Uranium Digital

Today we're excited to announce that Uranium Digital has closed a $16.5 million Series A. The round was led by @bcap, with participation from existing investors.

The investment will support the expansion of product offerings and technology, as we work to meet growing institutional demand for access to the uranium market.

Learn more at uraniumdigital.com

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali announced plans to build two 1,200 MWe nuclear reactors, with three candidate sites already identified from an initial list of more than 30. The Ethiopian Nuclear Energy Commission was established last year to build the institutional and workforce foundations for the program.

Russia has been Ethiopia's primary nuclear partner since a 2019 intergovernmental agreement, with a Rosatom strategic roadmap signed as recently as March. The two countries are now coordinating a draft agreement on the fundamental principles of cooperation for plant construction, the signing of which would initiate design and engineering work.

Ethiopia joining the pipeline of African countries pursuing nuclear is part of a broader continent-wide pattern. Rosatom is simultaneously in advanced discussions with Egypt, Togo, Namibia, and Tanzania on floating units, while building El Dabaa in Egypt. The number of African nations moving from policy interest into formal nuclear programs is accelerating, and the technology and financing partnerships being formed now will define the continent's energy mix for decades.

Westinghouse has been awarded a Front-End Engineering and Design study for a potential AP1000 reactor at Slovakia's Bohunice site, partially funded by the US State Department's FIRST Program. The six-month study will assess site conditions, licensing status, and produce a preliminary schedule and budget, giving Slovakia's state-owned project company JESS the technical foundation to decide on next steps toward a 2040 target completion date.

The FEED award follows Slovakia consolidating state ownership of the project after Czech utility CEZ sold its stake in JESS earlier this month. With that ownership question resolved, the government is moving into formal technical planning under an intergovernmental agreement with the US signed in January.

Slovakia is already the most nuclear-dependent country in Europe, with nuclear covering more than half its electricity today and approaching 77% once Mochovce 4 reaches full capacity. Adding an AP1000 at Bohunice would extend that position well into the second half of the century and deepen the country's energy independence from Russian supply chains.

Rosatom is in advanced discussions with at least four African countries (currently Egypt, Togo, Namibia, and Tanzania) on supplying floating nuclear power units, according to company executives speaking at a Russia-Africa Summit. The offer is structured as a power purchase agreement, with Rosatom retaining ownership and handling servicing and refueling in Russia over a 60-year operating life.

The pitch is straightforward: 38 of Africa's 54 countries have sufficient coastline to host a floating unit, the infrastructure requirements on land are minimal, and the PPA model eliminates the need for host countries to build their own nuclear capabilities or carry the asset on their balance sheets. Rosatom is positioning floating nuclear as an entry point into the nuclear club for countries that could not otherwise afford a conventional plant.

This follows the Indonesia agreement announced earlier this month and reflects a deliberate Rosatom strategy to use floating units as a market-opening tool across the developing world. Whether these African discussions translate into signed contracts is an open question, but the pipeline is expanding faster than most observers expected a year ago.

The Department of Energy announced $10.1 billion in loan commitments this week, with $5 billion going to Constellation Energy to finance uprates and modernization across its nuclear fleet in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

The Constellation commitment covers plants including Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, Quad Cities, Calvert Cliffs, and Limerick, targeting nearly 1.1 GW of added capacity in PJM and MISO markets.

DOE has now identified 95% of the 5 GW uprate and restart goal it set for the existing US nuclear fleet. The Constellation loan is a direct expression of that strategy: adding gigawatts from plants already built, already licensed, and already operating, without the lead times and costs of new construction.