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

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

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NextEra Energy and Google Collaborate on Accelerating Nuclear Power Deployment

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

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Industry News

Frisco Votes Today on Forming Municipal Utility

LCG, Nov. 6, 2001--Voters in San Francisco will decide today whether to form a municipal utility, a move that would involve leaving the pacific Gas & Electric Co. system and taking the utility's distribution network through eminent domain.

Two measures on today's ballot have the backing of Democrats and other liberals -- and there is hardly anything else in San Francisco. One initiative is confined to the city of San Francisco while the other includes the small town of Brisbane, on its southern border.

Angela Alioto, a Democrat, daughter of a former San Francisco mayor and a former San Francisco supervisor herself, is legal counsel for the Municipal Utility District campaign. "There is no question that public power gives the consumer a lower utility bill," she says.

PG&E Corp., parent company of the utility, is fighting the measures, and points out that seizing the distribution system wouldn't provide the power to send through the wires. "You're taking on a huge responsibility without any benefit because buying the system doesn't give you any more power, it just changes the ownership," said Jon Kaufman, a spokesman.

Opposition by PG&E is just one more reason to vote for one or both of the measures, say backers who contend that it is "unconscionable" for the utility, which is mired in bankruptcy proceedings, to spend money owed to its creditors on fighting the initiatives.

PG&E spokeswoman Jennifer Ramp counters "It's only prudent for any company to fight measures that seek a hostile takeover of (its) assets."

San Francisco already owns substantial electricity generation assets -- the city's Hetch Hetchy Water & Power system has three dams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains that have a combined capacity 334.5 megawatts, about a third of the combined needs of San Francisco and Brisbane.

Hetch Hetchy power, however, has been sold under long-term contracts that would have to be abrogated if the electricity was to be used by San Francisco.

No matter what the voters decide today, nothing much is likely to happen for a long time -- PG&E is an old hand at fighting municipalization. It took the city of Sacramento more than 20 years of court battles to finally break away from the utility.

"If these measure pass, nothing's going to change overnight," Kaufman said.

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