ARC-100 at INL: ARC Clean Technology’s SMR Deal Explained On July 28, 2026, ARC Clean Technology announced it had signed a Strategic Partnership Project agreement with Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA), the contractor that manages and operates Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for the U.S. Department of Energy. The agreement sets up a multi-year framework for INL…
What Is Project Prometheus? Inside DOE’s $60M AI-Nuclear Initiative for SMRs On July 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Project Prometheus — a 32-partner, Idaho National Laboratory-led effort to apply artificial intelligence across the nuclear reactor lifecycle — for a Phase II Genesis Mission award of $60 million over three years, subject to…
The U.S. advanced reactor fuel supply chain took two concrete steps forward in July 2026. First, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a license amendment allowing Framatome’s Richland, Washington, fuel fabrication facility to manufacture Tri-Structural Isotropic (TRISO) fuel. Days later, Lightbridge Corporation and Quadrant Nuclear Industries (QNI) announced a memorandum of understanding to explore a long-term…
A Comparison of Top SMR Fuel Types Every small modular reactor design under development in the United States is, at its core, a bet on a specific fuel form. The pressure vessel, coolant loop, and safety case all follow from that choice. For utilities, EPC firms, and municipalities evaluating which SMR technology to site, the…
A precision note before anything else: the July 7, 2026 US-Japan-Korea memorandum of cooperation (MOC) on small modular reactors does not name, endorse, or select a reactor design. It’s a government-to-government framework for coordinating third-country SMR deployment in the Indo-Pacific. We cover that document in detail on our trilateral agreement explainer. What this article covers…
US, Japan and South Korea Sign SMR Cooperation Deal — What It Means Beyond the Headline On July 7, 2026, on the margins of the NATO Summit in Ankara, the United States, Japan, and South Korea signed a memorandum of cooperation on small modular reactor (SMR) deployment. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Japan’s Foreign…
NRC Approval of TerraPower Kemmerer Unit 1 is the First Commercial Advanced Reactor Construction Permit in Nearly a Decade Updated: August 2, 2026 On March 4, 2026, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to issue a construction permit for TerraPower’s Kemmerer Unit 1 — the first Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor built for commercial power. It is…