Only the US nuclear power plants with the lowest operating costs are likely to remain online after this year due to declining energy prices, according to a report from Potomac Economics. "Although all of the forward energy prices are significantly higher than the prevailing prices in 2020, we find that it is unlikely the market revenues will be sufficient to allow any of the resources to be viable to remain in operation, with the possible exception of very lowest-cost resources," the study said.

Peter Lyons, who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, served as a Nuclear Regulatory Commission commissioner and as assistant secretary of energy for nuclear energy, has passed away. "His legacy and vision for a nuclear renaissance will continue to inspire future generations of nuclear professionals," American Nuclear Society President Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar and executive director and CEO Craig Piercy said in a statement.

Placement of a containment cooling water tank marked a milestone for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, Ga. Bechtel says the 360-ton tank is the last significant lift for the $25 billion project.

The Republican Party of Texas is opposing state House Bill 2692, which concerns radioactive waste, because it "removes safety guidelines to dump nuclear waste." State Rep. Tom Craddick said in a letter to the Environmental Regulation Committee that the bill also "muddies the waters between a tax cut for a specific vendor and the issue of high-level radioactive waste storage in Texas."

Leaders from communities around the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington are urging the Biden administration to distribute another round of relief funding for the cleanup of nuclear waste at Department of Energy sites, citing the potential for economic and job growth. In a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the groups said, "We have a rare opportunity to address the legacy of the past, implement DOE's strategic vision more rapidly and develop the pipeline of nuclear workers and technologies to help us lead in the future."

Canada's Azarga Uranium has restarted the permit and licensing process for a proposed uranium project in South Dakota, which will extract uranium using the in situ mining method. Azarga subsidiary Powertech Industries will need more than 52 million gallons of water to produce more than 14 million pounds of uranium over the 16-year project life span, but it needs state permission to use the water.

Two years after HBO released its miniseries "Chernobyl," a new Russian film on the 1986 Chernobyl disaster turns the spotlight on the people who were tasked with dealing with the immediate aftermath of the accident. Russian film producer Alexander Rodnyansky says the movie "tells about how the normal people -- the hostages of this [Soviet] machine -- find themselves in a position to stop the disaster."

Japan is urging companies in the nuclear power and other strategic industries to appoint an economic security officer to oversee crucial technologies and prevent economic espionage. The government plans to hold a forum to hear recommendations on economic security issues as soon as this year.

Held in conjunction with the ANS Annual Meeting, the 12th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT) takes place virtually June 14-17. NPIC&HMIT is the de facto forum for nuclear instrumentation and control (I&C) and human factors engineering (HFE) professionals to meet with leaders in industry and academia, discover the state of the technology, exchange information, and discuss future directions. Learn more.