⚛️EDF Targets 30 SMRs by 2050

France is putting the “modular” back in grandeur.

This week, EDF’s SMR division, Nuward, announced plans to finalize its small modular reactor design by 2026, with the first prototype scheduled to go online by 2035 and up to 30 units in service by 2050.

Each reactor will deliver 400 MW of power and 115 MW of heat, enough to supply energy-hungry industries like metallurgy, hydrogen, and data centers, and unlike France’s massive EPR2 fleet, these smaller units are meant for global export.

EDF is taking a pragmatic approach this time, ditching its earlier SMR concept in favor of proven pressurized water technology. Financing will come from a mix of government support, industrial partners, and private investors, a familiar French blend of public muscle and private money.

NUWARD’s design builds on Gen-III+ PWR tech, aiming for fast, factory-built assembly with 60% of work completed off-site and a total construction time of about four years per unit. EDF says the SMR can operate as a multi-energy platform, cogenerating electricity, heat, and even hydrogen.

If successful, NUWARD would give France a domestic SMR capable of recycling 96% of spent fuel a meaningful stride toward full-cycle sustainability, and a serious contender in the global SMR race.

🚀Uranium Joins the U.S. Critical Minerals List

The Trump administration added 10 minerals to the list it deems essential for the U.S. economy, and uranium made the cut.

After decades of political hesitation and energy amnesia, Washington is finally admitting what most of us already knew: nuclear fuel isn’t optional anymore, it’s essential.

Being labeled “critical” means uranium is now officially recognized as vital to the economic and national security of the United States, and that the country is far too dependent on foreign sources for comfort.

It puts uranium in the same policy bucket as lithium and rare earths, triggering mandates for domestic sourcing, fast-tracked permitting, and government-backed investment.

In other words: this is the bureaucratic green light that unlocks money.

Right now, the U.S. imports over 99% of its uranium, including a significant portion from Russia and its allies. The new “critical” status opens the door for everything from strategic stockpiling and DOE offtake contracts to loan guarantees and tax credits for miners, converters, and fuel fabricators. It’s also a signal to private capital, sovereign funds, and pension groups that uranium now has official policy tailwinds.

If that sounds familiar, it should. The same thing happened when lithium got its “critical” tag, governments flooded the sector with funding, miners multiplied, and investors chased the boom all the way to a trillion-dollar supply chain. Uranium’s entering that same policy phase now, except this time, there’s no quick fix.

Unlike lithium, you can’t just dig uranium anywhere with a shovel and a subsidy. It’s heavily regulated, geopolitically sensitive, and dominated by a handful of producers. Two of them, Kazatomprom and Cameco, control nearly half of global supply, and both have made it clear they’re not opening the floodgates anytime soon.

That makes this moment different. Uranium’s return to the critical list isn’t just policy momentum, it’s a restoration of strategic status. During the Cold War, the U.S. stockpiled over 350 million pounds of U₃O₈ under the Atomic Energy Commission, fueling both reactors and weapons programs.

Its reinstatement now marks a full-circle moment: Washington once again sees nuclear not as a liability, but as a national asset.

And the timing couldn’t be better. With supply maxed out, utilities scrambling for term contracts, and America finally reconnecting policy with strategy, uranium just became more than a commodity. It’s back to being a pillar of power.

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🔋Old and New: Koeberg Gets a 20-Year Life Boost as Sizewell C Secures Its Billions

The nuclear comeback isn’t just American, it’s global.

This week, the UK and South Africa both hit major milestones that show how serious the world is about keeping reactors running and building new ones.

In Britain, Sizewell C officially reached financial close, unlocking full-scale construction of two 1.6 GW EPR reactors on England’s east coast. The £38 billion project now has its capital stack secured, with £5 billion in export credit financing from Bpifrance, debt support from the UK’s National Wealth Fund, and EDF holding a 12.5% stake alongside the British government and institutional partners.

The goal is to deliver clean power for six million homes for at least 60 years, using lessons from Hinkley Point C to cut costs and timelines. It’s also the first major test of the UK’s new Regulated Asset Base model; a structure designed to attract private investors earlier in the build process by sharing risk and reward with consumers.

Meanwhile 6,000 miles south in South Africa, the Koeberg Unit 2 reactor, the only operating nuclear plant on the African continent, just secured approval from the National Nuclear Regulator for another 20 years of operation. That extends the 930 MWe PWR unit’s life to 2045 after an exhaustive multi-year safety review and public hearings.

Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned electricity utility, says the milestone reflects not just engineering excellence, but a growing domestic pipeline of nuclear talent, key as the country eyes 5.2 GW of new nuclear capacity in its long-term energy plan.

From London to Cape Town: the world’s reactors aren’t fading out, they’re powering up for the next half-century.

💥 Hydraulic Press vs Uranium

Because sometimes science doesn’t need to be complicated, it just needs to go “crunch.” Watch what happens when a depleted-uranium core meets a hydraulic press, spoiler: it’s exactly as satisfying as it sounds.

🎥 Trust me, you’ll want to see this one.

🚢 China Unveils Plans for Thorium-Powered Cargo Ship

China just announced one of the boldest maritime projects in modern history: a 14,000-TEU container ship powered by a thorium-based molten salt reactor (MSR).

Developed by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the vessel would ditch bunker fuel entirely, running on a closed-loop thorium reactor system generating several hundred megawatts of clean, zero-emission power.

Design work, led by the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI), is expected to finish in 2026, with construction targeted for later this decade. If completed, it would become the world’s first container ship powered by thorium molten salt technology, a milestone China’s nuclear engineers have been chasing for years.

Regulatory seas remain rough: the International Maritime Organization (IMO) still hasn’t finalized nuclear shipping rules, but that’s never stopped Beijing from moving first.

If it sails, this would be more than a ship, it’d be a floating symbol of China’s atomic ambitions, turning “nuclear fleet” from metaphor into reality.

🎥 Watch how China plans to power the seas with molten salt reactors:

👷Operation Plowshare

Welcome back to Atomic Alternatives, where we highlight nuclear technology outside the reactor, the clever, the strange, and the occasionally questionable ways humans have tried to harness the atom.

This week: Operation Plowshare or, how the U.S. once thought nukes could build a better world by literally blowing it up.

Back in the 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission had an idea: what if we used nuclear bombs for peaceful purposes? Dig canals, carve out harbors, mine natural gas, all with the raw power of thermonuclear explosions.

Because, you know, what could possibly go wrong?

The logic went like this: if one nuke can flatten a city, maybe several smaller ones could move mountains faster and cheaper than bulldozers.

So the U.S. launched Operation Plowshare, a series of “peaceful nuclear explosions” meant to show that the atom could serve construction, not just destruction.

Between 1961 and 1973, 27 nuclear detonations were conducted under the Plowshare banner. Projects included Project Sedan, which blasted a 1,280-foot-wide crater in Nevada to study nuclear excavation, and Project Gasbuggy, which tested whether underground nukes could free trapped natural gas (it worked… but the gas was radioactive).

The vision was big, nuclear-powered canals through Panama, highways carved through mountains, even harbor construction in Alaska. The reality? Widespread contamination, public backlash, and the realization that “peaceful” nukes still left behind a whole lot of fallout.

By the 1970s, the program was shut down, taking with it one of the strangest chapters in nuclear history.

Still, Operation Plowshare remains a fascinating look at how ambitious (and occasionally unhinged) Cold War optimism could get. It’s the only time in history when the U.S. government seriously pitched the atom as an alternative to heavy machinery, and for a brief moment, it almost worked.

😂Meme of The Week

From thorium ships to billion-dollar SMR builds, the nuclear comeback isn’t on the horizon, it’s under construction.

Stay charged, stay critical (like a reactor), and keep glowing 😎

— Fredrik

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