Week 37 of 2024

Three nuclear energy innovation news!

🤑 Fuse (CA), formerly an underdog of the fusion race, has made quite a few interesting announcements over the past few months. They now announce a $32m funding round, valuing the company at more than $200m. Investors include Buckley Ventures, Tamarack Global, and Mantis Venture Capital, among other. Fuse is building pulsed-power machines and aims to "become to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) what SpaceX has become to NASA.”

🍣 The Japan Atomic Energy Agency secures consent from local governement to begin the safety construction work necessary before restarting the Joyo experimental reactor. Joyo is a sodium-cooled fast reactor, which began operations in 1977 and was shut down in 2007 after a test subassembly became jammed in the reactor vessel. It is Japan's only fast reactor since the closure of Monju in 2016. Joyo should restart in the second half of 2026.

🍟 Last but not least, because I'm in Belgium, allow me to mention the upcoming deadline for the Nuclear Science Contest 2024 organised by the Belgian Nuclear Society Young Generation (BNS-YG), and sponsored by SCK CEN and ONDRAF NIRAS. Four topics, open to anyone up to 36 years old who published a paper: fundamental research, nuclear technology, applications of nuclear technology in the medical field.

👨‍🎓 Paper of the week: "Considerations for developing artificial intelligence systems in nuclear applications", trilateral publication by the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
👉 Principles that all participants in the AI lifecycle should consider as part of development and deployment of AI systems in nuclear applications.