners safely for decommissioning using 3-D tools
14 March, 2024
Tasked with stripping a large uranium vessel of its rubber liner for decommissioning, 3-D tooling proved to be a safe and effective solution for one Canadian project.

Renewing the licence renewal at Diablo Canyon
13 March, 2024
Diablo Canyon has won a reprieve from closure and the potential to operate until the mid 2040s. Now its life extension application is under initial assessment by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The complexities of developing Accident Tolerant Fuel
07 March, 2024
Accident Tolerant Fuels are seen to offer both safety and economic benefits. Although some designs under consideration are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, it’s clear that progress is positive.

Taking stock of the SMR promise
06 March, 2024
Taking stock of the changing discourse on SMRs within the nuclear community over recent years is yielding insights into the prospects for this suite of technologies. SMRs may or may not prove to be a successful standalone technology, but their promise for the nuclear sector and society goes much wider than that.

Navigating nuclear politics
29 February, 2024
A stark contrast is emerging between the global call to phase out fossil fuels and the challenges faced in aligning nations towards a climate-friendly future. What is the interrelationship of these two narratives, the global challenges in combating climate change, and the implications for nuclear energy ambitions.

An uplift for nuclear in Europe?
28 February, 2024
Investment analysis suggests the mood music is positive for Europe’s nuclear sector as the push for a low-carbon energy system gathers pace.

Net zero nuclear: Momentum to action
22 February, 2024
It is beginning to feel inevitable that many nations will include nuclear energy among their key tools to mitigate climate change, but to do so at a palatable cost means a laser-like focus on the right project management strategy if positive sentiment is to be translated into positive action.

Critical service in SMR development
21 February, 2024
There is considerable interest in the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) market but, as it stands, no design has yet become commercially available. What are the key points needed to unlock the technology’s great promise?

Audits and the waste data trail
14 February, 2024
The layered system of governance for nuclear materials generates huge volumes of data across multiple stakeholders in multiple jurisdictions. Now, blockchain technology may help to address a major data challenge faced by the nuclear industry.