The UK-based New Nuclear Watch Institute called on world leaders attending President Joe Biden's Climate Summit to include nuclear power in their plans to cut carbon emissions and transition to a low-carbon energy economy. "The world cannot completely replace fossil fuels by improving energy efficiency and expanding renewables alone," said NNWI Chairman Tim Yeo, touting nuclear power's reliability, efficiency and affordability.

Dominion Energy has reached an agreement with French services firm Framatome for outage and maintenance work on its fleet of four nuclear power plants in South Carolina, Virginia and Connecticut through 2026. Under the contract, Framatome will also provide material reliability program examinations and 10-year in-service inspections at two of the NPPs over the next two years.

Department of Energy contractors recently deployed divers wearing specialized equipment to conduct maintenance and inspection of two 300,000-gallon water tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington, and the whole operation was captured on video. "The success of complex projects, like this, reinforces the value of our collaborative approach; everyone is working together to accomplish the cleanup mission," said Mark French of the Office of Environmental Management.

Patented innovations used by the firm responsible for decommissioning the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey have helped speed up the process of transferring spent nuclear fuel from the site to dry storage. Officials estimate that defueling of the Oyster Creek spent nuclear fuel pool should be done by Memorial Day, six months ahead of schedule, thanks to the innovations.

Small modular reactor technology can reduce the nuclear industry's costs and help address climate change, according to Jose Reyes, co-founder and chief technology officer of SMR developer NuScale Power. "Now one advantage that we have that has not been available in the past is that we can go to four modules, six modules, or 12 modules," said Reyes, adding that a "one-size-fits-all" approach is no longer fit for purpose.

The nuclear industry cheered the EU's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, but said it "will require that we use every low-carbon technology at our disposal," including nuclear, according to a statement issued jointly by Foratom, the Nuclear Energy Institute and other industry associations. Nuclear is reliable, cost-effective and has many applications, while its scalability makes it accessible for any country, the statement said.

Pakistan's Karachi nuclear power plant Unit 3 has successfully completed cold pressure testing, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation, which supplied the Hualong 1000 reactor. Unit 3 is expected to be ready for commercial operation next year.

The results are in. Steven Arndt, ANS Fellow and member since 1981, has been elected the next ANS vice president/president-elect, and W.A. "Art" Wharton III, ANS member since 2004, was elected for a second two-year term as treasurer. Four candidates were elected to serve three-year terms as at-large members of the Board of Directors. Learn more.