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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

New Generation Records for Cook Nuclear Plant

LCG, March 27, 2013--Indiana Michigan Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP), announced earlier this week that its Cook Nuclear Plant Unit 1 will break its previous records for total generation, capacity factor and consecutive days online when it starts its 24th refueling outage Wednesday.

The 518 consecutive day run since the prior refueling outage beats the 1994 record of 471 days. Running continuously between refueling outages is known in the industry as "a breaker-to-breaker run" as the unit's output circuit breakers remained connected to the transmission grid for the entire 18-month fuel cycle. The projected total fuel cycle generation of 12,970,576 MWH and capacity factor of 101.3 percent are also records for Unit 1. The capacity factor exceeded 100 percent through gains in efficiencies given lower than normal lake water temperatures.

Cook Nuclear Plant is located in southwest Michigan. The net generating capacity of Unit 1 and Unit 2 is 1,030 MW and 1,077 MW respectively. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) renewed the operating licenses of both reactors. With the renewal, the operating license for Unit 1 will expire in 2034, and the license for Unit 2 will expire in 2037.

"Unit 2 also just completed a breaker-to-breaker run. So both Cook units are running very well, in fact, better than ever," stated AEP's Chief Nuclear Officer and Senior Vice President. "It's a tribute to the safety and operational focus of the entire organization, and also the fact that we are doing the right work with quality during our outages."

The current outage work will include: refueling the reactor, performing regular maintenance and testing work, plus the installation of a new control room annunciator system and two Unit Auxiliary Transformers. In each control room, there are almost 1,600 annunciators used as an indicator of the status of equipment or systems. The new digital computer-screen system will replace existing push-button analog controls. The new Unit Auxiliary Transformers reduce voltage on a small portion of the output of the main generator to power plant equipment during normal operation.

According to AEP, those two projects are part of the $1 billion Life Cycle Management project that replaces and upgrades various systems and equipment on both Cook units with the latest technologies. "This investment in Cook not only increases safety margins, but will provide our customers predictably low-cost and reliable generation for an additional 20-years past the original licensed life of the plant," stated AEP's Chief Nuclear Officer and Senior Vice President.
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