Why it matters: HALEU (uranium enriched to 5–20%) is the fuel required by most SMR and advanced reactor designs. Until February 2026, no Western commercial-scale supply existed — making it the single biggest bottleneck for the entire SMR pipeline. A coalition of North American and European nuclear consortiums announced successful commercial-scale enrichment, unlocking deployment timelines for NuScale, X-energy, Kairos, and others.
Enrichment level: 5–20% U-235Prior source: Russia (sanctioned)New: NA/EU consortium (commercial-scale)
Market
AI + Nuclear Power Deals
Tech-to-nuclear pivot · 2026
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Markets
Uranium Market Tracker
Spot price + key ETFs · Yahoo Finance
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Global
World Reactor Map
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Advanced Reactor Tracker
SMR & Pipeline
Next-generation designs · Click row for detail
Reactor
Developer
Type
MWe
Location
Target
Status
Regional Pipeline
Construction by Region
Reactors expected online 2025–2035
Asia-Pacific BuildsLargest regional pipeline
Expected New Capacity 2025–2035GWe additions
Fusion Watch
Commercial Fusion Tracker
Milestone tracker · Click row for detail
The Fusion Moment (2026): Helion achieved D-T fusion in a private machine for the first time (Feb 2026). CFS SPARC facility is 60% complete. TAE is building utility-scale hardware. More than $6B in private investment since 2021 — more than the previous 60 years combined. Multiple commercial approaches now target 2028–2030s grid power.
PWR: two separate water loops. BWR: water boils directly in the core and drives the turbine.
Select a component
Click any labelled component on the reactor diagram to learn what it does. Toggle between PWR and BWR to see the differences.
Physics Simulator
Chain Reaction
Criticalstable, controlled reactionk-eff = 1.000
Control Rods50%
“A nuclear reactor cannot explode like a bomb. In a bomb, a supercritical mass is assembled in microseconds. In a reactor, control rods keep the reaction at exactly critical — a stable, sustained chain. Even fully withdrawn, the geometry of a reactor core prevents the sudden supercriticality needed for a weapon-scale explosion.”
Emerging Technology
Next Generation Reactors
[NG-01 · SMR]
Small Modular Reactor
Concept
A factory-built reactor small enough to fit on a truck — standardised, repeatable, and deployable in years rather than decades.
Key advantage
Faster to build, lower upfront cost, can power a city district or industrial site. Modular stacking scales output.
Commercial 2030s
NuScale (USA) · Rolls-Royce SMR (UK) · GE Hitachi BWRX-300
[NG-02 · MSR]
Molten Salt Reactor
Concept
Fuel dissolved in liquid salt instead of solid rods — the salt is the fuel and also the coolant.
Key advantage
Cannot melt down (already liquid), can burn thorium or legacy nuclear waste, operates at low pressure.
Demo reactors 2030s · Commercial 2040s
Terrestrial Energy (Canada) · Moltex Energy · SINAP (China)
[NG-03 · SFR]
Fast Reactor
Concept
Uses fast neutrons instead of slow ones — can breed new fissile material and consume long-lived radioactive waste as fuel.
Key advantage
Turns nuclear waste into fuel, dramatically reducing the storage time required from tens of thousands of years to centuries.