NextEra has announced agreements that allow it to move forward with plans to restart the 615-megawatt Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Iowa in early 2029. Google will purchase most of the plant's output under a 25-year contract to power its AI and cloud data centers in the region, while Central Iowa Power Cooperative will buy the remaining share. NextEra also became the plant's sole owner after acquiring the combined 30% stake previously held by Central Iowa Power Cooperative and Corn Belt Power Cooperative.

The Energy Department has announced a $1 billion partnership with Advanced Micro Devices, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to build two supercomputers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Lux and Discovery supercomputers will help model nuclear reactors, accelerate fusion energy research and improve cancer treatments once they go online in early 2026 and 2028, respectively. "We're going to get just massively faster progress using the computation from these AI systems that I believe will have practical pathways to harness fusion energy in the next two or three years," said Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

A review published in PET Clinics found the number of tasks to which large language models have been applied in nuclear medicine increased from 41 to 434 since 2023, with most models being used for information processing. "LLMs represent a transformative evolution from traditional [natural language processing] approaches in nuclear medicine, offering unprecedented capabilities that extend far beyond the rule-based and statistical methods previously employed in the field," researchers wrote.

Delaware has launched a 25-member Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force to evaluate whether nuclear power, particularly Small Modular Reactors, could help reduce the state's heavy reliance on imported electricity and stabilize future energy costs. The task force, created under Senate Concurrent Resolution 18, will analyze technical, economic and environmental factors, and is tasked with delivering recommendations to state leaders by the end of 2025.

Bill Gates says China is betting heavily on nuclear power and pouring more money into nuclear fusion research "than the rest of the world put together, times two," giving it a clear edge in next-generation energy technology. Nuclear energy will be critical to meet soaring electricity demand, Gates adds, noting that "probably either fission or fusion will be the cheapest way to make electricity" in the long run.

PJM Interconnection is facing a generating capacity crisis as data centers continue to drive up power demand. One of its biggest problems is a lengthy and costly interconnection process that can take over eight years, asserts the team from RMI. RMI recommends several changes to mitigate the issue, including using third-party software to automate and accelerate interconnection studies.

The Navajo Nation is committing approximately $3 million to a commercial-scale test of Disa Technologies' remediation process, aiming to address the longstanding uranium mine waste issue on tribal lands. The process mechanically separates uranium and other contaminants from mine waste. In previous trials, the process achieved over 90% reduction in uranium and radium-226 levels in treated material, concentrating more than 80% of the uranium into less than 30% of the total mass.

Energy Northwest has chosen a joint venture of Aecon, Kiewit Nuclear Solutions and Black & Veatch to design and build the first phase of the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Richland, Wash. The initial phase includes the development and construction of four Xe-100 advanced small modular reactors under a progressive design-build model. Construction is expected to commence by the end of 2029, with operations slated for the 2030s.

Japanese startup Helical Fusion has reached a significant milestone toward utility-scale fusion energy by completing a critical performance test of its high-temperature superconducting coil. This test, which replicated the magnetic environment of a fusion reactor and achieved stable current flow, is considered a world first and a significant step toward realizing commercial fusion energy.