“Officials with Kenya’s Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) said the country is on track to start construction on its first nuclear power plant by 2027. The group at a parliamentary hearing this month said the facility would begin generating power by 2034.

Kenya’s move is the latest by an African nation as more countries on the continent consider building nuclear power stations to supply electricity amid burgeoning demand for power. Rwanda last year signed a deal with Canada’s Dual Fluid Energy for a test reactor that would use liquid fuel and lead coolant, resulting in less radioactive waste, the Rwanda Atomic Energy Board said in a statement at that time. Officials said the country has a goal of at least 1 GW of nuclear power generation by 2031.”

From POWER.

“Appalachian Power, an American Electric Power (AEP) company, said Nov. 14 it plans to file an application with the Virginia State Corporation Commission in spring 2025 to bring small modular reactors (SMRs) to Virginia.

In addition, Appalachian Power will apply for part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s $900 million grant program to hasten deployment of SMRs and help reduce customer costs, the company said.

‘SMR technology is a key component to providing perfect power to our customers,’ said Bill Fehrman, AEP president and chief executive officer. ‘Appalachian Power and AEP are committed to working with our states to develop energy solutions that align with state policy goals and reliably serve our customers.’

Representatives with Charleston, W.Va.-headquartered Appalachian Power have already identified a potential site for an SMR project on company-owned Joshua Falls property in Campbell County, Va. The site provides access to existing electrical infrastructure that is necessary for a generation project, according to the company, which plans to start the early site permit application process.”

From Daily Energy Insider.

“A small start-up in New Zealand claims it has created plasma, the first step towards nuclear fusion, in under two years and for less than $10mn after experimenting with an unconventional reactor design. 

OpenStar, founded by chief executive Ratu Mataira in 2021 in his Wellington apartment, said on Tuesday that it had created and contained a plasma cloud at around 300,000 degrees Celsius for 20 seconds in its first experimental reactor. 

While much higher plasma temperatures are required to achieve nuclear fusion, OpenStar’s test stands apart for its unconventional reactor design, which the company said could be faster to scale and commercialise.”

From Financial Times.

“In a dusty swath of sagebrush country near the Texas-New Mexico border, engineers at oil producer Matador Resources Co. encountered a problem.

Conventional wisdom called for drilling four wells into the ground and then horizontally to access layers of oil-soaked rock, a technical feat perfected by the US shale industry. But the plot of land was too narrow, limiting each well’s reach and likely making them unprofitable. So the engineers tried a novel concept: a U-turn. After boring vertically to the shale layer, they went sideways for one mile, curved the well around and then drilled back to where it began. It worked. Matador was able to pump the oil with two wells instead of four, essentially cutting costs in half…

The U-turn, or horseshoe well, is an example of the small improvements that together have pushed oil and gas producers to the biggest labor productivity gains of any US sector over the past decade—including even tech-related industries, which have historically ranked first. The nation’s crude output has risen to a record 13.3 million barrels a day, 48% more than Saudi Arabia. All with less than a third of the rigs and far fewer workers than were needed 10 years ago.”

From Bloomberg.