NRC accepts General Matter's Paducah filing; Doosan to build NuScale part

Four steps along the nuclear supply chain landed on October 28 and 29, 2026: the NRC took up a new Kentucky enrichment plant, Doosan Enerbility signed to build part of a NuScale reactor module, Westinghouse began design work for a Slovak AP1000, and the second reactor at Bangladesh's Rooppur plant received its first fuel.

NRC accepts General Matter's Paducah enrichment application

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted General Matter's application to build and operate a uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Kentucky, and estimates it will finish the review in April 2028. In a letter dated October 29, 2026, NRC staff said the application, submitted September 27, "provides sufficient information to proceed with a detailed technical review." The staff credited General Matter's pre-application engagement for letting it accept the application in about half the time an acceptance review is usually given.

The quick acceptance did not come with a quicker schedule. The NRC's standard schedule for a full technical review of this type is 18 months, and the letter says: "Given the anticipated increase in the workload and associated resource constraints, the NRC staff cannot commit at this time to a schedule shorter than the estimated April 2028 completion date." It leaves a conditional opening: if General Matter keeps up its engagement and supplies timely, complete information, and NRC resources are available, the staff will look for efficiencies and consider expediting portions of the review. Its milestone table estimates an environmental impact statement for public comment by August 2027 and the final safety evaluation and environmental impact statement by April 2028. The letter caps the NRC's review fees at $3,960,000, tracked from October 28, the date it gives for accepting the complete application.

The application, filed under 10 CFR Part 70, is the first step of two. General Matter said when it filed that it intends to submit an amendment in 2027 to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), the fuel many advanced reactor designs need, and that it will produce LEU, LEU+ and HALEU by 2030. It is not the only Paducah enrichment application: the NRC noticed Global Laser Enrichment's application for its Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility in McCracken County, Kentucky, on March 4, 2026, as we reported in August.

Doosan to make a first article for NuScale's reactor module

Doosan Enerbility signed a contract with NuScale Power on October 29, 2026 to manufacture the upper reactor coolant system, the upper section of the reactor pressure vessel, for the NuScale Power Module, Doosan said. Doosan calls it the First Article for the reactor module to be deployed in a NuScale commercial project. The work will be done at Doosan's reactor production facility in Changwon, South Korea, according to NuScale's release, which says the contract moves the partnership from preparation into production. Neither release says which project the module is for.

"This agreement is a meaningful step in converting our approved design into deliverable modules," said John Hopkins, NuScale's president and chief executive.

The upper vessel has been ordered before. NuScale placed its first upper reactor pressure vessel long-lead production order with Doosan in March 2023 for the Carbon Free Power Project, which NuScale and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems agreed to terminate in November 2023, and NuScale intends to transfer those modules to its next customer, World Nuclear News reports. Doosan's release describes its 2023 contract as one to manufacture materials, and NuScale's release calls the new contract continued fabrication of upper reactor coolant system components. The signing fell on the same day Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power ended Dukovany construction talks with Doosan and Daewoo E&C; Doosan says its reactor and turbine supply contracts for the Czech units stand.

Westinghouse begins an AP1000 study for Slovakia

Westinghouse said on October 28, 2026 it has launched a six-month front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for one AP1000 reactor at Jaslovské Bohunice in Slovakia, funded in part by a grant from the US State Department's FIRST program. The client is JESS, which Westinghouse describes as a wholly owned subsidiary of state-owned JAVYS. JESS chief executive Tomáš Vavruška said the study will let JESS "assess the suitability of deploying AP1000 technology at this site and obtain more detailed technical and project documentation, including a preliminary schedule and budget."

Slovakia's prime minister wants the plant in state hands alone. "With our American partners, we want to build a new nuclear power plant exclusively under the state ownership of the Slovak Republic," Prime Minister Robert Fico said, per World Nuclear News, after Czech utility ČEZ agreed in October to sell its JESS stake to JAVYS. What was signed, he said, is "the first technical document, which allows Westinghouse to find out exactly what the condition of the construction site is, where we are, what permits are available, etc." Slovakia's target date for the new unit is 2040, WNN adds. The country's newest unit, Mochovce 4, first reached the grid on October 15.

Rooppur 2 receives its first fuel shipment

Rosatom said on October 28, 2026 that it had completed the first shipment of fuel for the initial loading of the VVER-1200 at Unit 2 of Bangladesh's Rooppur plant. The assemblies, made at Rosatom's Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, came on a dedicated cargo flight and went into a fresh-fuel store at the site for incoming inspection by a joint commission of the Bangladeshi customer, the general contractor and the manufacturer. That is a first shipment toward the initial load, not the load itself, though World Nuclear News had Rosatom saying the initial fuel load had been delivered.

Unit 1 is further along. It reached criticality on October 11 and began Stage C power start-up tests on October 30; Rosatom says its power will be raised step by step to nominal levels ahead of grid connection. The two units total 2,400 MW.