Energy digest — Oct 29, 2026
Top line: TÜPRAŞ, Turkey's largest crude oil refiner, signed an agreement with the US Trade and Development Agency to fund a technical-assistance study of small modular reactors for its refining operations, and Westinghouse set a design study for a possible AP1000 at Slovakia's Bohunice plant. KHNP dropped its negotiations with the Daewoo–Doosan consortium and will pick a new contractor for two APR1000 reactors at the Czech Republic's Dukovany plant, Germany's radioactive-waste management company narrowed its repository siting search to under 5% of the national territory, Antares named an initial tonne of TRISO fuel in its procurement deal with BWXT, and DOE's ARPA-E selected eight projects to develop recycled transuranic fuel for advanced reactors.
- TÜPRAŞ to weigh SMRs for its refineries with US-backed study
- Germany cuts its radioactive-waste repository search area to under 5% of the country
- Westinghouse to run a design study for a possible AP1000 at Slovakia's Bohunice
- Antares and BWXT set an initial tonne of TRISO fuel for Antares's microreactors
- KHNP will select a new contractor for Dukovany's two APR1000 reactors after talks collapse
- ARPA-E selects eight projects for recycled transuranic fuel development
TÜPRAŞ to weigh SMRs for its refineries with US-backed study
Sources World Nuclear News
Thread: newgen — TÜPRAŞ: USTDA-backed study weighs SMRs for Turkish refining heat and steam · new
What happened: TÜPRAŞ — Turkey's largest crude oil refiner — signed an agreement with the US Trade and Development Agency to fund technical assistance assessing whether small modular reactors could supply electricity, heat and steam for its refining processes, World Nuclear News reported on October 29, 2026.
What's genuinely new: The SMR consideration reaches a Turkish industrial buyer for the first time in this coverage — a petroleum refiner evaluating reactor heat and steam, not just electricity, with US trade-agency funding covering the assessment. No reactor design, site, unit count, or schedule is named in the reporting, and the agreement covers only the study, not a build commitment.
Watch: The study's findings and timeline; which SMR designs get shortlisted (industrial heat and steam demand points toward high-temperature designs); whether Turkish energy authorities or other industrial users follow; and whether anything — siting, offtake, a licensing step — graduates from assessment to commitment.
Germany cuts its radioactive-waste repository search area to under 5% of the country
Thread: newgen — Germany's nuclear waste repository search narrows to under 5% of territory · new
What happened: The Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal said that over the past year it has reduced the area it is considering for Germany's planned high-level radioactive waste repository from 25% of the country's territory to less than 5%, World Nuclear News reported on October 29, 2026.
What's genuinely new: A measurable one-year narrowing of a siting search that has yet to name any candidate location — a quarter of Germany's land mass dropping to under a twentieth, in an effort that has previously stalled and restarted. The reporting gives no detail on which regions remain, or on the timeline toward a final site.
Watch: The regions still under consideration and the criteria behind the cut; steps toward naming candidate or preferred sites; community and state-level reactions as areas are ruled in or out; and any dated milestones in the selection procedure.
Links: World Nuclear News · Oct 29, 8:37 AM ET
Westinghouse to run a design study for a possible AP1000 at Slovakia's Bohunice
What happened: Westinghouse is to carry out a front-end engineering and design study for the potential deployment of an AP1000 reactor at the Bohunice nuclear power plant in the Slovak Republic, World Nuclear News reported on October 29, 2026.
What's genuinely new: An early-stage engineering step that puts the AP1000 into a European siting evaluation — study funding and scope, not a build commitment. No unit count, cost, customer confirmation, or schedule appears in the reporting.
Watch: The study's scope and completion, the Slovak customer或 state role behind the project, and whether anything graduates from assessment to procurement, siting, or a licensing step.
Links: World Nuclear News · Oct 29, 8:08 AM ET
Antares and BWXT set an initial tonne of TRISO fuel for Antares's microreactors
What happened: The commercial agreement between Antares Nuclear and BWX Technologies covers an initial tonne of TRISO fuel for Antares's microreactors, with volumes that could increase as deployment requirements evolve to support Antares's advanced reactor program, World Nuclear News reported on October 29, 2026.
What's genuinely new: The agreement now carries its first checkable facts — the fuel type (TRISO) and an initial quantity (one tonne) — built on the multi-year fabrication arrangement reported on October 27. It remains a procurement agreement: no deliveries dated, no deployments named.
Watch: Delivery schedules against Antares's deployment requirements; the remaining stages of the DOE safety review for the Mark-1 announced alongside the October 27 deal; and any named deployment or offtake partner.
Links: World Nuclear News · Oct 29, 8:17 AM ET
KHNP will select a new contractor for Dukovany's two APR1000 reactors after talks collapse
What happened: Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power is to select a new contractor for the construction of two APR1000 reactors at the Czech Republic's Dukovany nuclear power plant, World Nuclear News reported, after contract negotiations with the Daewoo–Doosan consortium collapsed.
What's genuinely new: The Korean state utility's construction-contract talks for the Czech units have broken off outright — the consortium is out and a new contractor selection is opening. What ended the talks goes unreported: no cause, no retender timeline, no cost figures, and no word on which bidders remain.
Watch: Who KHNP selects — Korean suppliers, a mixed bid, or a non-Korean builder — and how Czech utility and government partners respond; the schedule hold on the two units; whether the failed talks shade into wider Korea–Czech nuclear supply relations; and the terms of the new selection.
Links: World Nuclear News · Oct 29, 12:15 PM ET
ARPA-E selects eight projects for recycled transuranic fuel development
What happened: The Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy has selected eight research projects to receive funding under its High-Performance Optimized Recycled Nuclear Isotopes for Gen IV Reactors (HORNIG) program, American Nuclear Society reported on October 29, 2026. The program, announced in April, seeks to advance Executive Order 14302, "Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base," by supporting projects that develop fuel technology for advanced nuclear reactors.
What's genuinely new: The first funding selections under a program announced in April — federal R&D money moving into recycled transuranic fuel technology for Generation IV reactors, a research step beside the thread's enrichment, TRISO and HALEU supply arrangements and the DOE cladding-research funding line. No per-project awardees, institutions, or funding amounts appear in the reporting.
Watch: The named awardees and their funding amounts; the technical approaches each project takes; which Gen IV reactor designs the fuel work feeds; and results milestones from the program announced in April.
Links: American Nuclear Society · Oct 29, 5:21 PM ET
Brief
- American Nuclear Society: DOE Office of Environmental Management assistant secretary Tim Walsh gathered industry representatives on October 27 at the former Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant site to showcase nuclear energy projects in development near the Oak Ridge cleanup site, under "American energy hub" framing — a show-and-tell gathering, with no new project announcement in the piece.
- American Nuclear Society by Adam Deatherage: online monitoring in nuclear plant maintenance is about supporting better maintenance decisions and allocating craft resources, not just collecting data — an extension of the piece beyond the calendar-based testing the industry has used across 50-plus years of operating history.