New York Leans In on Nuclear Energy
Ohio Offers $100M Nuclear Energy Opportunity Initiative
NANO Acquires Global First Power from USNC
Blue Energy Plans Data Center Plant Powered by Gas Then Nuclear Energy
IAEA Fusion Investment Exceeds $10 Billion
NVIDIA and General Atomics Advance Commercial Fusion Energy
New York Leans In on Nuclear Energy
On 10/30/25 the New York Power Authority (NYPA) released a formal solicitation inviting input from upstate NY communities with interest in hosting a nuclear energy project. It is assumed that any community seeking to host a new nuclear powr station would have one or more private sector partners.
The request for information (RFI) asks for “actionable project concepts and business models in developing advanced nuclear projects in upstate New York.”
NYPA’s objective is to develop 1 GW of of nuclear generating capacity either alone or in partnership with other entitles.
The NYPA said in the solicitation that it wants to “evaluate the technologies, business models and locations to help bring this capacity online in partnership with other public and private entities.” In casting a wide net for opportunties, the agency appears to be indicating that it is not fixed on any particular solution or arrangement so long as what is proposed can get the job done.
NYPA president and CEO Justin Driscoll said in a press statement, “The success of this transformative advanced nuclear initiative hinges on our ability to collaborate with communities, governmental agencies at the state and federal level, and the private sector.”
New York has three operating nuclear power plants all of which are in the state’s northern tier. New York’s 3.4 GW nuclear capacity provides 20% of of the state’s electricity, and 42% of carbon-free power. Three nuclear power plants, Ginna, Nine Mile Point, and FitzPatrick, are located on the south shore of Lake Ontario and are owned and operated by Constellation.
The Fitzpatrick and Nine Mile plants are close neighbors located just nine miles east of Oswego, NY. The Gina plant is 55 miles west of Oswego and just 25 miles east of Rochester, NY.
With existing infrastructure and grid connections, it makes sense for the State of New York to consider siting future nuclear power plants adjacent to one or more of these existing reactors.
The RFI includes a set of generic “motherhood and apply pie” requirements which collect a series of clean energy goals in a single sweeping sentence. It said;
“This initiative is intended to deliver firm, zero-emission power that complements renewable generation, strengthens grid reliability, prioritizes affordability and advances the State’s clean energy and decarbonization goals.”
Timetable for New Reactors
The NYPA put a clock on the initiative and included a list of deliverables. It wrote in the RFI,
“NYPA seeks detailed responses from nuclear project developers and partners, e.g., local communities, to provide viable project concepts that include technology, siting considerations, cost and timeline assumptions, ownership structure and partnership models with NYPA that can demonstrate a credible path to delivering at least 1 GW of advanced nuclear capacity as soon as possible, but no later than 2040.”
In addition to the RFI the NYPA said it is also pursuing an Advanced Nuclear Master Plan. The plan will provide a framework for in-depth examination into the key issues to develop recommendations for implementation of advanced nuclear technologies in New York State.
One plausible assumption, based on pursuit of a ‘master plan’ is that once the 1 GW of power in the northern tier is squared away, NYPA has further ambitions for nuclear energy perhaps involving both small modular and micro reactors for specific markert and applications.
What the NYPA Will Consider as Acceptable Nuclear Reactor Technology
NYPA defines ‘Advanced Nuclear’ as including both Gen III+ and Gen IV designs as being acceptable. However, the RFI rules out first-of-a-kind offerings (FOAK) and the offering must be based on a project, e.g, reactor design, that already has a track record. The RFI said,
“NYPA will consider both Gen III+ and Gen IV technologies, provided that a FOAK project (either by the respondent or by another owner/developer) must be at or beyond First Nuclear Concrete by early 2030 (North America projects only).”
The NYPA did not specifically distinguish in seeking 1 GW of power between a groups of small modular reactors and one large 1 GW plant.
Who Might Propose to Build 1 GW of Power for NYPA and Why?
In the world of SMRs, the most likely designs, at this stage, that will be able to meet these requirements will be NuScale’s 77 MW SMR and the GEH BWRX300. In terms of 1 GW scale reactors, only the Westinghouse AP1000 is likely to be in the running.
There is also a question of whether SMRs can or should scale to 1 GW at a single site or whether the SMR firms might share the wealth among several communities while also aggregating political support across the region for their efforts.
For instance, to hit 1 GW of power NuScale would need 12 of its 77 MW units. GEH would need just three of its 300 MW units. It is plausiable to assume that NYPA would be open to proposals for building muiltiple SMRs at multiple sites. A consortiums of partners could propose SMRs to select multiple sites providing multiple benefits to NYPA and the participating communities.
First, NYPA gets 1 GW of power without having to fend off competitors biting at its heels in a in the political fenzy of a’winner take all’ scenario. Second, multiple communities get jobs, tax base, and payrolls from each SMR project. Third, NYPA gets grid resiliance so that if one SMR trips, others are still online which is an attractive alternative to having a 1 GW plant go offline. Last, there will be benefits from spreading construction timelines, and costs over time rarther than putting all NYPA’s project eggs in one basket for a single 1 GW plant.
At a minimum the SMR proposals could split their new builds between the adjacent sites of the Fitzpatrick and Nine Mile plants near Oswego and the Gina plant which is a mere 25 miles east of Rockchester. In any case, co-locating SMRs at or near existing reactors, in any combination, will simplify grid access for any new generating capacity.
GEH has a 1 GW scale design, the ESBWR at 1,500 MW, but despite two utilities obtaining combined licenses from, the NRC to build them, neither project broke ground. due to general economic conditions and not because of any issues with the reactor itself. At this time there are no other utilities that have said publicly they are considering a project using this reactor.
Advocates of advanced reactors, especially those that will use HALEU and/or TRISO fuel, face shortfalls in supply for delivery of these fuels which may frustrate their plans to compete for a win.
Where NYPA Looks for Support From Communities
The NYPA is keen to locate communities that will support new reactors. This is no small task. New York has a dark history of killing off nuclear power plants, namely the Indian Point and the Shoreham plant, the latter was completed but never operated in revenue service. Both of these plants suffered from being convenient targets by ambitious politicians who in both cases surfed bow waves of anti-nuclear sentiment topped with the foam of campaign donations.
By locating a new 1 GW reactor in an upstate regions of New York that is already comfortable hosting nuclear reactors, the NYPA hopes to add 1 GW in generating capacity for the state as a whole. While, the strength of community support is a key success factor, other criteria for candidate locations in terms of suitability are based on public safety, compatibility with existing infrastructure, as well as skilled labor and land availability.
Electricity demand in New York is expected to increase over time including data centers, high tech manufacturing, including semi-conductors and electric vehicles. Nuclear production federal tax credits, still on the books despite drastic budget cutting at the federal level, are also an incentive for new reactors.
It would not be a surprise if firms planning on seeking the NYPA contract have already deployed PR specialists and other development staff to communities in the Oswego, NY, region to assess public opinion and to promote their approaches to meeting NYPA’s goal.
NYPA added that its initiative also builds on the State’s ongoing financial support to Constellation to pursue an early site permitting process for a new project at its Nine Mile Point Clean Energy Center. Look for this project to be included in NYPA’s forthcoming master plan.
The plan is intended to allow for future collaboration with other states and Ontario, building on regional momentum to strengthen nuclear supply chains, share best practices, and support the responsible deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.
& & &
Ohio Offers $100M Nuclear Energy Opportunity Initiative
Governor DeWine, JobsOhio announce $100 million plan to support new nuclear in the state
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and JobsOhio announced the creation of the new JobsOhio Energy Opportunity Initiative, a $100 million fund for economic development opportunities over a five-year period. These funds will provide assistance to qualifying companies in the form of grants and low-interest loans to help offset costs related to natural gas and nuclear power production in Ohio.
Funds from the Energy Opportunity Initiative will be used over a five-year period and focus on:
• Site preparation for SMR generation
• Advanced training for Ohio’s workforce and the creation of a “nuclear energy center of excellence” around employment
• Incentives for attracting supply-chain companies for SMR manufacturing and production
• Engineering, right-of-way, and construction costs for new and existing natural gas infrastructure
JobsOhio will work with its seven regional network partners to identify projects and companies that could benefit from the Energy Opportunity Initiative. This initiative will be leveraged for attraction and expansion projects throughout the state.
“To continue Ohio’s growth and to create jobs, we must focus on energy,” said Governor DeWine.
“Ohio must have an energy policy that ensures we have the supply we need for current and future demand, which will help keep costs reasonable.”
DeWine added that states across the country are seeing an increase in energy demand. Ohio has abundant natural gas, which is why investments in Ohio’s shale-energy sector have soared past $111 billion since 2011.
In a press statement said states that lack this natural resource are instead quickly pursuing newer technologies around nuclear power, including nuclear fission small modular reactors (SMRs). Ohio will need to tap into both capabilities to help businesses grow and thrive, and create jobs for Ohio families.
Expansion of Centrus Uranium Enrichment Plant
Separately, state officials attending the announcement noted the multi-billion-dollar expansion of a Centrus uranium enrichment plant in Piketon.
In September Centrus announced a major expansion of its uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, OH. The expansion is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and approximately 300 new operations jobs at the Piketon site, while retaining 127 existing jobs, boosting Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) and High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) production.
“Ohio is at the forefront of attracting businesses,” said Centrus Energy President and CEO Amir Vexler.
“I think putting energy at the forefront shows a lot of foresight and a lot of leadership. Affordable leadership in energy is the enabler for businesses to prosper in Ohio and the entire U.S.”
In anticipation of the expansion, Centrus raised more than $1.2 billion in a pair of convertible note transactions over the last 12 months and has secured more than $2 billion in contingent purchase commitments from utility customers in the United States and around the world. Centrus has also announced its collaboration with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and POSCO International to potentially invest in the project.
& & &
NANO Acquires Global First Power from USNC
NANO announced the acquisition of Global First Power Limited (GFPL) from affiliates of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC).
With the completion of the acquisition NANO Nuclear now directly owns the regulatory licensing application with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to construct a KRONOS MMR Energy System (15 MWe) demonstration project at Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, Canada. The acquisition will allow NANO Nuclear to continue its advance towards submission of the License to Prepare Site (LTPS) step of the CNSC’s licensing process.
The principal consideration paid by NANO Nuclear for the GFPL acquisition was NANO Nuclear’s assumption of an approximately $640,000 liability owned by GFPL to the CNSC, which NANO Nuclear expects to pay in the near future.
Additional details and background information regarding the GFPL acquisition will be provided by NANO Nuclear in a Form 8-K to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
NANO Nuclear believes that it has now acquired from USNC all remaining contractual, intellectual property, or regulatory applications in Canada that are necessary to progress the KRONOS MMR™ in Canada.
The acquisition follows NANO Nuclear’s January 2025 acquisition from USNC of intellectual property and other rights in the U.S. and Canada related to the KRONOS MMR microreactor and NANO Nuclear’s portable LOKI MMR microreactor.
The acquisition of GFPL represents an important step forward in NANO Nuclear’s efforts to construct, demonstrate, gain regulatory approval for and ultimately commercialize its KRONOS MMR Micro Modular Reactor Energy System. The firm’s ambition is to establish a North American footprint spanning both the United States and Canada.
GFPL’s previous completion of the several key pre-licensing steps in Canada, including successful completion of the Vendor Design Review (VDR) and early submission of the first part of the LTPS, means NANO Nuclear will continue this project from a strong foundation, enabling it to benefit from several years of regulatory engagement and progresses by GFPL and allowing it to move directly into the LTPS phase.
Jay Yu, Founder and Chairman of NANO Nuclear said, “This move unifies our North American development strategy and allows us to rapidly advance both licensing and construction, making us one of the very few companies positioned to deploy advanced microreactors in both the U.S. and Canada. Following this acquisition, we are no longer theorizing about North American nuclear collaboration, we are building it.”
Progress at University of Illinois
In parallel with its Canadian licensing progress, NANO Nuclear has initiated drilling and site preparation activities at its University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) project site in the United States. Site characterization and drilling work is eing carried out by global infrastructure leader AECOM.
& & &
Blue Energy Plans Data Center Plant Powered by Gas Then Nuclear Energy
Blue Energy, a developer of small modular reactors and Crusoe, an AI data center firm, announced a strategic partnership to develop a nuclear-powered data center campus located in the Port of Victoria, TX.
Under the agreement, Blue Energy secured a site to design, develop, and operate an advanced nuclear power plant of up to 1.5 (GW), delivering power to Crusoe-developed artificial intelligence (AI) factories on a nearby secured site.
Blue Energy Global Inc., a nuclear startup, is planning a power plant in Texas that will supply as much as 1.5 GW of electricity to a new data center, initially using natural gas systems and eventually it will shift to small reactors.
The campus in Port of Victoria, southwest of Houston, is expected to begin delivering electricity, vias gas generation, to Crusoe Inc.’s data center as soon as 2028, with the reactor going into service by 2031.
The schedule and the strategy of using different generating systems reflects the challenges of supplying power-hungry data centers. Big technology companies are clamoring for electricity as soon as possible to run artificial intelligence systems, but the nuclear industry is unlikely to deliver any new reactors for years.
Jake Jurewicz, Blue Energy’s chief executive officer said gas will serve as a “bridge” until fission is available, said The plan also means the project, the company’s first, will generate revenue in the next few years, making it easier to line up project financing.
“It allows us to move much faster,” Jurewicz said. “Gas is there as the catalyst to get a nuclear project done.”
Blue Energy plans to use a light-water reactor and is evaluating several potential vendors. The company says it already has a supplier lined up for the gas turbines.
Jurewicz is confident banks will be willing to support the project given the strong demand for electricity, especially carbon-free power. “There’s a lot of appetite to invest in nuclear,” he said.
About Blue Energy
In October 2024 Blue Energy, a nuclear power plant company, emerged from stealth with a $45 million Series A fundraise co-led by Engine Ventures and At One Ventures, with investment from Angular Ventures, Tamarack Global, Propeller Ventures, Starlight Ventures, and Nucleation Capital.
Blue Energy also introduced its modular nuclear power plant that can be centrally manufactured in existing shipyards. Shipyard manufacturing reduces the cost and build time of deploying nuclear power safely, making nuclear power economically competitive with fossil fuels and renewables. The funding will be used to advance Blue Energy’s core engineering work and site development, and to secure additional partners.
CEO Jurewicz said, “Blue Energy is addressing the biggest obstacles to wide adoption of nuclear power: cost and build time. Using the traditional approach, it takes thousands of workers several years to construct nuclear power plants on site. We’ve designed a modular plant that can be fully prefabricated centrally in shipyards and transported to its operating location By moving nuclear power to preexisting assembly lines, Blue Energy is radically reducing build time and cost, making nuclear power cost competitive with fossil fuels and renewables.”
The firm claims in its press statements that Blue Energy’s power plants use centralized shipyard manufacturing to dramatically reduce the capital costs from $10K/kW to $2K/kW and shrink build times from 10 years to 2 years.
& & &
FUSION ENERGY NEWS
IAEA ~ Fusion Investment Exceeds $10 Billion
The technology is expected to become a ‘Cornerstone’ of national energy Strategies.
IAEA’s Grossi says the fusion landscape continues to develop at ‘extraordinary pace.’
(NucNet) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.Nearly 40 countries are engaged in nuclear fusion programs with investment now exceeding $10 billion. More than 160 fusion devices are being planned, designed, or under construction ranging from pilot plants to larger facilities.
The figures are in the agency’s World Fusion Outlook 2025, which highlights how fusion energy is entering a new phase of implementation as it becomes a cornerstone of national energy strategies and industrial planning.
Launching the publication at the second ministerial meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group and the 30th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in Chengdu, China, IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said the fusion energy landscape continues to develop at “an extraordinary pace”.
He said: “What was once confined to experimental research and long-term aspirations is now rapidly becoming a cornerstone of national energy strategies and industrial planning.
“Fusion energy is moving from a scientific dream to an industrial and strategic reality.
“The old saying that ‘fusion is the energy of the future’ no longer holds true, and the future is arriving fast. Driven by the urgent need for low-carbon, reliable power and energy security, fusion is gaining unprecedented global momentum,” Grossi said.
Shan Zhongde, director of the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), told the Chengdu conference that China will work with the IAEA, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project in France “and all nations” to advance global energy innovation.
Huang Ping, secretary-general of the CAEA, said the establishment of an IAEA collaborating center for fusion energy research and training in Chengdu marks a significant leap in China’s international status and influence in the field of fusion energy and will inject momentum into Chengdu’s efforts to build a global fusion energy innovation hub and advance the commercialization of controllable nuclear fusion.
Fusion Success Factors. Image: IAEA
Funding Increases, But Industry Warns On Challenges
In July the US-based Fusion Industry Association (FIA) said the fusion industry raised $2.64 billion in private and public funding in the 12 months leading to July 2025. Despite the acceleration in funding, 83% of respondents still considered investment a major challenge. The FIA also called on the European Commission to address key challenges in a bid to accelerate commercial fusion deployment in Europe.
Selected Key Fusion Public / Private Partnerships. Image: IAEA
It said in evidence submitted for the EU’s fusion strategy that fusion is a breakthrough technology that could be transferred to commercial use within 10 years. It has applications beyond energy production, including in high-performance computing, cryogenics, vacuum engineering and power electronics.
However, the FIA warned that while the EU has played a leading role in fusion research it is in danger of falling behind in the race for commercialization as other countries outpace it in terms of national strategies, regulatory clarity and targeted investment.
& & &
NVIDIA and General Atomics Advance Commercial Fusion Energy
NVIDIA and General Atomics, with support from UC San Diego, Argonne and NERSC, deliver a high-fidelity digital twin for fusion energy research.
NVIDIA, General Atomics and a team of international partners have built a high-fidelity, AI-enabled digital twin for a fusion reactor with interactive performance, with technical support from San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ACLF) at Argonne National Laboratory and National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The effort used Polaris at the ALCF and Perlmutter at NERSC supercomputing systems to train three distinct AI surrogate models at scale.
This groundbreaking project uses the NVIDIA Omniverse platform, NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries and data center GPUs to help researchers tackle one of science’s toughest problems: making fusion energy work on Earth.
Raffi Nazikian, fusion data science lead at General Atomics, said, “The ability to explore scenarios virtually through this interactive digital twin is a game-changer. Working with NVIDIA, we can now test, refine and verify our ideas orders of magnitude faster, accelerating the path toward practical fusion energy.”
But controlling plasma at extreme temperatures — think hundreds of millions of degrees — and predicting its behavior fast enough to keep reactors running is a massive challenge. Plasma is the fourth state of matter, a swirling soup of charged particles that behaves like a living thing. It’s what stars are made of.
AI can reduce simulation times from weeks to seconds, AI enables researchers to interact with the reactor virtually, exploring scenarios that may damage the reactor without risk, and accelerate the path to commercial fusion power.
At the forefront of this effort, General Atomics is developing an AI-enabled digital twin as part of their research at the US Department of Energy’s DIII-D National Fusion Facility to push fusion research forward.
Traditionally, simulating plasma behavior takes weeks on even the fastest supercomputers.
General Atomics is now using AI surrogate models, trained on decades of real-world data, to predict plasma behavior in seconds, all of which continue to be improved.
These models, including EFIT (for plasma equilibrium), CAKE (for plasma boundary) and ION ORB (for heat density of escaping ions), can help operators keep the plasma stable in real time, reducing the risk of damage and speeding up research.
Running on NVIDIA GPUs, these models deliver accurate predictions faster than physics-based simulations. They’re among the many models used to help simulate the behavior of fusion reactors and control them, which can be accelerated by AI.
The Digital Twin
NVIDIA and General Atomics are building a fully interactive digital twin of the DIII-D inside NVIDIA Omniverse, powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO Servers and NVIDIA DGX Spark, with supporting contributions from San Diego Supercomputer Center, ALCF and NERSC. YouTube Video
This virtual reactor dynamically fuses sensor data, physics-based simulations, engineering models and AI surrogate models — creating a unified, real-time interactive environment that can quickly inform decisions.
Key controls can be explored in the digital twin to refine the science before running real experiments, enabling rapid optimization and faster progress toward commercial fusion.
The digital twin is synchronized with the physical DIII-D, allowing the international team of 700 scientists from 100 different organizations to test ideas and run “what-if” scenarios without touching the real machine.
The DIII-D is a DOE Office of Science user facility. The DIII-D tokamak is the largest operating tokamak in North America. The DIII-D research and operations teams bring together experts from around the world to identify and develop solutions that address key remaining fusion science and technology challenges. Building on the high flexibility and world-class measurement capabilities of the DIII-D tokamak, the DIII-D team provides essential support to both public programs and private industry to build a clean energy future based on fusion energy.
Why It Matters
This approach fundamentally shifts fusion research from a pure physics challenge to one also powered by computing and smart algorithms.
By moving from weeks long simulations to near-real-time, interactive answers in seconds, the digital twin acts as a true “fusion accelerator that is, a platform to rapidly test new ideas, optimize reactor designs and put commercial fusion energy on a faster track.
# # #