Spring 2026 Inside NIRMA Issue

Issue # 25, Spring 2026

Leading the way in Nuclear Information and Records Management

magazine

Visit us at: NIRMA.org

2025 Board of Directors;

A Year of Accomplishments

Microfilm 330 - AI’s Hidden Treasures: The

Unseen Knowledge in our Digital World

Celebrating our First Scholarship Success

and Building for the Future

CONTENT

4

2025 Board of Directors; A Year of Accomplishments

9

15

Microfilm 330 - AI’s Hidden Treasure: The Unseen Knowledge in our

Digital World

By Matt Anderson, nextScan

Celebrating our First Scholarship Success and Building for the Future

By Jessica Jones CRM/NS, NIRMA Scholarship Committee Lead

13

QC Triangulation for Document Capture

By Manuel Bulwa, Isausa, Inc.

17

18

50 For 50; Celebrate NIRMA’s 50th by Supporting the Scholarship

Program

By Chrstine Spring, PDBU Director

Nick Touran’s What Is Nuclear

2 Spring 2026 NIRMA.org Inside NIRMA

in every issue

SYMPOSIUM CORNER—6

TREASURER REPORT—11

RIMBU NEWS—22

M&MBU NEWS—23

PDBU NEWS—24

INDUSTRY NEWS—27

Letter from the Editors

We at Inside NIRMA, value your opinion and are

always looking to improve our magazine. Let us

know what you like and dislike and what you’d

like to see more of. Share your thoughts with our

Communication Team at

DevereauxInc@outlook.com.

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like NIRMA on Facebook, and

connect with NIRMA on

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Thanks for reading. Please keep in

touch!

Neal and Sandra Miller

Editors

Editors

Neal and Sandra Miller

DevereauxInc@outlook.com

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Neal.F.Miller@gmail.com

NIRMA Headquarters

Sarah Perkins

NIRMA Administrator

nirma@nirma.org

In addition to our own

articles, Inside NIRMA

publishes guest articles from

agencies and vendors. Please

be advised that the views and

opinions expressed in these

articles are those of the

authors and do not

necessarily reflect the

opinions of NIRMA or its

Board of Directors.

Inside NIRMA NIRMA.org Spring 2026 3

MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD

2025 Board of Directors Accomplishments

A Year of Milestones and Achievements

t

he 2025 Board of Directors - President Bruce

Walters, CRM/NS; Vice President Kathi Cole,

CRM; Secretary Stephanie Price; Treasurer Gil

Brueckner, CRM/NS; Director of Infrastructure Lona

Smith; and Director of Technical Programs Lou

Rofrano - has concluded a productive year marked by

meaningful accomplishments and strategic decisions that

will help shape the future of our organization.

This article highlights the key accomplishments of the

board, celebrating the dedication and hard work that has

driven these successes.

2026 Board of Directors

The 2026 Board of Directors, President Kathi

Cole CRM, Vice President Stephanie Price, Secretary

Lona Smith, Treasurer Gil Brueckner CRM/NS,

Director of Infrastructure Bruce Walters CRM/NS,

and Director of Technical Programs Lou Rofrano, as

elected by the membership, is actively engaged in

advancing NIRMA’s mission.

Symposium Location for 2027

The NIRMA Board has begun the negotiation and

selection process for the 2027 Annual Symposium

location. This decision reflects our commitment to

securing a venue that not only meets our logistical

requirements but also delivers an exceptional and

memorable experience for all attendees.

Attend the 50 th Annual Symposium at the beautiful

Hotel Contessa in San Antonio during which we will

announce our selection for the 2027 Symposium!

NIRMA Scholarship Program

In recognition of the importance of fostering the

next generation of industry leaders, the board

awarded our first NIRMA Scholarship. The

scholarship has been awarded to Lily Larsen. This

scholarship aims to support students pursuing careers

in our field, providing them with financial assistance,

and encouraging academic excellence.

Symposium Awarded CMP Credits

The 2025 Symposium was awarded 17 Certification

Maintenance Points (CMP) credits, reflecting the high

quality and educational value of the sessions and

workshops offered. This recognition underscores our

commitment to providing valuable professional

development opportunities for our members.

NIRMA Merch Store

Tammy Cutts has established, manages and

maintains the NIRMA Merch Store. Click here to visit

the store and get some NIRMA merchandise. Also keep

an eye out for upcoming merchandise commemorating

the 50 th NIRMA Anniversary.

50 th Anniversary Committee

A committee was established for our 50 th Anniversary

Symposium celebration. Eugene Yang is leading this

effort; charged with planning for the event. This is a

tremendous anniversary and deserves the best in

celebrating. We are confident that Eugene and the team

will not disappoint us.

Social Media Committee

Tammy Cuts has taken the lead on the social media

committee. The focus will be to enhance NIRMA's

digital presence and engagement through strategic use of

social media platforms. This committee will be

responsible for developing, implementing, and

overseeing social media strategies that align with

NIRMA's goals and objectives.


2026 Board of Directors

Back row (L-R): Vice President Stephanie Price, Secretary Lona Smith, and President Kathi Cole CRM.

Front row (L-R): Director of Infrastructure Bruce Walters CRM/NS, Director of Technical Programs Lou Rofrano, and

Treasurer Gil Brueckner CRM/NS.

SharePoint Enhancements Committee

Jessica Jones is leading this effort. Diane Stelken

continues to serve as Technical Advisor. The team’s

focus will be invaluable in guiding our technological

initiatives and ensuring that we leverage the latest

innovations to benefit our organization and members.

This team will own, oversee, maintain, coordinate,

propose changes, etc. for the website and services that

make our online presence work.

Approval of AP07, AP14, AP15,

AD01 and TG15

The board approved revisions to AP07, AP14,

AP15, AD01 and TG15, further streamlining our

processes and ensuring that our policies remain

current and effective. These updates are part of our

ongoing efforts to enhance organizational efficiency

and governance.

Completed Transition to QuickBooks

In a significant modernization of our financial

reporting system, the board oversaw the transition to

QuickBooks. This move enhances our financial

management capabilities, providing greater accuracy,

transparency, and efficiency in our reporting processes.

jAIme (Jurisdictional Awareness for

Information Management Engine)

NIRMA supported efforts to develop a tool known

as jAIme. jAIme is an AI-based tool to allow Nuclear

Records Managers and others to privately test and verify

their individual policies and procedures against

regulations, standards, and agreements in the nuclear

industry. The jAIme debut of the open prototype

occurred during January's monthly webinar and at the

vendor exhibit during the annual symposium in 2025.

In conclusion, the 2025 Board of Directors has

achieved remarkable milestones, demonstrating their

unwavering commitment to advancing our organization

and the industry. Their strategic decisions and forwardthinking

initiatives have set the stage for continued

success and growth in the years to come.

Back to Content | Inside NIRMA NIRMA.org Spring 2026 5

SYMPOSIUM CORNER

T

his year’s Symposium is one for the history

books.

In 2026, NIRMA proudly celebrates 50 years of

service, leadership, and impact in nuclear

information and records management. For five

decades, our members have helped shape regulatory

guidance, elevate industry standards, and preserve

the knowledge that bridges the nuclear industry’s

past and future. This summer, we come together not

only to learn and connect, but to celebrate how far

we’ve come and where we’re headed next.

The 50th Anniversary NIRMA Symposium will be

held July 27–29, 2026, with Business Unit meetings

on July 30, in San Antonio, Texas, at the beautiful

Hotel Contessa on the River Walk. It’s a fitting

location for a milestone event. Rich in history, full of

energy, and perfectly suited for both reflection and

forward thinking.

This year’s event has been thoughtfully designed to

honor NIRMA’s legacy while focusing on the

challenges and opportunities ahead. Attendees can

expect engaging educational sessions, timely

discussions, and plenty of opportunities to reconnect

with colleagues and friends from across the industry.

Whether you’ve attended one Symposium or twenty,

this year will feel special.

Adding to the excitement, the 50th Anniversary

Symposium will feature a headline keynote from a

nationally recognized voice in nuclear advocacy,

bringing a perspective that reaches beyond our

profession and speaks to leadership, change, and

navigating what’s next. While we’ll save the formal

announcement for later, this keynote promises to be a

memorable moment and a meaningful part of our

anniversary celebration.

Perhaps most importantly, the Symposium remains

what it has always been at heart: a gathering of people

who care deeply about their work, the nuclear industry,

and about each other. The conversations in the

hallways, the shared lessons, and the relationships built

over the years are what truly bridge our past and our

future.

Mark your calendars now for July 27–29, 2026, and

plan to join us in San Antonio as we celebrate 50 years

of NIRMA and honor our history, embrace the

present, and look ahead to the future we will continue

to build together.

Registration is

open for

NIRMA26

Symposium


JOIN US

at the 50th Anniversary

NIRMA Symposium

July 27-29, 2026

Hotel Contessa

San Antonio, Texas


By Matt Anderson

Vice President of Sales and Marketing, nextScan

i

n an age where information is often considered

just a click away, the reality is that a staggering

amount of knowledge remains concealed from

our digital reach.

While AI and vast

digital libraries

seem to promise

access to all

human

understanding, the

fact is that a

considerable

portion of our collective knowledge still resides in

analog formats. Here, we explore the depth of this

issue by examining how little AI truly knows, focusing

on the vast amounts of information in microfilm, and

discussing possibilities for making this knowledge

accessible. AI is often described as transformative, yet

its transformative power is limited by the narrow slice

of human knowledge it can actually access. Until

analog collections are digitized, indexed, and

preserved, AI will continue to operate with blinders

on—powerful, but partially informed.

AI, despite its

advanced

algorithms and

data processing

capabilities,

operates primarily

on information

that has been

digitized.

How Little AI Knows

Estimates suggest that only about 10% to 20% of

human knowledge is available in digital form. As a

result, AI lacks access to countless historical

documents, cultural texts, and unpublished materials

that reside in libraries and archives around the world.

This limitation means that AI’s knowledge base is not

comprehensive and may overlook valuable insights

found in the vast expanse of analog information.

AI can’t learn from what it can’t see. If a document

isn’t digitized, indexed, and accessible, it simply

doesn’t exist in the AI’s universe. That means

insights, lessons learned, and historical context

remain locked away.

AI’s blind spots aren’t just a technical curiosity—they

have real‐world consequences, especially for fields that

rely on long‐term records, historical accuracy, and

regulatory documentation. Sectors with long archival

histories—nuclear energy, aerospace, utilities,

government, and research institutions—hold vast analog

collections that AI cannot incorporate into its reasoning.

When so much human knowledge still lives on paper,

microfilm, tape, or other analog formats, AI is

effectively working with an incomplete map of our

collective memory. Entire domains—engineering

drawings, legacy scientific research, institutional

knowledge, and decades of operational records—remain

invisible to it unless they’ve been digitized and made

machine‐readable.

The Vast Reservoir of Microfilm

Information

Microfilm and microfiche, once the gold standard

Continued on page 10.


Continued from page 9.

for long‐term preservation, now represent one of the

largest untapped

reservoirs of

human

knowledge.

Decades of

newspapers,

engineering

drawings,

government

records, scientific research, legal documents, and

institutional archives were transferred to microfilm

with the expectation that it would remain accessible

for generations. While the medium has proven

durable, the information it holds is increasingly

isolated from the digital world.

Despite the explosion of online content, a significant

portion of humanity’s recorded history still lives

exclusively on microfilm. Many libraries, government

agencies, research institutions, and private

organizations continue to store millions of frames of

information that have never been digitized. The

reasons are familiar: limited budgets, staffing

constraints, copyright complexities, and the sheer

scale of the collections. As a result, vast amounts of

knowledge remain locked away in analog form—safe,

but effectively invisible.

This creates a paradox. We live in an era defined by

instant access to information, yet some of the most

valuable historical and institutional records require a

physical visit to a microfilm scanner. Researchers,

historians, journalists, and the general public often

have no practical way to explore these materials. Entire

narratives—local histories, early scientific findings,

regulatory decisions, engineering changes, and cultural

records—remain hidden from modern discovery tools.

For organizations that rely on long-term

documentation, such as those in the nuclear industry,

this gap is even more significant. Microfilm collections

often contain original licensing documents,

design‐basis records, operational logs, QA/QC

documentation, and correspondence that shaped

decades of decision-making. When these materials

remain analog, they are excluded from digital search,

analytics, and AI-driven insights. In effect, a substantial

portion of institutional memory becomes inaccessible

to the very tools designed to help organizations learn,

improve, and operate more safely.

Digitizing these collections does more than preserve

them—it reconnects them to the modern information

ecosystem. Once digitized, microfilm content becomes

searchable, shareable, and usable in ways that were

previously impossible. It can support regulatory audits,

engineering research, historical analysis, and

organizational learning. It can be integrated into

electronic document management systems, enabling

faster retrieval and reducing the risk of lost or

overlooked information.

In short, microfilm represents a deep well of

knowledge that has yet to be fully tapped. Unlocking it

is not just a matter of preservation—it’s an opportunity

to enrich our understanding of the past, strengthen

decision-making in the present, and ensure that future

generations have access to the full breadth of our

recorded history.

Making Information Accessible in the

Digital Age

Bringing analog information into the digital ecosystem

is no longer merely a

preservation effort— it is

a fundamental step

toward making

knowledge more

accessible in an era

defined by instant access

and interconnected

systems. As

organizations recognize the immense value locked

within microfilm, paper archives, and other legacy

formats, a growing movement is underway to ensure

that this information becomes discoverable, searchable,

and usable for future generations.

Digitization initiatives led by libraries, universities,

government agencies, and non-profit organizations are

at the forefront of this transformation. These projects

convert microfilm and other analog materials into highquality

digital files, ensuring that fragile originals are

preserved while the content becomes far more

accessible. Modern scanning technologies, such as those

from nextScan, have significantly accelerated this work.

High-resolution scanners, automated film‐handling

10 Spring 2026 NIRMA.org Back to Content | Inside NIRMA

systems, and AI-enhanced image processing allow

institutions to digitize large collections with

unprecedented efficiency.

Once digitized, AI-driven Optical Character

Recognition (OCR) systems take the process a step

further. OCR can extract text from even challenging

microfilm images, turning static frames into searchable,

indexable data. This capability transforms what was

once a manual, time-consuming research process into a

streamlined digital experience. Researchers can locate

specific names, dates, topics, or events within

seconds—something impossible with analog film.

Collaboration can now reshape how information is

shared. Digital repositories, shared databases, and

interinstitutional partnerships allow organizations to

pool their digitized collections, creating a more unified

and comprehensive body of knowledge. These

platforms break down the silos that once separated

archives by geography or institution, enabling broader

access for scholars, students, and the public.

Together, these technologies and collaborative

models are redefining how information is accessed in

the digital age. They ensure that the knowledge once

confined to microfilm drawers and archival vaults can

finally be integrated into modern research, analytics,

and AI systems. By bridging the gap between analog

history and digital discovery, we open the door to new

insights, a richer understanding, and a more complete

record of human experience.

The knowledge gap between our analog past and our

digital present is far wider than most people realize.

While AI and modern information systems promise

unprecedented insight, their potential is fundamentally

limited by the materials they cannot yet see. Microfilm,

paper archives, and other legacy formats hold some of

the most valuable records of human activity—scientific

breakthroughs, regulatory histories, cultural narratives,

and institutional memory that shaped entire industries.

Until these collections are digitized, they remain

invisible to the tools we increasingly rely on to

understand our world.

Bridging this divide is not simply a technical upgrade; it

is an investment in

accuracy, accountability,

and collective knowledge.

Digitization unlocks

information that has

been inaccessible for

decades, connects it to

modern research and

analytics, and ensures its

continued availability for generations to come. As

organizations, institutions, and communities embrace

this work, we move closer to a future where the full

breadth of human experience—past and present—can

finally inform the decisions we make.

The treasures hidden in analog archives are vast.

Bringing them into the digital age is how we ensure they

are not only preserved, but truly seen.

Gil Brueckner, NIRMA Treasurer

NIRMA’s Financial Holdings

as of February 16, 2026

Checking Account $ 33,057.86

Investment Account $108,080.65

Debit $ 1,747.25

Scholarship Account $ 7,727.47



Qc TRIANGULATION FOR

DOCUMENT CAPTURE

By Manuel Bulwa

ISAUSA, Inc.

C/Remediation processes for document

digitization programs within regulated

environments continue to mature. Yet even in

well-designed capture workflows, defect rates remain

omnipresent.

In highly regulated industries such as Nuclear,

where completeness, traceability, and audit

defensibility are fundamental, conventional records

inspection approaches may not sufficiently address

correlated failure modes. Failure modes are correlated

when multiple controls are vulnerable to the same

underlying cause, meaning that if one control fails, the

others are likely to fail for the same reason. In other

words: Different controls appear independent, but

they share a common blind spot. Unfortunately,

increasing inspection volume alone does not

necessarily reduce systematic defect risk.

QC Triangulation is a validation methodology we

successfully use to address this limitation. Grounded in

the quality engineering principle of Orthogonal

Control Architecture, it applies multiple functionally

distinct validation domains to the same record

population. Each domain targets different defect

classes and operates under separate detection logic.

Confidence is achieved by reconciling discrepancies

across these domains.

The objective is to reduce correlated defect escape

probability.

Orthogonal Control Architecture is a QA framework

in which multiple verification controls operate in

distinct validation domains, each targeting different

defect classes and relying on different detection logic to


• Batch/Page/Image integrity

• Separator or feed anomalies

Control objective: Verify that the physical-to-digital

conversion process operated in a reliable and complete

manner.

reduce correlated defect escape risk.

Orthogonal controls in theory require independent

datasets. However, for the Triangulation concept, we

allow independent detection mechanisms instead.

Within QC Triangulation:

• Each control evaluates attributes of record integrity

within and across domains

• Each operates under defined procedural criteria

(documented and traceable processes)

• Each addresses different failure modes (by domain

and by Record Type (Paper, microfiche, microfilm,

aperture cards, drawings, bound books, ingested

digital documents)

A defect escaping one domain is unlikely to escape

the others

A consolidated “Bill of Health” report integrates

profuse metrics from all three domains and shows cross

-domain reconciliation outcomes, providing structured

evidence of validation.

Orthogonal inspection diversifies failure-mode

detection. By designing controls to fail for different

reasons, overall defect escape probability is materially

reduced.

This domain evaluates images in raw scan or ingestion

order, reflecting the physical arrangement of source

materials captured.

Focus areas include:

• Sequence continuity

• Sheet adjacency

• Batch integrity

Defects typically detected:

• Page sequencing issues

This domain evaluates logical document assembly and

indexing representation within the digital system.

Focus areas include:

• Document boundary accuracy

• Page membership validation

• Metadata alignment with document intent

Defects typically detected:

• Incorrect document splits or merges

• Metadata inconsistencies

• Logically incorrect documents

Control objective: Confirm that digital records

accurately reflect intended document structure and

indexing requirements.

This domain evaluates the authoritative baseline: the

physical source records.

A robust container control process is essential here.

Barcoded containers holding paper, microfiche or

microfilm must be traceable throughout processing and

final disposition. Paper, microfiche, microfilm, aperture

cards, drawings, bound books, ingested digital

documents, each require different validation rules.

Activities include:

• Physical folder and container review

• Physical-to-digital count reconciliation

Control objective: Establish reasonable assurance

that the digital environment faithfully represents the

physical source records.

Each domain may appear internally consistent.

However, discrepancies frequently emerge when results

are cross compared:

• Physical counts and proportions conflict with

digital totals


Celebrating Our First Scholarship

Success and Building for the

Future

By Jessica Jones CRM/NS, Scholarship Committee Lead

i

n 2025, NIRMA proudly launched its inaugural

Scholarship Program, and the response was

nothing short of inspiring. Thanks to the

enthusiastic support and engagement of our

membership, we successfully awarded our first

scholarship to a deserving graduate student passionate

about Records and Information Management (RIM)

in the nuclear industry. This milestone reflects the

strength of our community and its commitment to

fostering the next generation of professionals.

Thank You, NIRMA Members

Your contribution - whether through advocacy,

donations, or spreading the word - made this

achievement possible. The scholarship is more than

financial assistance; it’s a bridge connecting students to

our industry, ensuring continuity and innovation in

RIM practices.

• Raw scan attributes conflict with logical

assembly

• Metadata interpretation conflicts with

document intent

QC Triangulation relies on systematic discrepancy

detection across domains rather than repeated

inspection within a single domain.

This approach mitigates correlated validation risk, the

risk that multiple controls fail due to shared

assumptions or overlapping blind spots.

For nuclear industry records managers, QC

Triangulation provides:

• Structured reconciliation of digital and physical

representations

• Reduced systematic defect survivability

• Enhanced confidence in record completeness and

traceability

• Detects both capture-stage and structural defects

What’s Next?

As we look ahead to 2026, our focus is on refining

the program and establishing a smooth, sustainable

process for year-after-year implementation. This means

strengthening our framework, improving workflows,

and ensuring the scholarship becomes a reliable part of

NIRMA’s mission.

Get Involved

If you’re interested in contributing your expertise

and ideas, we invite you to join the Scholarship

Committee. Together, we can build on last year’s

success and ensure this program becomes a part of

NIRMA’s mission.

For more details or to volunteer, please contact

Jessica Jones, at jljones22@tva.gov.

• Identifies issues that conventional QC cannot

detect

• Reduces correlated validation risk (the risk that

multiple controls fail due to shared assumptions)

• Strengthens audit defensibility through crossdomain

corroboration

• Supports traceable record authenticity

Digitization quality in regulated environments must

extend beyond just image inspection and metadata

validation. It must validate the lifecycle integrity of

records across physical and digital domains.

QC Triangulation offers a structured, orthogonal

validation model that strengthens assurance without

relying solely on increased inspection volume or

statistical spot checking.

In environments where long-term record authenticity

and audit defensibility are essential, diversified

validation architecture is not an enhancement, it is a

necessity.


From Blueprint to Breakthrough: Document

Management at the Heart of SMR Innovation

By Chris Brighouse, Product Director, Idox.

As part of the ‘New Nuclear’ phenomenon, Small Modular Reactors (SMR)

are increasingly viewed as a vital component in the response to the rapid

escalation in energy demands. With a global SMR market projected to be

worth $150 billion between 2025 and 2040, both governments and private

investors are looking to achieve a safe, repeatable SMR model that can be

deployed at pace.

In the drive to attain technology innovation, power companies must not

overlook the complexity and necessity of document management

excellence. The goal is not simply to ensure files are saved or information

is accessible. Good document control and records management is a

fundamental component of a repeatable, secure and compliant SMR

model.

Escalating Energy Demand

The step change in global power consumption is transforming energy

production. With the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy

Outlook 2025 forecasting electricity demand growth of 40%-50% to

2035, governments globally are concerned not only with meeting demand

but also the need to fundamentally improve energy security. And while

natural energy sources such as wave and solar are key to both increasing

capacity and reducing carbon emissions, these sources do not provide

the reliability and resilience demanded by critical infrastructure.

Nuclear technology is now recognised as having a key role to play in

scaling up energy production. Given the extraordinary escalation in

demand, however, there is no time for the two-decade design and delivery

processes traditionally required for nuclear power stations. The small

modular reactor (SMR) model promises not only to get a new nuclear

power station up and running within 3-5 years, but the repeatable nature

of the SMR concept should enable multiple identical SMRs to be deployed

at speed.

As such, SMRs are now fundamental to the energy strategies not only of

nations globally but also set to fuel individual mega data centres, such as

the Colossus data centre in the US, which is expected to demand 2-

Gigawatt of power to support AI. Private companies, including Google, are

investing in New Nuclear providers with a view to achieving power security

and resilience.

Nuclear Security

The use of AI is, however, a key security issue to consider. To comply with

regulatory requirements and critical infrastructure security demands, all

nuclear systems must be run on premise, in a private data center, rather

than in the cloud. In addition to ensuring document management

solutions can support the on-premise model, it is essential to understand

the implications for AI usage: the use of public AI tools for sensitive

nuclear data would be a compliance breach and significant security risk.

Nuclear specific AI tools, however, trained on trusted, secure data, have a

key role to play in streamlining SMR development. Using AI as a document

control gateway to automate the review of any documentation provided

by suppliers will transform the speed with which problems are highlighted

and, therefore, redressed. This process not only improves operational

efficiency but can also play a key role in compliance anomaly detection,

reinforcing regulatory compliance while also holding suppliers to account

and ensuring they take full responsibility for deliverables.

By using nuclear specific, on-premise, managed Large Language Models

(LLM), organisations can maximise the value of AI to support innovation

and operational efficiency whilst reinforcing security and rapidly

highlighting the best suppliers to further accelerate the delivery of SMRs

at scale.

Repeatable Model

The evolution from one-off nuclear power stations to a repeatable SMR

model is a significant shift, one that requires not only nuclear innovation but

also a far more consistent design, delivery and operation model to enable

scale at pace. While companies are currently focused on delivering the First

of a Kind (FOAK), the success of the SMR concept is predicated on the ability

to quickly roll out Many of a Kind once the baseline has been proven.

Success will require new levels of collaboration and cooperation between

suppliers, with many components built off site and assembled on site.

This repeatable model also demands a consistent approach to document

management. From document control to security standards, roles and

responsibilities, information lifecycles and review processes, organisations

cannot afford to underestimate the complexity of document management

requirements within the nuclear industry.

Growing numbers of power companies are leveraging a document

management template designed specifically for the nuclear industry to

accelerate the process while reinforcing best practice. This gold standard

baseline for Nuclear documentation leverages extensive nuclear experience

and expertise to enforce compliance with nuclear regulations, as well as

supporting the specific security and role-based access required.

Gold Standard Template

The template approach transforms the efficiency and accuracy of document

management throughout the lifecycle, from licensing to first concrete, cold

tests to first criticality, and through to commercial operation. The result is

both a compliance-first approach to document management and a

document model that supports the innovative and repeatable SMR design

and delivery concept.

By supporting nuclear terminology, the approach ensures all document and

drawing resources, are understood and accessible. Furthermore, data can be

quickly extracted from diverse format types, including 2D drawings, 3D

models, PDF documents, Word documents, spreadsheets and chemical

specifications, enabling AI insights to ensure that information is both

accessible and readily available.

In addition to supporting nuclear-specific terminology, the use of AI can

enable individuals less familiar with the industry to use natural language to

quickly access and understand information.

Conclusion

Energy demand is driving unprecedented innovation within the nuclear

industry. The opportunities are compelling, with the latest NEA Small Modular

Reactor (SMR) Dashboard identifying 127 SMR designs and a significant

increase in investment. Delivering a working FOAK SMR is, of course, key. But

it is the repeatability of the model that will prove the differentiator between

these diverse SMR designs.

Ensuring optimal document management processes from day one is also key

to this process. With the correct, secure, on premise and nuclear specific

document management model, organisations can ensure regulatory

compliance while also attaining the visibility, control and operational

efficiency required to rapidly scale up SMR production.

marketing@idoxgroup.com

50 FOR 50

Celebrate NIRMA’s 50th Anniversary by

Supporting the Scholarship Program

By Christine Spring, PDBU Director

T

his year marks NIRMA’s 50th anniversary, a

milestone that reflects five decades of leadership,

collaboration, and excellence in Records and

Information Management for the nuclear industry. To

honor this legacy, we’re launching the 50 for 50

campaign - our goal is 50 donations in any amount to

strengthen the NIRMA Scholarship Program.

Why Give?

Your donation helps ensure the next generation of

professionals is prepared to uphold the standards and

values that define our industry. By supporting the

scholarship, you’re investing in:

1. Future Talent: Encouraging graduate students to

pursue careers in nuclear information

management.

2. Industry Sustainability: Building a pipeline of

skilled professionals for years to come.

3. Community Impact: Reinforcing NIRMA’s role

as a mentor and advocate for education.

3. Platinum Tier ($500+): Gold benefits plus logo

on the Donor Wall, recognition during scholarship

winner announcement, and a social media spotlight.

4. Uranium Tier ($1000+): Platinum benefits plus

printed certificate presented at the Symposium and

special recognition in NIRMA Magazine.

Join Us

Let’s make history together- 50 donations for 50 years.

Whether it’s $5 or $500, your contribution makes a

difference. Donate today and help us celebrate

NIRMA’s legacy while investing in the future.

Recognition Tiers

Every gift matters, and we want to celebrate your

generosity! Here’s how we recognize donors:

1. Silver Tier ($75+): Donor Recognition Award

Certificate (emailed).

2. Gold Tier ($200+): Silver benefits plus thank-you

in NIRMA Magazine, recognition at the

Symposium, and your name on the Digital Donor

Wall.

NIRMA is a 501(c)(6) non-profit association.

Please note that contributions are not tax

deductible.


Nick Touran’s

What is Nuclear

A

s shown in our energy flow diagram, our

energy resource options are derived either

directly from sunlight (solar, wind, hydro,

biofuel), by digging up fossilized organic matter (coal,

oil, gas), or from accessing primordial energy (nuclear

fission, geothermal, tidal, fusion). These are all limited

in quantity. Some will last us about as long as the sun,

while others may run out soon and are thus not

sustainable.

How does nuclear fission perform in the

sustainability question? This question has been

answered quite skillfully by the legendary David

MacKay in Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air,

but we figured we could add our own version as well.

Here is the result:

Reproduced with permission of Nick Touran

Nuclear Fuel Will Last Us for 4 Billion Years

By Nick Touran, Ph.D., P.E.

Breeder reactors can power all of humanity for more

than 4 billion years. By any reasonable definition,

nuclear breeder reactors are indeed renewable. However,

benefiting from this billion-year sustainability requires

improvements in reactor construction performance and

public acceptance. We have developed and proven

breeder reactors in the past, but they remain a small

minority of our current fleet.

Advances in seawater uranium extraction would help,

but are not necessary to achieve ultimate sustainability,

since the nuclear fuel that naturally exists in average

crustal granite can handle the first few billion years

without trouble.

We are talking about all primary energy here rather


than just electricity. In most parts of the world,

electricity is about 40% of total energy. The rest is for

transportation, industrial heat, etc.

The Basis Facts

• Total world energy consumption of primary energy

in 2019 was about 584 exajoules (BP Statistical

Review of World Energy 2020)

• A modern light-water reactor can pull an average of

60 MWd/kg out of its 4.8% enriched nuclear fuel

(AP1000 docs)

• One kg of 4.8% enriched uranium requires 9.5 kgU

natural uranium input to the enrichment plant (and

7.8 SWU) (any old SWU calculator)

• A breeder reactor with a recycling fuel cycle can

pull about 900 MWd/kg out of non-enriched

nuclear fuel (natural or depleted uranium or

thorium)

• There are 6.1 million tonnes of uranium in

reasonably assured deposits (World Nuclear

Uranium)

• There are 6.3 million tonnes of thorium in

reasonably assured deposits (World Nuclear

Thorium)

• Uranium exists in seawater at an average

concentration of 0.003 ppm (also World Nuclear

Uranium)

• There are about 332 million cubic miles of water on

Earth, 96.5% of it is in the ocean (USGS). At a

density of 1 gram/cm3, this comes out to 1.4

yottagrams of water, or 1.4e21 kg)

• At 0.003 ppm, this means there are about 4000

million tonnes of uranium in seawater

• The average crustal concentration of uranium is

about 2.8 ppm (World Nuclear Uranium)

• There are about 6.5e13 tonnes (65 trillion) of

uranium in the crust, which continuously

replenishes the uranium in seawater through

erosion, runoff, and plate tectonics.

• Thorium requires the use of a breeder reactor so it is

to be included only once breeder reactors are

assumed

The Math

It’s convenient to use the GNU units program to do

these kinds of comparisons quickly. This is available for

free on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

For mined uranium and non-breeders, we use: $ units

"6.1 million tonnes*60 MW*day/kg/9.5/(584 exajoules/

year)" "years"

5.6997837

For seawater uranium and non-breeders, it’s: $ units

"4000 million tonnes*60 MW*day/kg/9.5/(584 exajoules/

year)" "years"

3737.5631

Because non-breeders are 140x less fuel efficient than

breeders, it has long been considered impractical to use

low-grade uranium resources like seawater or crustal

nuclear fuel in non-breeders. The energy to get the

material out is too high given the return.

Breeders with mined uranium: $ units "6.1 million

tonnes*900 MW*day/kg/(584 exajoules/year)" "years"

812.21918

Breeders with mined uranium and thorium: $ units

"(6.1 million tonnes+6.3 million tonnes)*900 MW*day/

kg/(584 exajoules/year)" "years"

1651.0685

Breeders with mined and seawater resources: $ units

"(6.1e6 tonnes+6.3e6 tonnes+4000e6 tonnes)*900 MW*day/

kg/(584 exajoules/year)" "years"

534253.81

Breeders with mined, seawater, and erosion resources,

assuming about half the erosion resource will reach the

sea: $ units "(6.1e6 tonnes+6.3e6 tonnes+4000e6

tonnes+6.5e13 tonnes* 0.5)*900 MW*day/kg/(584

exajoules/year)" "years"

4.3279315e+09

As a bonus, let’s compute how many reactors we’d need

to make 100% of the primary world energy. Assuming

big gigawatt-scale reactors, we find: $ units "584

exajoules/yr /(3300 MW)"

5607.9511

We have about 450 reactors in the world today, so

we’d need to build about 5100 more large reactors to

produce all our energy with low-carbon nuclear.

Another nearly unbelievable fact (HT reddit

user paulfdietz) is that if you dig up an average crustal

rock, it will have 20x more nuclear energy in it than a

piece of pure coal of the same mass. With crustal

abundances of 2.8 and 6 ppm for uranium and thorium,

and a chemical energy density of 33 MJ/kg for coal, the

math here is: $ units "(2.8e-6 + 6e-6) * 900 MW*day/

kg / (33 MJ/kg)"

20.736

More Thoughts

Of course, no serious energy planners propose using




100% of anything, so this will be

mixed with other low-carbon

energy sources like wind, solar,

hydro, geothermal, etc. as

appropriate on a regional basis.

The mined uranium and thorium values are very

likely to increase if demand increases. As with most

minerals, as demand goes up, people prospect more and

find more. The numbers here are expected to be

conservative for the mined resources.

Critiques

For a robust analysis, the energy required to extract

the resources needed to generate power must be

considered. The concept of Energy Return on

Investment (EROI) formalizes this. Some studies,

like Bardi, 2010, attempt to do this for seawater uranium

extraction, but only consider non-breeder reactors (long

considered impractical) and assume uranium extraction

will require as much power as reverse osmosis

desalination, which is likely a strong overestimate

considering the more recent research. Even if seawater

uranium extraction is hard, the fact that each average

crustal rock has 20x more nuclear energy than an equal

mass of coal validates the true practicality of billion-year

nuclear resources.

See Also

• Ivanov, A.S., Parker, B.F., Zhang, Z. et al.

Siderophore-inspired chelator hijacks uranium from

aqueous medium. Nat Commun 10, 819 (2019). —

More modern uranium extraction technology

• Tsouris, C. Uranium extraction: Fuel from seawater.

Nat Energy 2, 17022 (2017). — modern uranium

extraction technology

• A special 2016 edition of Industrial and Engineering

Chemistry Research dedicated to uranium seawater

extraction.

• H. D. Lightfoot, W. Manheimer, D. A. Meneley, D.

Pendergast and G. S. Stanford, “Nuclear Fission

Fuel is Inexhaustible,” 2006 IEEE EIC Climate

Change Conference, Ottawa, ON, 2006, pp. 1-8, – a

similar case made in 2006

• Weinberg, Alvin M. “Energy as the Ultimate Raw

Material” Physics Today 12.11 (1959), — Paper in

which Alvin Weinberg demonstrates that just mining

regular old rocks and burning their thorium and

uranium would require rock mining of about the

same scale as fossil fuel mining. This is his “Burning

the rocks” paper.

• Cohen, Bernard L. “Breeder reactors: A renewable

energy source.” Am. J. Phys 51.1 (1983): 78. – This

same story written in 1983

• Conca, “Uranium Seawater Extraction Makes

Nuclear Power Completely Renewable”, 2016 –

Another explanation of uranium renewability

• Nuclear power proposed as renewable energy

(Wikipedia) – A summary of the debate

• Dungan, K., et al. “Uranium from seawater–Infinite

resource or improbable aspiration?.” Progress in

Nuclear Energy 99 (2017): 81-85. — a critique of

this idea with a focus on implications of doing it

with non-breeders (even though seawater uranium

with non-breeders has been long considered

impractical)

Click here to visit What Is

Nuclear site.

Click here to visit What Is

Nuclear YouTube Channel.

Registration is

open for NIRMA26

Symposium


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What’s Happening in Regulations

and Information Management

Business Unit (RIMBU)

Rhonda Redding, RIMBU Director

Working Committees

R

IMBU continues to drive industry alignment,

guidance development, and collaborative

learning across the Records, Information, and

Document Control communities. Current committee

activities include:

• Technical Guideline Design Basis

Document / Template Development

• Unmanned System Generated Documents or

Records? – White Paper development

• Consolidated Review of TG11, TG16, and TG21

Aligning these guidelines with the newly

released TG15

• Finalizing the 2D & 3D Electronic Data White

Paper

• New Member Desktop / Study Guide

Development

Nuclear Plant Construction Information

Management Special Interest Group

(NPC-IM SIG)

• Held their kickoff meeting on February 25, 2026

• Rich Giska (rg.rlpartners@gmail.com) is leading this

effort

• If you are interested in New Nuclear Plant

Construction or want to participate in NPC‐IM,

please reach out to Rich.

SIGET - Special Interest Group

Emerging Technology

• New Leadership Team:

Director: Eli Maftoum – eli.maftoum@bentley.com

Co‐Directors:

Mark Rogers – mark.rogers@enec.ae

Ben Johannsen – benjamin.johannsen@aps.com

• Kickoff meeting held February 12, 2026

• If you are interested in digitizing safeguards, AI,

or other emerging technologies, reach out to Eli.

2026 RIMBU Spring Conference

Save the Date!

• April 14–15, 2026

• Kansas City, Missouri – 1KC Place

• Remote attendance option available

We would love to see everyone in person. The full

agenda will be distributed ahead of the meeting to all

RIMBU members.

If you are interested in joining any of the Working

Committees listed above or have any questions, please

contact:

• Director, Rhonda Redding:

Rhonda.Redding@evergy.com

• Co-Director, Emily Sabo:

saboek@westinghouse.com

• Secretary, Amy Odom: alodom@southernco.com


Membership & Marketing

Business Unit (M&MBU)

News

By Stephen Fleshman, M&MBU Director

Co-Authored by Michael Powers, M&MBU Co-Director

Nuclear’s Next Chapter will be Written in Records, Not Headlines

N

uclear energy is entering a consequential

period. Rising electricity demand, tightening

reliability expectations, and renewed focus on

long‐term stewardship are reshaping how nuclear

programs are designed, licensed, operated, and

sustained.

Meeting these expectations increasingly depends on

how well information is managed, preserved, and

trusted across the nuclear lifecycle. In this environment,

shared experience, disciplined practices, and strong

professional communities matter as much as technical

innovation. This is where NIRMA’s role, and the role of

its membership, becomes essential.

No single site, company, or program holds all the

answers. NIRMA provides a vendor‐neutral forum

where practitioners benchmark approaches, exchange

lessons learned, develop guidance, and strengthen the

information and records management practices that

underpin safety, compliance, and long‐term

accountability. Today, NIRMA membership represents

collective readiness for the demands shaping nuclear’s

future.

The Current Fleet:

Modernization With Continuity

The U.S. operating fleet continues to anchor grid

reliability and decarbonization goals. Sustaining that

value depends on modernization efforts that protect

design intent, licensing bases, and operational

knowledge.

Successful modernization treats engineering

knowledge, configuration information, training content,

maintenance evidence, and quality records as a

connected system rather than isolated repositories.

Fragmented records, informal handoffs, and ad hoc

retention practices are no longer sufficient. Continuity

across requirements, configuration, and operations has

become a defining factor in long‐term performance.

Advanced Reactors and an Expanding

Information Challenge

Small modular reactors, microreactors, and other

advanced designs introduce new participants,

partnerships, and supply‐chain complexity. These

programs significantly increase both the volume and the

importance of information that must be managed with

precision.

Regulatory modernization adds further emphasis. The

Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s development of 10

CFR Part 53 establishes an optional framework to

support risk‐informed, performance‐based licensing for

advanced reactors. While Part 53 focuses on licensing,

its implications extend well beyond initial approvals. It

reinforces reliance on traceable, defensible information

and increases scrutiny of how safety, configuration, and

operational knowledge are preserved over time.

As advanced reactor programs move from concept to

execution, success requires more than building a

reactor. It requires a compliance‐grade information

architecture that makes safety cases, design intent, and

operating commitments auditable and durable. For

many new entrants, evidence readiness proves as

challenging as technology readiness.

Continued on Page 26


Professional

Development

Business Unit

(PDBU) NEWS

W

hat a way to start 2026!! Freezing temps,

sleet, ice storms, heavy snows in the North

and it’s SNOWING in the SOUTH! I am

sure most of us are semi-hibernating as much as we

can to avoid going outside. This makes the beginning

of the year a perfect time to look at our New Year’s

Resolutions, Development Plans, and Personal Goals.

The PDBU, Professional Development Business Unit,

is here to help you.

We would like to start off by introducing the 2026

PDBU Leadership Team:

• Christine Spring - Director of PDBU. She is from

Perry Nuclear Power Plant – Vistra Corporation.

She has been in Records and Document Control for

twelve years and a supervisor for four years. She is

also a member of Regulations and Information

Management Business Unit (RIMBU).

• Kaitlyn Hodges - Co-Director of PDBU. She is

from Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. She has

been in Records for the past four years.

• Jessica Jones, CRM/NS - Lead of the NIRMA

Scholarship Committee. She is a member of the

Enterprise Records team at Tennessee Valley

Authority (TVA). She is also a member of NIRMA’s

RIMBU and Membership & Marketing Business

Unit (M&MBU).

• Mary Magdos, CRA/NS – ICRM (Institute of

Certified Records Managers) Professional

Certification Committee Chairperson. She is from

Bechtel and is the NS&E (Nuclear, Security &

Environment) RIM Specialist.

• Lou Rofrano - Board Sponsor. He is the VP of Sales

at AMS Store and Shred, LLC. With his support our

team has flourished!

By Christine Spring, PDBU Director and

Kaitlyn Hodges, PDBU Co-Director

So, what is Professional

Development? Professional

development is the ongoing

process of building and

improving the skills,

knowledge, and abilities you

need to grow and succeed in

your career. It can include

learning new skills or

technologies; attending

trainings, workshops, or conferences; gaining

certifications or advanced education; receiving coaching,

mentoring, or feedback; developing soft skills like

communication, leadership, or time management.

Where and how do you start? NIRMA can be a

wonderful place to start your journey of professional

development.

NIRMA has three business units you can join that will

introduce you to the exciting happenings in our industry.

• Regulations & Information Management Business

Unit (RIMBU) is all about the regulations, technical

guides, and industry’s best practices.

• Membership & Marketing Business Unit (M&MBU)

reaches out to advertise and connect with other RIM

professionals.

• Professional Development Business Unit (PDBU)

offers the Mentorship program, monthly webinars,

connection with ICRM and the NIRMA

Scholarship.

Each of these business units offer insights and

information into the world of Nuclear Information and

Records Management. All business units are interested

in welcoming new members and new insights.

Take some time away from the chilly winter months


and check out both the NIRMA

website (click here) and NIRMA

Membership Sites (click here).

There are Team

Rooms for the

different

business units

where you can see what each BU is

working on currently. You can also

review past webinars and symposium

presentations. There is a place for

benchmarking – request your own or

review ones that are already out

there. You also have access to past

copies of the NIRMA magazine and

learn how to reach out to any of our

advertisers for all your RIM needs. If

you have any issues with logging in or

accessing the site, please contact

nirma@nirma.org.

NIRMA is a wonderful community

of supportive, smart, innovative

Records and Information Managers.

Get involved in getting your professional development

reset and ready for 2026!

BU


Continued from Page 23.

Nuclear Progress Is Collective

No nuclear organization succeeds in isolation.

Regulators, industry institutes, research organizations,

government agencies, utilities, constructors, and

suppliers all operate within a tightly connected

ecosystem.

What connects that ecosystem is information. Design

bases, safety cases, qualification evidence, inspection

results, training materials, procurement records,

cybersecurity controls, and long‐term documentation

form the foundation of trust across institutional and

generational boundaries. While tools will continue to

evolve, the objective remains constant: ensuring critical

information is accurate, accessible, and reliable wherever

responsibility resides.

Why NIRMA Matters Now

This is the space NIRMA exists to serve.

For decades, NIRMA has led the nuclear industry in

information and records management, supporting

quality records programs, regulatory compliance,

electronic records initiatives, knowledge management,

and benchmarking through a practitioner‐driven

community.

NIRMA provides a forum where operating fleet

experience informs new reactor programs, where

organizations align on defensible practices, and where

guidance, training, and professional development

pathways are created and shared. Through focused

membership and outreach efforts, NIRMA continues to

engage a diverse and evolving nuclear community.

A Call to Engagement (Spring 2026)

As nuclear enters a period where deployment speed

must coexist with lifecycle stewardship, the industry will

need practitioners who understand how to build

information integrity at scale.

NIRMA invites:

• New organizations, including advanced reactor

developers, SMR program offices, supply‐chain

partners, and adjacent industries, to engage and

learn the foundations of nuclear‐grade

information governance.

• Existing nuclear operators, vendors, contractors,

and government agencies that are active in the

industry but not yet participating in NIRMA. As

regulatory expectations evolve and information

demands increase, engagement with a

practitioner‐led, vendor‐neutral community offers

an opportunity to benchmark approaches, share

experience, and help shape defensible practices

before challenges become systemic.

• Experienced operators and suppliers contribute

case studies and lessons learned, particularly in

modernization, lifecycle records strategies, and

knowledge retention.

Professionals at every career stage participate in

NIRMA’s events, webinars, and business units where

shared challenges are transformed into shared solutions.

Nuclear’s future will not be secured by innovation

alone. It will be secured by innovation that is auditable,

repeatable, licensable, and teachable. That outcome

depends on disciplined information management, and

NIRMA’s community is where that discipline is built,

shared, and strengthened.

Not a NIRMA Member?

Click here and join

TODAY!


Nuclear Takes Wall Street by Storm

By Alyssa Gill

This year’s 2026 Nuclear Financing

Summit found itself smack dab in

the middle of the biggest snowstorm

of the year. But despite the snow,

ice, and freezing temperatures,

leaders across energy, finance, and

government gathered to discuss

what’s next for nuclear energy.

We saw incredible momentum in

2025, with major private

investments totaling more than $2

billion in the U.S. market. Big Tech

continued its support for nuclear,

with major companies committed to

tripling global nuclear capacity by

2050 and Google announcing it

would fund the development of

three nuclear power sites.

We also saw bold moves from U.S.

governors, including Kathy Hochul’s

call for one gigawatt of new nuclear

capacity in New York.

This year’s Summit was focused on

turning that momentum into

execution. We heard from leaders

not just in the U.S. but around the

world, and the consensus was clear:

we are closer than ever to unlocking

deployment at unprecedented scale.

For those who missed it, here’s a

quick glimpse of what I was hearing:

Financiers Are All In

Jay Horine, Head of Global Banking

SRI at JP Morgan, expressed strong

enthusiasm for nuclear energy and

confidence in the industry’s ability to

bring new projects online. He

highlighted nuclear energy as a

strategic asset and part of JP

Morgan’s recently announced $10

billion investment into industries

critical for national security, grid

reliability, and resilience. Horine

underscored that “reliability is not a

slogan.”

Customers Are Signing Record

Offtake Agreements

Customers are forming new

partnerships and signing recordsetting

offtake agreements with

nuclear companies. James

Krellenstein, CEO and Co-Founder

of Alva Energy, emphasized the

continued importance of power

purchase agreements (PPAs).

NextEra’s Lynsey Wenger, Vice

President of Finance and Assistant

Treasurer, agreed and highlighted

that the PPA between Google and

Central Iowa Power Cooperative

(CIPCO) was key to restarting the

Duane Arnold plant.

States Want Nuclear for

Reliability & Resilience

Sean Ewart, Deputy Secretary for

Energy at the Office of the New

York State Governor, stressed that

New York is “open for nuclear

business.” In fact, eight communities

are already expressing interest in

hosting projects. “The people want

this,” he said, urging developers to

“talk to the people who live around

nuclear plants. They are the biggest

believers.”

A Strong Workforce Is Essential

There is no deployment without a

strong workforce. From construction

and operations to the NRC and

supply chains, workforce capacity is

essential. Bechtel is working with the

U.S. Government on workforce

campaigns—Ahmet Tokpinar,

Bechtel’s Principal Vice President

and GM, Nuclear Power, explained

that the goal is to attract, train, and

retain new talent across the sector.

Additionally, the NRC is

integrating artificial intelligence to

enhance safety, efficiency, and the

licensing process, allowing the

agency to shift human capital to

areas of greatest need.

This year’s financing summit was

buzzing with eagerness and

excitement for what’s next in nuclear

energy and how to solve key

challenges before it’s too late. The

enthusiasm isn’t new, and it’s grown

each year, but what’s changed is

that all eyes are now on deployment.

We are seeing policy shifts, buy-in

from major financial institutions,

partnerships with new customers,

including hyperscalers., and the

modernization of the regulatory

processes. We are on the edge of a

breakthrough.

Article reprinted with permission of

NEI. Read full article here.


US Conducts First Air Transport of Nuclear

Microreactor in Bid to Show Technology's

Viability

By Valerie Volcovici

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah,

Feb 15 - The U.S. Departments of

Energy and Defense on Sunday for

the first time transported a small

nuclear reactor on a cargo plane

from California to Utah to

demonstrate the potential to quickly

deploy nuclear power for military

and civilian use.

The agencies partnered with

California-based Valar Atomics to fly

one of the company’s Ward

microreactors on a C-17 aircraft —

without nuclear fuel — to Hill Air

Force Base in Utah. Energy

Secretary Chris Wright and Under

Secretary of Defense for Acquisition

and Sustainment Michael Duffey

were on the C-17 flight with the

reactor and its components, and

hailed the event as a breakthrough

for U.S. nuclear energy and military

logistics.

“This gets us closer to deploy

nuclear power when and where it is

needed to give our nation’s

warfighters the tools to win in

battle,” Duffey said.

President Donald Trump's

administration sees small nuclear

reactors as one of several ways to

expand U.S. energy production.

Trump last May issued four

executive orders aimed at boosting

domestic nuclear deployment to

meet growing demand for energy for

national security and competitive AI

advancements.

The Energy Department in

December issued two grants, opens

new tab to help accelerate

development of small modular

reactors.

Proponents of microreactors also

have touted them as energy sources

that can be sent to far-flung and

remote places, offering an alternative

to diesel generators which require

frequent deliveries of fuel. But

skeptics have argued that the

industry has not proven that small

nuclear reactors can generate power

for a reasonable price.

"There is no business case for

microreactors, which — even if they

work as designed — will produce

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition

and Sustainment Michael Duffey on board a C-17 cargo plane that transported

Valar Atomics' Ward nuclear microreactor from March Air Force Base in California

to Hill Air Force Base in Utah, at the Hill Air Force Base in Utah, U.S., February

15, 2026. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici


Rising Demand for Nuclear Power

Pressures Uranium Supply

The surge in demand for data

centers and nuclear power to keep

them running is stressing the global

uranium supply, raising concerns

about a potential shortage of fuel

for reactors.

World uranium production has

been lower than demand for several

decades, and utilities are making up

the difference mostly by drawing

on stockpiles.

"Nuclear demand is rising and

there needs to be, ultimately, more

uranium purchased," said Jacob

White, ETF products director at

global asset management firm

Sprott, which runs the world's

biggest physical uranium trust.

electricity at a far higher cost than

large nuclear reactors, not to

mention renewables like wind or

solar," said Edwin Lyman, director

of nuclear power safety at the Union

of Concerned Scientists.

The Energy Department plans to

have three microreactors reach

“criticality” — when a nuclear

reaction can sustain itself — by July

4, Wright said.

The microreactor in Sunday's

event, a little larger than a minivan,

can generate up to 5 megawatts of

electricity, enough to power 5,000

homes, according to Valar CEO

Isaiah Taylor. It will start operating

The U.S. has the world's largest

fleet of nuclear reactors, followed

by China and France, and China is

leading the way in new plants under

construction, according to the

World Nuclear Association.

There are enough uranium

resources globally to cover

projected growth in nuclear power,

but large quantities of investment

are needed in exploration and

production to meet future reactor

requirements, the association said

in its 2025 World Nuclear Fuel

Report.

"The market is already

structurally in deficit, just to fuel

the current fleet of active reactors,"

in July at 100 kilowatts and peak at

250 kilowatts this year before

ramping up to full capacity, he said.

Valar hopes to start selling power

on a test basis in 2027 and become

fully commercial in 2028. Although

private industry funds its own

development of nuclear technology,

it also needs the federal government

“doing some enabling actions to

allow fuel fabrication here and

uranium enrichment here,” he said.

Fuel for Valar's reactor will be

transported from the Nevada

National Security site to the San

Rafael facility, Wright told reporters.

However, even small generators

By Anthony Harrup

said Ben Elvidge, product head at

Uranium.io, a blockchain-based

platform for buying and trading

physical uranium. "By the time you

build in reopenings and extensions

of the life of reactors, the demand

side is going to continue to grow

exponentially."

Uranium is the primary fuel used

in nuclear reactors, but it needs to be

enriched by separating the more

radioactive particles that create a

chain reaction to release energy. That

is done by converting it into a gas

and spinning it at high speeds in a

centrifuge.


result in a significant amount of

radioactive waste, Lyman said. Other

experts have said designers are not

compelled to consider waste at

inception, beyond a plan for how it

will be managed.

Although disposal of nuclear waste

remains an unresolved issue, the

Energy Department is in talks with a

few states, including Utah, to host

sites that could reprocess fuel or

handle permanent disposal, Wright

said.


Reuters. Read full article here.


Rising Demand for Nuclear

Power Pressures Uranium

Supply


With the two largest economies

driving nuclear energy demand,

more uranium needs to be mined,

converted and enriched, analysts

say.

"I think that for miners to bring

up production they need

assurances that long-term prices

will not only rise but rise

sustainably over time," said Kenny

Zhu, an energy and commodities

research analyst at ETF firm

Global X.

The U.S. has little uranium

production, and relies heavily on

imports from Canada, Kazakhstan,

Australia and Russia.

The reliance on foreign countries

for uranium "is a bit worrisome

when you look at nuclear buildup

that China, Russia, and India are

doing," said Mark Mukhija, chief

executive of Eagle Energy Metals.

The U.S. has only about 1% of

the world's uranium deposits, but

around 30% of its nuclear power

generation. "The United States will

never be able to produce all the

uranium that is needed, so we will

always need Canadian and

Australian imports. You would

want to produce every pound of

domestic uranium you can get,"

Mukhija said.

Eagle Energy Metals, which is in

the process of going public through

a proposed business combination,

is developing the Aurora uranium

mining project in southeastern

Oregon, with first production

expected in 2032.

Some see recycling of spent

nuclear fuel eventually contributing

to supply, and the Energy

Department has made grants to

companies developing recycling

technologies, among them Curio

and Oklo.

"I see a strong market demand

for recycling as a key missing piece

of the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle that

has deteriorated over the years,"

said Curio chief executive Ed

McGinnis.

The U.S. imports about twothirds

of its enriched uranium,

much of it from Russia, which

faces a total ban starting in 2028.

"The question now before us is

whether there is sufficient capacity

that's going to come online from

Western sources in 2028 to offset

the Russian gap," said Amir Vexler,

chief executive of U.S. enrichment

company Centrus Energy.

"I think we can safely say that the

market is going to be more strained

in terms of supply than it's been

before, at least in recent history.

Whether it's going to create an issue

or not remains to be seen," he

added.

Centrus Energy is expanding a

manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge,

Tenn., investing more than $560

million to produce thousands of

advanced centrifuges for its uranium

enrichment plant in Ohio, which it's

also expanding.

Urenco, which supplies around a

third of the U.S.'s enriched uranium

from its plant in New Mexico, last

year added centrifuges as part of a

three-year expansion plan.

Orano USA, a unit of France's

Orano Group, is developing a $5

billion nuclear fuel enrichment plant,

also in Oak Ridge, Tenn., with first

deliveries expected at the start of the

2030s.

If the U.S. were to meet its goal of

quadrupling nuclear power

generation by 2050, it would imply

increasing uranium enrichment

twelvefold if all the fuel is to be

domestically sourced, said Jean-Luc

Palayer, chief executive of Orano

USA.

"There's no time to lose. The U.S.

needs more domestic and more

diversified enrichment capacity,"

Palayer said.

Write to Anthony Harrup at

anthony.harrup@wsj.com


Morning Star. Read full article here.


Inside NIRMA Magazine is

published three times annually.

Click here to view past issues.

Spring 2026 Inside NIRMA Issue

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