The state is considering extending the life of its last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, and allowing construction of new reactors to help meet its clean energy goals.

The state is considering extending the life of its last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, and allowing construction of new reactors to help meet its clean energy goals.

No company in the United States has ever restarted a reactor that was seemingly closed for good, but there are now three major efforts underway to do so.

© Nick Rohlman/The Gazette, via Associated Press

No company in the United States has ever restarted a reactor that was seemingly closed for good, but there are now three major efforts underway to do so.

In the latest example, the Energy Department will convert a shuttered Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility into a data center campus and gas plants.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

In the latest example, the Energy Department will convert a shuttered Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility into a data center campus and gas plants.

The first U.S. attempt at reopening a shuttered reactor has been held back by run-down equipment and a lack of planning.

The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017, stands to benefit from growing support for nuclear power and President Trump’s deal with Saudi Arabia.

The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017, stands to benefit from growing support for nuclear power and President Trump’s deal with Saudi Arabia.

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Recent technological advances have brought the president’s goals a bit closer to reality.

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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to end longstanding guidance that radiation exposure be “as low as reasonably achievable.”

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The federal government wants to help utilities buy large components for up to 10 large nuclear reactors. It’s unclear which, if any, companies might participate.

© Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

The federal government wants to help utilities buy large components for up to 10 large nuclear reactors. It’s unclear which, if any, companies might participate.

The prototype could bring steady power to remote sites and AI data centers.

The Iran war is pushing countries to prioritize domestic energy in order to protect themselves from volatile oil and natural gas markets.

The Iran war is pushing countries to prioritize domestic energy in order to protect themselves from volatile oil and natural gas markets.

© Jes Aznar for The New York Times

Just over a year ago, the Trump Administration issued an executive order meant to accelerate the development of nuclear power in the US. While an entire startup ecosystem has developed around the use of different—and typically smaller—reactor designs, only one of them has been fully licensed so far, and there are no plans to actually build any instances of that design.

The executive order directed the Department of Energy to have three different reactor designs reach criticality in a bit over a year. On Thursday, a startup called Antares announced that a test reactor it had placed at the Idaho National Laboratory had reached criticality, making it the first new design to cross this threshold. Criticality means that the nuclear reactions inside the hardware had become self sustaining; it does not mean the reactor had started to generate power.

Antares is one of a number of companies that is basing its design on a new fuel system called TRISO that takes some of the complexity and safety out of the reactor design and places them in the fuel design. The fuel design is based on tiny pellets with a uranium oxide core. The pellets are surrounded by several layers of carbon that can moderate the energy of both the neutrons and lighter nuclei that are released by fission reactions. All of that is encased in a hard ceramic shell that's designed to withstand the highest temperatures that can be produced by the encased uranium.

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Companies say it’s a better way to dispose of the Cold War-era material — and fix a shortage of nuclear fuel. But the plan has also faced criticism from nonproliferation experts.

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