Saturday, 11 July 2026

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acted late last week to replace the existing disposal plan for the most radioactive category of low-level waste with one that can actually be licensed, according to Power Magazine.

For decades, that waste category in the United States has relied on a disposal plan that existed only on paper, Power Magazine reported. The plan called for a deep geologic repository that was never built.

Orlen Synthos Green Energy has signed a cooperation agreement with the City of Włocławek covering plans to build as many as six BWRX-300 small modular reactors in the central Polish city, according to World Nuclear News.

The design behind the plan is GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy's BWRX-300, for which OSGE holds exclusive rights in Poland, World Nuclear News reported. The choice of Włocławek dates to August 2025, when Orlen said the country's first SMR would go there.

OSGE Vice President Bartosz Fijałkowski called the site the company's "number one investment in Poland," according to World Nuclear News.

OSGE put figures on the local fiscal effect. The company estimates that a single BWRX-300 reactor would yield more than PLN8 million (USD2.1 million) in annual personal income tax, PLN80 million in corporate income tax, and more than PLN360,000 in property tax. OSGE also estimates each unit would support close to 200 direct jobs, plus several hundred indirect ones.

On the technology, the BWRX-300 rates 300 MWe and uses water cooling, natural circulation, and passive safety systems, World Nuclear News reported. The reference for deployment is Ontario Power Generation, which aims to bring its first Darlington unit onto the grid by the end of 2030.

France's afternoon power export surplus shrank to 2.9 GW on June 24, the hottest day of the month, after starting June at 11-12 GW, according to pv magazine. A static high-pressure system lifted riverside air temperatures to 42.5 C, the peak reading across the eight river-cooled nuclear sites pv magazine studied.

With the Garonne, the Rhône and the Seine climbing toward cooling ceilings near 28 C, EDF had to throttle output at or halt several reactors sited on those rivers, pv magazine reported.

France still exported power in every hour from June 1 to June 26, posting a net balance of 7.55 TWh on hourly ENTSO-E commercial data, with domestic supply secure throughout, according to pv magazine.

That figure sits close to the two prior years. Net exports over the same June window measured about 7.6 TWh in 2024, 6.9 TWh in 2025 and 7.55 TWh in 2026, pv magazine reported.

Nuclear availability rose rather than fell during the heatwave, averaging about 39 GW in June 2026 against roughly 36 GW in each of the two preceding Junes, according to pv magazine.

Trade with Spain moved the furthest. France, usually a net exporter to Iberia, flipped to a net importer from Spain on the hottest days, pulling on cheaper Spanish solar as its own margin narrowed, pv magazine reported.

Deployable Energy's Unity demonstration reactor has achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), according to Power Magazine.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said on July 1 that the Unity reactor completed the milestone, Power Magazine reported.

Unity is the third DOE-authorized advanced reactor to reach criticality ahead of a July 4 deadline set under President Trump's May 2025 nuclear executive order, according to Power Magazine.