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The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety in a city under Russian occupation. But there is concern in the international community that the six-reactor nuclear plant, Europe's largest, could be caught up in fighting, particularly as military analysts expect Ukraine to try to push Russian forces back in Zaporizhzhia region. In April, Japan contributed 2 million euros to the U.N.'s watchdog to help its effort to secure the safety of Zaporizhzhia power plant. Kotin said Russian forces would have to retreat if it looked like that road was going to be cut off. He added that he believed Russian forces had already been conducting drills at the plant to practise pulling out.

☆ Chinese EV maker Nio invests in nuclear fusion startup
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, May 19 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio (9866.HK) has invested in a startup firm that is developing fusion technologies, according to a source with direct knowledge and a company filing, placing more bets in other areas of the energy sector. The newly established company, Neo Fusion, will research and develop technologies that aim to bring controlled fusion for commercial uses globally in two decades, the source said. Nio invested 995 million yuan for a 19.9% stake while Nio Capital, the investment firm founded by Nio's chief executive William Li, invested 505 million yuan for a 10.1% share, it showed. The investment by Nio also underscored the loss-making EV maker's ambitions in the power and energy sector. It has also been developing battery technologies and is planning to build a battery plant with annual capacity of 40 gigawatt hours in Hefei city in Anhui province, Reuters reported previously.

☆ Microsoft bets that a fusion power plant from Helion Energy will be operating this decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Microsoft agreed to buy electricity from a fusion power plant being developed by Helion Energy. Microsoft on Wednesday agreed to buy 50 megawatts of electricity — enough to power about 40,000 homes — from a fusion power plant being developed by Helion Energy. The seventh prototype, expected be completed this year, is set to be the first to convert fusion energy into electricity, Kirtley said. If Helion doesn't deliver Microsoft the 50 MW of electricity from its fusion power plant, there will be financial penalties, Kirtley said. Helion had previously projected that it would start building a commercial fusion power plant by 2022 — if it obtained sufficient funding.

Nuclear projects are getting a boost of investment as countries try to tackle an energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, while also pursuing emissions targets. WSJ looks at how startups say their alternative designs can help solve past issues. Photo illustration: Eve HartleyNuclear power in the West is having a long-awaited revival, with new reactors opening in the U.S. and Europe and fresh momentum toward building more soon. A gaping hole in the plan: The West doesn’t have enough nuclear fuel—and lacks the capacity to swiftly ramp up production. Even more vexing, the biggest source of critical ingredients is Russia and its state monopoly, Rosatom , which is implicated in supporting the war in Ukraine.

☆ Microsoft to buy power from nuclear fusion company Helion
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Timothy Gardner | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - Private U.S. nuclear fusion company Helion Energy will provide Microsoft (MSFT.O) with electricity in about five years, the companies said on Wednesday, in the first such deal for the power source that fuels the sun but has been elusive on Earth. Government labs and more than 30 companies are racing to generate power from fusion, which could one day help the world slash emissions linked to climate change. Helion's plant is expected to be online by 2028 and will target power generation of 50 megawatts or greater after a one-year ramp up period, it said. Polaris, Helion's seventh generation machine, should come online next year and demonstrate electricity generation, using a mix of laser and magnet technologies to achieve fusion, Kirtley said. In 2021, Helion was the first private company to achieve 100 million degrees Celsius and the optimum temperature is about twice that, Kirtley said.

☆ Mitsubishi Heavy expects record defence orders as Japan pours money into military
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) on Wednesday said it expects to book record defence equipment orders this business year as Japan embarks on its biggest military expansion since World War Two. His company said it expects defence orders to jump by around a half to as much as 850 billion yen ($6.29 billion) in the first year of Japan's five-year $318 billion military build up which began in April. The maker of missiles, tanks, submarines and other defence equipment is Japan's biggest defence contractor, with military work accounting for around a tenth of overall revenue. Many other military contractors in Japan, however, have been hesitant to invest in defence businesses as they often represent a much smaller share of sales. Mitsubishi Heavy, which makes products ranging from air conditioners to nuclear reactors expects overall operating profit for the business year to increase by a half to 300 billion yen.

☆ US approves temporary nuclear waste storage in New Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Timothy Gardner | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said the license authorizes private company Holtec to store 500 canisters holding nearly 8,700 metric tonnes of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants for 40 years. Opponents of nuclear power say the government does not yet have a permanent fix for the waste that can be toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. It bans storage of the waste, until the state agrees to handle it and until the federal government figures out permanent storage. The Biden administration prefers a consent-based siting of nuclear waste facilities in which local communities are involved in the site selection process. The NRC issued a license in 2021 to Interim Storage Partners LLC for a proposed storage site in Andrews, Texas, but the company has not started construction.

☆ Bank of America says there's a bull market underway in Uranium and names an ETF to play it
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

There should be a shortage of uranium through 2035, according to Jared Woodard, investment and ETF strategist at Bank of America. At the same time, demand is for uranium — which is a form of nuclear energy — is growing and the "third bull market" could be here. There's also better risk-adjusted returns compared with other commodities and stocks, he said, even if a bull market is just starting. Woodard added that uranium exposure can help diversify a portfolio given its low correlation to other markets markets. Woodard also noted the ETF has the highest number of energy, materials and industrial holdings in North America and Europe.

☆ Zaporizhzhia: Evacuations from Russian-occupied Ukrainian region raise concerns of nuclear power plant safety
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Helen Regan Julia Kesaieva Mariya Knight Katharina Krebs Kostan Nechyporenko Stephanie Halasz | Helen Regan | Julia Kesaieva | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But the evacuation of a town close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has raised concerns about the facility’s stability. The plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, is held by Russian forces but mostly operated by a Ukrainian workforce. The plant is also significant because Ukraine relies heavily on nuclear power. On the groundOn Sunday, Ukraine’s Operation Command South spokeswoman said Russian forces were trying to exhaust Ukraine’s air defense system. Bakhmut has been the site of a months-long assault by Russian forces that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated.

☆ Operations suspended at Ukraine nuclear plant in case of 'provocations' - TASS
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 8 (Reuters) - Operations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant are being suspended in case of "provocations" by Ukrainian forces, the TASS state news agency said on Monday, citing the Moscow-installed governor of the Russia-controlled part of the surrounding region. Russia captured the plant in the early days of its invasion of Ukraine last year. The nuclear reactors have been suspended," TASS quoted Yevgeny Balitsky as saying. Some 3,000 people have been evacuated from villages close to the front line, TASS quoted Balitsky as saying on Monday, including around 1,000 minors. In March the IAEA warned the plant was running on diesel generators to keep vital cooling systems going, after damage to power lines.

☆ 'Mad panic' evacuation as IAEA warns of a nuclear accident at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant occupied by Russian forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fears mount of increased fighting around the contested Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is occupied by Russian troops was becoming critical. "The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," Grossi said in a statement. Grossi said evacuations were underway in the nearby town of Enerhodar, built for workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Reuters reported. He said there is a "possibility" of an "outbreak of full-scale hostilities" near the nuclear plant, saying, "We have been worrying about this nuclear power plant for more than a year.

☆ Situation around Europe's largest nuclear power plant is 'potentially dangerous,' watchdog warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Leila Sackur | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Members of the delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visit the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on March 29, 2023. The situation in the area near Europe's largest nuclear power plant is "becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said Saturday. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement that he was "extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risk," facing the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southeast Ukraine. "I'm extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant. The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the northern Ukrainian city of Pripyat is considered the worst on record.

☆ Engineers reduce risk of dam bursting near Russian-held Ukraine nuclear plant, TASS reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 5 (Reuters) - Engineers have reduced the risk of a dam bursting and damaging a large Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine, a senior Russian official was quoted as saying by TASS news agency on Friday. "As we anticipated, a technical solution to the problem has been found," Karchaa told TASS, quoting regional officials in Kherson region, where the dam is located. "A gate of the Kakhovka hydropower plant has been opened and repair works have begun at the Kakhovka canal. He had earlier told TASS that a possible breach of the dam owing to high water levels could flood the cable line for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant further east and cause nuclear safety risks. Russian troops seized the plant, Europe's largest nuclear station, as they invaded parts of Ukraine last year.

☆ Oliver Stone says you should be more worried about the climate crisis than the risks of using nuclear power
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Oscar-wining director Oliver Stone released a documentary calling for more use of nuclear power. And nuclear power kills far fewer people than fossil fuels — the main cause of the climate crisis — in terms of air pollution and accidents. These events distorted the safety risks of nuclear energy, Stone argues, noting that beyond the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, few people have died from nuclear accidents. Stone told Insider he didn't know that Ralph Nader, who famously campaigned against nuclear power plants, described the documentary as a "propaganda boomerang." "I'd rather not," Stone told Insider.

Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Ukraine ran its nuclear reactors on Russian fuel, producing 55% of the country's electricity. Cameco, like Energoatom, can adjust how much uranium it delivers on two years' notice, Kotin said. Contracted uranium prices are typically higher than spot prices, meaning that Cameco may take a discount if Ukraine purchases less uranium due to the war's impact, Carter said. Kotin said Energoatom will buy Cameco's uranium at a price based equally on a fixed price and a market price. BIG POTENTIAL REWARDSWhile Ukraine will rely on Cameco for uranium, it has struck separate deals for further processing.

☆ Russia says high waters threaten dam near Ukrainian nuclear plant - Tass
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Record high water levels could overwhelm a major dam in southern Ukraine and damage parts of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, a Russian official told Tass agency on Thursday. "This (would create) functional problems for the operation of the plant and risks for nuclear safety," he told Tass. Last November, after Russian forces withdrew from the nearby southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, satellite imagery showed significant new damage to the dam. Russian troops took over the plant as they invaded parts of Ukraine last year. It is at the centre of a nuclear security crisis due to near-constant shelling in its vicinity which Kyiv and Moscow blame on each other.

☆ Westinghouse unveils small modular nuclear reactor
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Timothy Gardner | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - U.S. company Westinghouse unveiled plans on Thursday for a small modular reactor to generate virtually emissions-free electricity that could replace coal plants or power water desalinization and other industries. Small modular reactors (SMR) are meant to fit new applications such as replacing shut coal plants and being located in more remote communities. They noted that Russia took the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the site of repeated shelling. That year, former President Donald Trump's administration issued restrictions on exports of nuclear technology newer than the AP1000 due to nuclear proliferation concerns. Baranwal said if the U.S. government deems AP300 to be a subset of the earlier reactor technology "then we can start entertaining the possibilities" of exporting it to China.

☆ Westinghouse announces a new small nuclear reactor — a notable step in the industry's efforts to remake itself
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Westinghouse is offering a smaller-scale nuclear reactor in an effort to expand access to nuclear power as demand for clean energy soars. The company announced the launch of a small version of its flagship AP1000 nuclear reactor on Thursday. Small nuclear reactors are also being eyed by industrial producers as carbon-free sources of heat, Merrifield told CNBC. But an AP300 nuclear reactor will produce roughly the same amount of electricity as what a typical coal plant produces, so replacing one coal plant with a small nuclear reactor would be simpler. "We have absolute confidence, because the NRC has already licensed every bit of this technology," Durham told CNBC.

☆ The UK and Germany have very different ideas about the future of nuclear energy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Joumanna Bercetche | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

As the price of oil increased, energy independence became a priority, and Germany started commissioning more nuclear reactors. It took the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl in 1986, which was then part of the Soviet Union, and Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 to shift German public opinion against nuclear energy. Germany's decision to end its reliance on nuclear energy made it reliant on Russian pipeline gas. The UK's first nuclear power station was built in the 1950s, but it was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who, in the 1980s, proposed constructing a nuclear power station every year for a decade as part of the country's industrial strategy. A study by market research firm YouGov in 2022 showed that almost half of Britons back the use of nuclear energy, compared with 31% who are opposed.

☆ For only the second time in its history, the US Navy is beginning the slow, tricky process of taking apart a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In April, the Navy published a notice announcing the beginning of planning to scrap the USS Nimitz. But Nimitz will be only the second nuclear-powered carrier to go through deactivation and defueling. The Nimitz would only be the second American nuclear-powered carrier scheduled to be scrapped. The first is the USS Enterprise, which was commissioned in 1961 and was also the world's first nuclear-powered carrier. The private shipyard will probably be in Alabama, Texas, or Virginia, according to a draft environmental impact statement posted on a special Navy carrier disposal website.

☆ Oliver Stone's new movie makes the case nuclear power is the obvious solution to climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Oliver Stone's new movie, "Nuclear Now," makes an impassioned case that nuclear energy is a necessary and obvious solution to climate change. People ought to be more afraid of climate change than nuclear energy, the movie argues. He started reading about climate change, including a review of the book "A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow" by Joshua S. Goldstein and Staffan A. Qvist. "This is a simple, practical, understandable argument for how to solve climate change from nuclear energy," Stone told CNBC on Friday. In the movie, Stone presents a case that the beneficial potential of nuclear energy has not been reached because society conflated its collective fear of nuclear bombs with nuclear energy.

☆ Kremlin Extends Global Influence With Russian Nuclear-Power Juggernaut
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Jared Malsin | Georgi Kantchev | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The $20 billion Akkuyu Nuclear plant on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast has faced criticism from opposition lawmakers in Turkey. Photo: Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Zuma PressISTANBUL—The Kremlin is projecting influence across the world through a state atomic-power company that has become the industry’s global juggernaut. The latest example: Turkey is inaugurating a Russian-owned nuclear plant on Thursday, deepening a relationship with Moscow that has raised concerns in the West. The company, Rosatom State Atomiс Energy Corp., has expanded its global reach in recent years and is the world’s leader in constructing and operating nuclear projects abroad, working on 34 power units in 11 countries from China to Egypt to Hungary. In recent decades, Russia has exported more reactors than any other major provider.

☆ Putin hails Turkey ties as first Turkish nuclear plant inaugurated
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony for nuclear fuel loading at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is under construction in Turkey, via video link in Moscow, Russia April 27, 2023. Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom built the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and Thursday's ceremony saw the first loading of nuclear fuel into the first power unit at the site in Turkey's southern Mersin province. "But Turkey will enjoy the advantage of a country that has its own nuclear energy, and nuclear energy, as you know, is one of the cheapest," he added. Erdogan thanked Putin for his support on Akkuyu, adding: "We will take steps to build a second and a third nuclear power plant in Turkey as soon as possible." In a phone call before the ceremony at Akkuyu, Erdogan and Putin also discussed the situation in Ukraine and the Black Sea grain deal, the Turkish leader's office said.

☆ Ukraine's nuclear power plants are still a source of nightmares years after the Chornobyl disaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A Ukrainian army soldier stands guard at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 2022, in Chornobyl, Ukraine. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday commemorated the Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster on April 26, 1986, saying that the events on that day "left a huge scar on the whole world." The disaster is still seen as the most serious accident in the history of nuclear power operation although Ukraine has remained heavily dependent on nuclear energy. Today, its nuclear power plants have once again become a source of nightmares as fears abound for their safety and security amid the relentless fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Most concerns around the safe functioning of the country's power plants amid war have centered on the the nuclear power plant located in Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, which also happens to be Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

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