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DOE Announces New Path to Test Advanced Nuclear Reactors

LCG, June 18, 2025--The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced late today a new pilot program to expedite the testing of advanced nuclear reactor designs under DOE authority outside of the national laboratories. The new pilot program is intended to unlock private funding and provide a fast track to commercial licensing.

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X-energy Announces Receipt from NRC of Schedule for Xe-100 Construction Permit Application

LCG, June 17, 2025--X-energy Reactor Company, LLC (X-energy) announced yesterday that it has received key updates from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regarding the construction permit application for the initial deployment of the Xe-100 advanced reactor at a Texas Gulf Coast site. The NRC published an 18-month review timeline for the project, located in Seadrift, Texas, and will concurrently proceed with its environmental assessment. The NRC cited the completeness and quality of the application, as well as the effectiveness of pre-application engagements for the 18-month timeline.

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Industry News

State to Probe PG&E Load Shedding Policy

LCG, Aug. 14, 2000--Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is dusting off a long-standing but unused load shedding policy that would give some large industrial and commercial customers immunity from random blackouts when the lights blink out at other locations in their neighborhoods.

According to a report published yesterday in the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, PG&E account managers are "quietly" getting the word out to big power users that if the agree to reduce power consumption on demand, the utility will keep the power flowing. The paper pointed out that small commercial and residential customers are excluded from the program.

Loretta Lynch, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, has promised to investigate the program. "To get an absolute right not to be blacked out is a bit much," she said. The PUC, the state attorney general and a special panel set up by Gov. Gray Davis are investigating Californias deregulated electric industry, which has been blamed for soaring residential electric bills in San Diego.

Recent high temperatures -- another siege of heat is forecast for this week -- has kept the California Independent System Operator at the point of ordering a "Stage 3 Alert," which would trigger rolling blackouts. Only recently have officials become concerned whether the risk of being blacked out is evenly distributed.

On June 14, 97,000 San Francisco Bay Area electric customers in all classes had their power cut for about an hour when there wasnt enough electricity to go around. The outages were blamed on a heat wave, but the real reason was an insufficiency of generation in the region. That resulted in a low-voltage indication at PG&Es Hayward substation, and that in turn triggered the outages.

Californias booming high-tech economy has not only created a huge demand for electricity, it is churning out products that themselves require more electricity. At the same time, regulatory uncertainty throughout the 1990s dampened utilities enthusiasm for investing in new power plants. Add to that federal encouragement of non-utility investment in power plants through the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act -- the hated PURPA which required utilities to buy power from independent "qualifying facilities" -- and you have a predictable power shortage.

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