US approves bigger nuclear reactor design for NuScale, document says
WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved NuScale Power's (SMR.N), opens new tab design for a 77 megawatt reactor, a document on the regulator's web site said on Thursday, completing one hurdle the company needs to build a small modular reactor.
NuScale had originally sought and received NRC approval for a smaller 50 MW reactor design. The company sought a bigger 77 MW design to improve economics and performance of its planned small modular reactors (SMRs).
Backers of nuclear power say SMRs will be safer from proliferation risks and can reduce costs for multiple plants because they can be built in a factory instead of onsite. Critics of SMRs say they will be more expensive to operate than conventional reactors, which are larger and have economy of scale.
NuScale, the only U.S. company with an approved design, wants to build the country's first SMR. But in 2023 it axed its first project with a municipal power group in Utah, despite a U.S. government promise of $1.35 billion in funding over 10 years for the plant, known as the Carbon Free Power Project. As costs rose, several towns had pulled out of the project.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Thousands fear for their jobs as major city is forced to break up with 'best friends' across Canadian border
Detroit has become one of the hardest hit cities in the fallout of America's deteriorating relationship with Canada. The Michigan metropolis on Canada's border has seen traffic from neighboring Windsor drop and suffering businesses slash jobs. Business leaders and elected officials are concerned that the White House's policies are forcing the sister cities in to an unwanted 'break up.' 'It's a border that exists, but it's not anything that culturally has ever been an issue,' Ryan Donally, chief executive of the Windsor Essex Chamber of Commerce, told the Financial Times. 'So for this trade war... to start breaking down the social fabric between Detroit and Windsor, it's even more hurtful, because quite frankly, it's not just business, it's not just a tax,' Donally explained. 'This has damaged the cultural relationship between two best friends.' One of the most critical links between Detroit and Windsor is the car industry, which is currently under a 25 percent tariff. Detroit, known as Motor City, has long been a destination for auto manufacturing and has welcomed substantial industry investment in recent years a fter suffering decades of decline. However, the industry relies on cross-border collaboration. Companies such as Stellantis and Ford build car parts in Windsor and thousands of Canadians travel over the border every day to work in plants in Detroit. Trump's car tariff has already led to layoffs in Windsor with some members of the Canadian Tooling & Machine Association cutting half their workers. Among them is Louis Jahn, owner of Jahn Engineering in Windsor, who has cut his 70-person staff by 20 percent after his orders from American carmakers disappeared due to the cost of tariffs. Jahn told the FT that like many businesses he will be forced to raise prices. 'In the end, consumers are going to pay for it,' he said. As well as the car industry, 6,000 Canadian healthcare workers cross the border every day to work in Detroit's hospitals and doctors offices. 18 percent fewer people are arriving in the US via the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel compared to the same time last year, according to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel Corporation. While commuting remains consistent, those traveling from Canada to Detroit to visit family or friends or for leisure has dipped. Deteriorating relations also led Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens to cancel funding for an hourly bus service between the cities. It would cost the Canadian city $1.4 million a year to run, and Dilkens said Trump's rhetoric - including threatening to annex Canada into the 51st state - has made it impossible to ask for taxpayer money to fund it. 'We feel like we're under attack by the president of the United States,' he told the FT. Detroit is not the only border city that is feeling the sharp end of Trump tariffs. Buffalo and Niagara have both been hit by large downturns in Canadian visits.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's tariff czar reveals the four countries on verge of trade deals…including a 'nasty' one
President Donald Trump 's top trade negotiator shared that the U.S. may be close to finalizing tariff deals with several major partners in coming weeks. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC that an imminent deal could be struck with the E.U. after Trump threatened increasing the 'nasty' union's rate to 50 percent earlier this month. Greer also shared that he has been in nearly constant contact with India 's top trade representative, claiming to have calls with them 'every day.' In addition, the trade rep. revealed that he plans on forwarding negotiations with Malaysia and Vietnam at the upcoming Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) meeting next week. He also said he will be talking to E.U. representatives at the gathering. Though not all news has been positive; China, Greer said, has 'violated' a trade agreement made with the U.S. in Geneva earlier this month - echoing a major complaint highlighted by Trump the same day. A handshake agreement between the world's two largest economies came earlier this month and was widely seen as a way to tamper tensions between the pair. China was hit with a tariff rate in excess of 145 percent earlier this year before the agreement, but the rate then came down to around 30 percent. Trump said he expects to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping during an Oval Office press conference with DOGE leader Elon Musk on Friday. 'I'm sure that I'll speak to President Xi and hopefully we'll work that out, but its a violation of the agreement,' he said. The president said he is sure they will talk as the countries remain at odds over trade. Earlier in the day the 78-year-old commander in chief sent off a salvo on Truth Social lambasting China for violating the Geneva deal. 'Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to trade into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the world,' his post began. 'We went, in effect, cold turkey with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, 'civil unrest,'' it continued. 'The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, has totally violated its agreement with us.' The agreement made between Greer, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent and some top Chinese officials in Geneva in May stipulated that the two countries would unwind tariffs and trade restrictions on certain critical minerals. Greer accused China of slow-walking that process during his interview Friday. 'The Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable and it has to be addressed,' he stated. Soon after, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in D.C., Liu Pengyu, hit back at the claims. 'Recently, China has repeatedly raised concerns with the US regarding its abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector and other related practices,' they said in a statement. 'China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva.' The spokesperson's complaint comes after a Reuters report that the U.S. ordered some companies to stop shipping goods to China without certain licensing. Products ranging from semiconductors, chemicals, software and aviation equipment are among the restricted items, sources shared. The president announced a 90 day pause on some tariffs earlier this year, with many steep rates coming back into effect this summer if U.S. trade partners do not sign deals. Vietnam was hit especially hard by the White House's 'Liberation Day' tariff announcement in April. On a massive board showcasing the rates to be imposed held aloft by Trump on stage, Vietnam was slapped with one of the highest tariffs at 46 percent. Malaysia, meanwhile, was hit with a 24 percent rate under Trump's reciprocal tariff plan while India faces a 27 percent rate. Earlier this week, Trump was dealt a devastating blow, albeit a temporary one. A three-judge panel at the U.S. New York-based Court of International Trade ruled that parts of the president's tariff regime was unlawful. The ruling argued that Trump had wrongfully invoked an emergency law to justify the levies. Erupting with frustration, some in the White House vented that the move was akin to a 'judicial coup' against the president's executive authority. The pause was short-lived, though, after an appeals court issued a stay on the panel's ruling that have allowed the tariffs to remain. The appeals court demanded to hear from the Trump administration and the litigating parties, Democratic-led states and a group of small businesses. The case remains ongoing, though the White House has multiple tools at its disposal to implement tariffs in other ways if the court rules against it.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Meet the Arizona mom running for her father's seat in Congress after he died in office
The daughter of a long-serving Arizona Democrat who passed while in office told the Daily Mail exactly why she is running for her late father's seat: to advance his legacy and create her own. Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of Raúl Grijalva, a 22-year veteran of the House of Representatives who passed in March due to lung cancer while serving his 11th consecutive term, announced within weeks of the tragedy she will run for the recently vacated seat. Former Rep. Grijalva was diagnosed with cancer in April 2024, and despite his illness, he ran and won reelection in November. 'My Dad will never be replaced,' the younger Grijalva told the Daily Mail in a phone interview Thursday. 'He really was a champion for so many issues having to do with people that are marginalized and unheard so and feel like they don't have a voice.' One of the most consistently liberal members of the House, Grijalva had served as the chairman of the House Progressive Caucus and the House Natural Resources Committee. Representing a huge swatch of the U.S.-Mexico border, he advocated for migrants and loudly railed against Trump's immigration agenda; his daughter told the Daily Mail she will do much of the same. 'We'll continue that movement of standing up for those who don't feel like anyone else is standing up for them,' she said, adding she had nothing positive to say about the Trump administration's immigration agenda. Her father, Grijalva told the Daily Mail, was in public office for 50 years, and she is the first to admit she is 'literally' following in his 'exact' footsteps. The candidate for Arizona's 7th Congressional district, an area around Tucson, the state's second biggest city, has already held two jobs that were formerly occupied by her father. Like her dad, Grijalva served on the Tucson Unified School District and recently resigned her seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors to run for his now-vacant congressional seat. If she wins the special election to fill her father's position in the House of Representatives, that would mark the third job she has taken that her Dad held at one point or another. The mother-of-three is seen as a frontrunner in the race to take her late father's now-vacant House seat. After witnessing her father lead her community for decades until his death while still serving in office, Grijalva told the Daily Mail that she is against term limits. 'It's not about age,' she said, adding 'I think that the people are the ones that should make that decision, not an arbitrary number about age.' The candidate also said that before her father's death, he was still active and able to meet constituents' needs. However, the late congressman missed nearly all of the House votes in 2025 before his death, amounting to about 96 percent of all votes, per the Clerk of the House of Representative's office. From 2023 to the beginning of 2025, late lawmaker missed roughly 40 percent of all votes, according to Govtrack. If elected, the Democrat vowed to pick up her father's mantle and stand up to President Donald Trump's agenda. 'The biggest issue right now is protecting our democracy and making sure that we keep to the established processes,' she said. 'Right now, Trump is just deciding wholesale to sign an executive order and waving away the rights of so many communities.' She also swore to be 'an unapologetic progressive voice in Congress,' saying she will fight to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from Republican reforms. Similar to the case of the Grijalva's, it is not entirely uncommon in Congress for members to run for seats held previously by a relative. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, for example, filled a seat previously held by his older brother for over a decade. The late Rep, Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., who died while serving in office last year, similarly was elected to the seat held by his father. There have also been husband and wife combos like the late Rep. John Dingell Jr., D-Mich., and his spouse Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. After serving in office for a staggering 60 years from 1955 - 2015, the record for longest-serving member of Congress in history, John's wife Debbie took the reins and still serves the Michigan area represented by her late husband. The younger Grijalva says she would bring a new perspective to Congress. 'Two percent of women in Congress identify as Latina, and less are Mexican-American,' she told the Daily Mail. 'Of the women in Congress, seven percent have minor children, so I would be representing a huge contingency of our nation.' And like any proud mother, she touted to the Daily Mail how her daughter just recently graduated high school and will soon be attending college at the University of Arizona. The special election for Arizona 's 7th Congressional district will take place on September 23, 2025.
