January
The very first article published in 2025 turned out to be the most-read one in January, and it began a trend of big news stories coming out of Canada. In this case it was the news that . And there was more Pickering news to come with the to a joint venture of AtkinsRéalis company Candu Energy Inc and Aecon Group Inc. Another trend of the year was interest in marine-based nuclear developments, with (Kairos Power, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation and Blykalla). New US President Donald Trump’s Day One executive orders were heavily clicked as he declared a “national energy emergency” and named From Europe came the news that
February
The biggest news event of the month , the giant structure built to provide protection over Chernobyl’s destroyed unit 4, on Valentine’s Day (14 February). The subsequent smouldering fire The month also saw South Korea’s HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering utilising small modular reactor technology. From the USA there was news that Georgia Power was planning power uprates at four units at its Vogtle and Hatch plants, . A non-core story that was in the top five for the month was Russia unveiling which it said could cut travel time to Mars to little more than a month.
March
The impact of the damage to the Chernobyl shelter remained most read in March, with the next most-read being the news that energy users including Amazon, Google, Meta and Dow had . The political momentum towards nuclear energy got a boost with Italy’s Council of Ministers approving a draft law Other stories which interested readers were and for two new reactors at the Borssele nuclear power plant site in the Netherlands.
Images from eight of the most popular articles this year (Image: Various/WNN)
April
The World Nuclear Fuel Cycle conference was held in Canada, and was the month’s third most-read article. But it was never going to pip the news that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission had at the Darlington New Nuclear Project site, the first SMR in a G7 country. Other popular developments included and the second Pakistani Hualong One unit – Karachi 3 – . The long-running contest to select a technology, or technologies, , was also approaching its crunch stage.
May
May saw continuing interest in the Canadian SMR project, with the article about the second only during the month to our article setting out in detail . There was also a Canadian element to the third best read story of the month – the news that for the longest uninterrupted operation of a power reactor in China as well as setting a world record for an operating run – 738 days – for a Candu-6 reactor. In the USA, with the goal of “re-establishing the United States as the global leader in nuclear energy”. Also popular was the news that India’s nuclear regulator had in Rajasthan. And World Nuclear Association’s inaugural World Nuclear Supply Chain conference heard how
June
The big news story in June was that, after a process which lasted a few years, as the preferred technology for its first government-backed small modular reactor project. Staying with small reactors producing large amounts of interest, there was by four European nuclear technology organisations. The month saw the signing by , after legal obstacles were cleared. And one of the most significant, and most read, articles was the news that the . Maybe of particular interest to our 156,000 Facebook followers was the news that for the output of the Clinton Clean Energy Centre’s boiling water reactor’s output from 2027.
July
The mood about nuclear energy in the USA continued to be bullish in July, with reactors in the US by 2030. Holtec submitted a letter to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as it . In the UK, the ; China – the National Uranium No.1 demonstration project – in Ordos in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; a report from the across the world; and in got under way.
August
The most read in August was the news that Poland’s Orlen and Synthos Green Energy . Staying in Europe, an exploratory borehole had been drilled as part of efforts in Germany. In the USA, the for a programme which aims to see at least three of them achieve criticality by 4 July 2026. and a strategic partnership with Curtiss-Wright’s UK-based nuclear business proved popular. The month also saw .
September
The month began with World Nuclear Performance Report 2025 being published, including . That was a perfect way to kick-start the 50th World Nuclear Symposium in London. There was also a look at the . In the USA, for the Aurora-INL sodium-cooled fast reactor. Fusion made it into the most-read list for September courtesy of , while we learned that to pursue the feasibility of developing a new US uranium refining and conversion facility.
But the most-read article was our report from an event at the IAEA General Conference which set out in detail the , and experts’ views that it might not ever be possible to restore it to its full original design purposes.
October
– it aims to have its first nuclear power plant operational by 2032. The second most read article of the month was the completion of . Eight years after construction was halted on two AP1000s at for the potential completion of the units. It was a good month for pictures, with Amazon giving an update on its SMR progress, with , and a picture gallery of the arriving in southern France. There was also nuclear fuel news with four companies being selected by the US Department of Energy for its .
November
The clear frontrunner for the month was the news that the experimental TMSR-LF1 thorium-powered molten salt reactor in Wuwei, Gansu Province, had achieved according to the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Also popular was the in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and . In the UK, the , three months after the government signed the final investment decision on the twin EPRs project. In the US Constellation said it was . In Ukraine the . South Africa’s and in Sweden the pro-nuclear mood continued with the .
December
With just a few days to go to the end of the year, the most read articles of the month have been, in order: The in federal cost-shared funding to support early deployments of advanced light-water small modular reactors in the USA; Samsung Heavy Industries receiving Approval in Principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for a developed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute; Belgium – the fifth to go as part of the country’s nuclear phase-out policy; GE Vernova Hitachi’s BWRX-300 design ; and news from Idaho National Laboratory that it had .
Over the whole year, the most read were:
