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X-energy Commences First Irradiation Tests of Advanced TRISO-X Nuclear Fuel at Idaho National Laboratory

LCG, November 6, 2025--X-energy Reactor Company, LLC, (X-energy) and the U.S. Office of Nuclear Energy today announced the start of confirmatory irradiation testing at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to qualify X-energy’s proprietary TRISO-X fuel pebbles for commercial use in the Xe-100 Small Modular Reactor (SMR). (TRISO stands for TRi-structural ISOtropic). This is the first time that TRISO-X fuel pebbles will undergo irradiation testing in a U.S. lab, which is a critical step in meeting requirements set forth by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the commercial deployment of advanced reactors that will use the fuel.

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NextEra Energy and Google Collaborate on Accelerating Nuclear Power Deployment

LCG, October 28, 2025--NextEra Energy and Google yesterday announced two agreements that will help meet growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) with clean, reliable, 24/7 nuclear power and strengthen the nation's nuclear leadership. First, Google signed a new, 25-year agreement for power generated at the Duane Arnold Energy Center, Iowa's only nuclear power facility. The 601-MW boiling water reactor unit was shut down in 2020 and is expected to commence operations by the first quarter of 2029, pending regulatory approvals to restart the plant.

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Industry News

Reworking California Power Contracts Seen as Risky

LCG, Oct. 4, 2001--The California Department of Water Resources says the state risks returning to an "out of control electricity market" if it is forced to renegotiate $43 billion of long-term power contracts, Reuters news agency reported yesterday.

The water agency, pressed into buying power when the state's two biggest utilities ran out of cash last winter, negotiated the contracts "to be an insurance policy to hedge California against the volatile spot market and keep the lights on," DWR spokesman Oscar Hidalgo told Reuters.

"We could be looking at an out of control electricity market if we have to renegotiate. We entered into these contracts in good faith and we strongly believe they have gotten us out of a very tumultuous market," Hidalgo said.

The sellers of electricity also believe they entered into the negotiations in good faith. According to Reuters, independent energy companies selling the electricity to the state said they no have intention of reworking the contracts despite California Public Utilities Commission and consumer groups' complaints that they are priced too high.

The CPUC is challenging several of the state's long-term contracts with electricity generators because the prices and terms may not be good for consumers, commission President Loretta Lynch said Monday.

Many of the contracts range from seven to 10 years at prices of 7 cents to 12 cents a kilowatt-hour, she said. In January, when the state began negotiating the contracts, the market price was often more than 30 cents per kilowatt-hour. But lately, the market price has been closer to 3 cents.

Calpine Corp., which has signed up to sell 2,500 megawatts to DWR for 10 to 20 years, said it "does not expect to renegotiate" the deals, which it said "are very valuable for the state," and Williams Cos. Inc. spokeswoman Paula Hall-Collins said her company has signed a "fair contract" with the state.

Lynch said keeping the contracts as they are would mean Californians would be unfairly saddled with high electricity prices for years to come given the subsequent slump in power prices as the height of the emergency passed.

But a good part of that slump can be traced to the contracts themselves, according to Katherine Potter, a spokeswoman for Calpine, who said the contracts also helped reduce natural gas prices because power generators signed up for long-term gas supplies to run their plants.

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