Wednesday, 26 August 2026

52 briefs so farlast update 18:52 UTC

Key points

U.S. Army Commits Up to USD 2.2 Billion to Janus Microreactor Program.
Saudi-US Nuclear Pact Reaches Congress With Enrichment Question Deferred.
Spain Drafts Rule Requiring Data Centers to Source 80% Renewable Power With Hourly Matching.
Shell Sells Home Battery Maker Sonnen to Munich Family Office Tiven.

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TerraPower Names Hyundai E&C as EPC Contractor for Up to Eight Natrium Reactors

TerraPower has picked Hyundai Engineering & Construction as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for as many as eight of its future Natrium reactors, with completion, price and performance guarantees attached, World Nuclear News reported.

The EPC selection sits inside a wider set of agreements the US small modular reactor developer signed with HDEC and SK Innovation, both of South Korea, covering development and commercialisation of Natrium technology across the USA, Korea and select international markets, according to World Nuclear News.

Separately, TerraPower and SK Innovation announced a term sheet agreement intended to advance work on Korea's first commercial Natrium plant, with plans to expand internationally, World Nuclear News reported.

The arrangements build on a trilateral memorandum of understanding signed in May by HD Hyundai, TerraPower and HDEC to cooperate on next-generation sodium reactor projects.

The guarantee structure attached to the HDEC contract is the substantive term in the package: completion, price and performance commitments shift construction risk onto the contractor rather than the technology developer, in a sector where first-of-a-kind cost overruns have been the recurring problem.

Source: world-nuclear-news.org (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

AI-generated illustration accompanying this article — AI-generated image

16:27 UTCGeneration

Haiyang 3 Clears Hot Testing, SPIC Targets Grid Connection Within the Year

State Power Investment Corporation finished hot functional testing on 13 August at the third unit of the Haiyang nuclear plant, sited in Shandong province in China. The procedure puts reactor systems through the heat and pressure levels expected during routine running.

Fuel loading and a first grid connection are targeted "within the year", the company said, according to World Nuclear News.

Cold functional testing on the same unit wrapped up in March 2026. Units 3 and 4 use the CAP1000 design, China's variant of the Westinghouse AP1000, and China's State Council signed off on their construction in April 2021.

Full operation of both reactors is scheduled for 2027.

SPIC puts combined annual output from the four Haiyang units, once all are running, at 40 billion kilowatt-hours.

Source: world-nuclear-news.org (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

16:27 UTCGeneration

Saudi-US Nuclear Pact Reaches Congress With Enrichment Question Deferred

A Saudi-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement is now before Congress, and the text leaves enrichment unsettled, according to Neutron Bytes.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed the pact on July 22, 2026. Its formal title is the "Saudi Arabia-United States Agreement for Cooperation on the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy".

Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act governs what happens next. Two committees, Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs, work through the text across 90 days of continuous congressional session. Neither chamber has to vote yes for the accord to enter force; only a joint resolution of rejection, passed inside that window, would stop it.

Enrichment remains unresolved in the agreement. Rather than settling it, the two governments have set up a joint study running 2 years on whether indigenous fuel enrichment is feasible, Neutron Bytes reported, deferring the final call.

Source: neutronbytes.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

16:27 UTCGeneration

newcleo Consortium Wins Bpifrance Funding for Floating Nuclear Maritime Project

A consortium led by newcleo has been selected under the call-for-projects "Supporting the decarbonisation of the French maritime sector" managed by Bpifrance, according to a GlobeNewswire release. The award covers n-Floating, a design study for floating nuclear generation.

Funding under the programme comes to almost EUR 1 million, per the release. Work has already started and is expected to run for roughly 18 months.

The design centres on a non-self-propelled floating unit housing multiple LFR-AS-200 reactors, each offering an electrical output of 200 MWe.

Alongside newcleo, the consortium includes Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore and ABMI Groupe.

The study sets out a subsequent development programme and a roadmap towards potential industrial deployment by 2036, with the stated ambition of designing and building the solution in France.

Source: globenewswire.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

23:13 UTCGeneration

U.S. Army Commits Up to USD 2.2 Billion to Janus Microreactor Program

The U.S. Army has mobilized up to USD 2.2 billion for a five-year effort to build and operate more than 20 commercial nuclear microreactors across military installations, according to Power Magazine.

The service has picked five reactor developers and five initial sites under the Janus program, Power Magazine reported.

Janus is designed to push advanced nuclear systems beyond federal test programs and into sustained operation, per the same reporting. That framing separates the effort from demonstration work: the target is generation on installations rather than a single validated prototype.

The funding ceiling of USD 2.2 billion covers both construction and operation over the five-year window, according to Power Magazine. Spread against a fleet target of more than 20 units, the program sets its ambition at fleet scale rather than a one-off build.

The five initial sites represent a fraction of the eventual buildout implied by the reactor count, and the five selected developers will supply the systems.

Source: powermag.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink