Category: 3. Business

Washington spent much of the 1970s trying to become a center for nuclear power, with plans for five huge fission reactors at Richland and Satsop.

Then came cost overruns, construction problems, and one of the biggest municipal bond defaults in Wall Street history in 1983.

Only one of the five proposed reactors of the Washington Public Power Supply System — or WPPSS, commonly pronounced “Whoops” — was finished at Richland. In 1998, WPPSS became Energy Northwest largely to erase the stigma, and completed the 1,150-megawatt reactor that became the Columbia Generating Station.

Fast forward to today.

Again, Washington is trying to become a hub for nuclear power. But instead of monster-size reactors, the state is now home to multiple ventures involving smaller reactors — all using technologies unheard of in the 1970s and 1980s.

Fusion and small modular reactors are the emerging sources of nuclear power, although both are still fledgling technologies. Policymakers are looking at both. So, too, are some of the nation’s largest tech corporations, eager to find power for electricity-hungry data centers.

One of the first commercially viable fusion reactors in the U.S. is under construction roughly 6 miles southeast of Wenatchee. It’s expected to be working by 2028, with power going to Microsoft. Fusion reactors are attractive in part because they don’t produce highly radioactive waste.

Efforts are also underway to develop a different type of fusion reactor in Everett and Richland. These would be small portable units.

And there are plans for what could be the nation’s second small modular reactor complex at Richland. Amazon is playing a part in that potential undertaking. Small modular reactors are essentially prefabricated mini-versions of traditional fission reactors. They are supposedly faster and cheaper to build than traditional reactors.

In the works

Founded in 2013 in Redmond, Helion Energy moved its main lab to Everett and recently began construction in July on a reactor site in the small Chelan County town of Malaga.

“This is a first-of-its-kind generator,” said Helion co-founder Anthony Pancotti.

The Malaga complex will house a 50-megawatt fusion reactor called Orion. The plan is for the reactor to deliver power to Microsoft under a contract between the two companies.

Helion’s long-term plan is to eventually produce more of these reactors to be distributed worldwide, Pancotti said. Helion has roughly 450 employees at Everett and Malaga.

Small portable fusion reactors — about the size of a wine barrel and capable of generating 100 kilowatts — could become a reality in southern Seattle and Richland in a few years.

“What we are going for is mobile power,” said Brian Riordan, cofounder of Avalanche Energy, a company based in the Seattle area that is developing space and underwater fusion reactors.

Initial customers would likely buy the mini-reactors for military satellites and unmanned underwater vehicles. Riordan hopes to sell Avalanche’s first 100-kilowatt reactor before 2030.

The company plans to branch out into other uses, for portable power generators, with Riordan noting that the fusion device needs to produce electricity cheaper than what is created by wind and solar power options.

Avalanche’s headquarters and research facilities are near Boeing Field. The company recently leased a Port of Benton facility in northern Richland for an operation called FusionWERX.

“FusionWERX is going to be the fusion industry’s equivalent of a commercial wind tunnel — an open-access facility where new ideas, technologies, and components can be tested and validated,” Avalanche’s CEO, Robin Langtry, said in a statement.

Avalanche has roughly 70 employees split between Seattle and Richland.

Another company, X-energy, signed agreements last year with Amazon and Energy Northwest for the retail giant to invest $334 million to study putting four modular reactors on the site of the half-built WPPSS Reactor No. 1, which is next to the Columbia Generating Station.

This piece of federal land gives the project the advantage of existing infrastructure, including roads and utilities from the 1980s.

Amazon’s interest is prompted by its plans to build data centers.

The four-reactor proposal — dubbed the “Cascade Advanced Energy Facility” — would produce 320 megawatts, with the possibility of adding more reactors to reach 960 megawatts.

Energy Northwest has been doing environmental, safety and legal reviews on the proposal. Construction is tentatively set to begin at the end of this decade.

Amazon has tentative plans to work with X-energy to build small modular reactors across the nation by 2039 that would collectively produce 5,000 megawatts of power.

‘The world’s leading hub for fusion’

The concept of fusion has been around for roughly a century. Right now, around 40 fusion development projects using different technologies exist worldwide, while no commercially viable fusion reactors are currently producing electricity.

A huge hurdle is that the amount of electricity needed to create a fusion reaction is greater than the power that would be produced. In 2022, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California used lasers to produce surplus electricity.

Shortly afterward, Helion Energy achieved that same goal with a setup that slams two atoms together.

Practical fusion is so new that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission — which routinely takes years to approve new designs for fission reactors — currently does not regulate fusion devices.

Consequently, Helion and Avalanche do not need the commission’s approval for their devices. Instead, they obtain permits from the state and their host counties.

That will likely change soon. Last July, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a report to Congress on how it should license fusion devices.

Related: To meet growing energy demand, Oregon is ‘nuclear curious,’ mostly cautious

On Oct. 31, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, both Washington Democrats, along with other congressional members of both parties, announced the introduction of a bill to provide tax credits for fusion-related ventures.

“The state of Washington is the world’s leading hub for fusion energy, which one day could provide vast amounts of the type of power we need to keep electricity prices down and increase America’s economic competitiveness,” Cantwell said in a press release.

Then, in November, the U.S. Department of Energy created an Office of Fusion as the Trump administration moved away from renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, in order to shift money to nuclear and fossil fuel development.

Fusion leaders met with the Energy Department on Dec. 9 to lobby for federal support for fusion.

“Now is the time for the U.S. to make a significant investment, and that means over a billion dollars per year in annual appropriations and a one-time infrastructure investment,” Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, said at the time, according to Reuters.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a huge federal lab in northern Richland, is beginning two fusion-related materials projects. Materials are critical as, during operation, components of fusion reactors can reach temperatures hotter than the sun.

The Tri-Cities area has deep roots and a strong workforce in the nuclear sector, tracing back to the Manhattan Project in 1943.

Consequently, this region has great interest in new types of reactors, the fusion industry, and clean energy projects, said David Reeploeg, head of federal relations for the Tri-City Development Council, and Sean O’Brien, executive director of the council’s clean energy spinoff called the Energy Forward Alliance.

The Tri-Cities, which include Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, are also looking at attracting data centers with local nuclear power and having a long-time nuclear fuel assembly plant expand the types of fuel it can offer, Reeploeg and O’Brien said.

“The key focus for us is keeping our workforce employed,” O’ Brien said.

Related: Nuclear energy push stalls out, but opponents sense a ‘shift’ in Oregon

Modular designs

Small modular reactors are like prefabricated houses. There are locked-in designs and pre-built components, which are then taken to a site and assembled. Small modular reactors are designed so extra modules can be added as needed. This concept is supposed to lead to lower costs, faster construction and more flexibility.

Each modular unit would be a mini-reactor capable of generating 50 to 300 megawatts of energy.

Some U.S. and world leaders are pushing this new nuclear reactor as a carbon-emissions-free power technology to combat climate change.

NuScale Power, based in Corvallis, Oregon, is the only U.S. venture so far to receive Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for its small modular reactor design.

The company obtained a contract to build a modular reactor complex at Idaho Falls for Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, which is part of the Utah state government and provides electricity to four states.

However, many of that project’s prospective customers dropped out, and the project was canceled in 2023.

A 2022 Stanford University study raised questions about contamination from used nuclear fuel from small modular reactors. It looked at NuScale’s designs, as well as designs from two other companies submitted to the federal government. Not among them was X-energy’s, the company involved in the project with Energy Northwest and Amazon. The study picked NuScale’s design because it was the furthest along in the federal review process.

The Stanford study concluded that NuScale’s design and the two others would produce greater volumes of radioactive waste than conventional reactors, and that the used reactor fuel would be roughly 50% more radioactive.

NuScale contested those conclusions, saying the Stanford study looked at outdated designs.

State legislation teed up

Two Republican Washington state legislators — with high-ranking Democratic cosponsors — have introduced similar 2026 nuclear fission power reactor bills in the Senate and House.

The bills, which do not mention fusion power, call for developing a nuclear power development master plan for Washington state by Dec. 15, 2026. Introduced by Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia and Rep. Stephanie Barnard, R-Pasco, the legislation points to signs that Washington’s push for alternative power sources might not meet the state’s needs.

Washington is a net exporter of electricity, but the state government predicts it will be a net importer of power by 2050. Meanwhile, Montana and Wyoming were expected to send wind and solar power to Washington in the next few decades. But the legislation says that those power sources now look less promising.

The proposed report would address future fission power reactor goals, plus what various governments and utilities should do. It would also look at financing, siting, consulting with tribes, workforce requirements, and regulatory needs.

Washington State Standardis part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

This republished story is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org/partnerships.

Newfoundland and Labrador needs more houses, and one advocate says it’s going to take a multi-pronged approach to boost construction.

Kelly Rogers, an executive with the Canadian Home Builders Association’s Newfoundland and Labrador branch, said the latest data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows new housing construction in the province as “mixed.”

“It’s generally showing a positive year-to-date trend in urban areas, despite some recent monthly volatility. The year-to-date housing starts from January to October … it was 880 units,” she told CBC News.

In 2012, when the housing construction sector was “booming,” she said housing starts were 3,885.

“We’re a long way from those steps,” Rogers said.

There are a number of factors that can depress housing affordability and supply, she said, like higher interest rates, restrictive mortgage rules, development changes, red tape, as well as labour shortages.

Over the summer, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a GST rebate for first time home buyers, something Rogers said would result in significant savings for those customers. However, the bill wasn’t passed.

‘A huge feat’

A 2024 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report estimated Newfoundland and Labrador needed 60,000 new housing units built in the next six years, which would mean 10,000 new homes a year.

“That’s quite significant and it is a huge feat, for sure,” said Rogers.

During the recent provincial election, the Progressive Conservatives pledged to build 10,000 homes over five years.

Rogers said to ramp up construction there needs to be targeted investment in housing to improve infrastructure. A big barrier to construction outside of St. John’s is municipal water, sewer and road systems capacity, she said.

“We also need to remove the barriers to factory built homes, one of which includes financial institutions not offering proper construction financing products for modular homes,” Rogers said.

The recently passed federal budget earmarked an initial $13 billion over the next five years to “supercharge” the housing industry, with money for developing factory-built housing and other affordable home options.

“There’s still all kinds of regulations in place. It’s not as easy as just saying, ‘OK, let’s build 1,000 modular homes.’ There’s so many barriers to that,” Rogers said.

Red tape a ‘major focus’

Housing Minister Joedy Wall said building 10,000 homes in the next few years is an “ambitious goal” but the new Progressive Conservative government is ready for it.

Wall said reducing red tape for municipalities will be a “major focus we’re going to be looking at,” adding — as a former mayor — he understands different towns have different regulations.

“At the [Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador] event in Corner Brook just a couple of weeks back … many towns want to have the chat, wanting to be part of the solution, which is great because as a provincial government we cannot do this alone,” he said.

Wall said the province is also looking at different types of builds, modular homes and micro-units.

Wall, who was speaking during a ground-breaking ceremony for a Habitat Humanity duplex in Mount Pearl at the time, said he hadn’t spoken with his federal colleagues on how federal initiatives could help the province boost its housing supply.

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Tesla said that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9% from a year earlier.

Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, is now the biggest EV maker.

It’s a stunning reversal for a car company whose rise once seemed unstoppable as it overtook traditional automakers with far more resources and helped make Musk the world’s richest man. The sales drop came despite President Donald Trump’s marketing effort early last year when he called a press conference to praise Musk as a “patriot” in front of Teslas lined up on the White House driveway, then announced he would be buying one, bucking presidential precedent to not endorse private company products.

For the fourth quarter, Tesla sales totaled 418,227, falling short of even the much reduced 440,000 target that analysts recently polled by FactSet had expected. Sales were hit hard by the expiration of a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases that was phased out by the Trump administration at the end of September.

Tesla stock fell 2.6% to $438.07 on Friday.

Even with multiple issues buffeting the company, investors are betting that Tesla CEO Musk can deliver on his ambitions to make Tesla a leader in robotaxi services and get consumers to embrace humanoid robots that can perform basic tasks in homes and offices. Reflecting that optimism, the stock finished 2025 with a gain of approximately 11%.

The latest quarter was the first with sales of stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3 that Musk unveiled in early October as part of an effort to revive sales. The new Model Y costs just under $40,000 while customers can buy the cheaper Model 3 for under $37,000. Those versions are expected to help Tesla compete with Chinese models in Europe and Asia.

For fourth-quarter earnings coming out in late January, analysts are expecting the company to post a 3% drop in sales and a nearly 40% drop in earnings per share, according to FactSet. Analysts expect the downward trend in sales and profits to eventually reverse itself as 2026 rolls along.

Musk said earlier last year that a “major rebound” in sales was underway, but investors were unruffled when that didn’t pan out, choosing instead to focus on Musk’s pivot to different parts of business. He has has been saying the future of the company lies with its driverless robotaxis service, its energy storage business and building robots for the home and factory — and much less with car sales.

Tesla started rolling out its robotaxi service in Austin in June, first with safety monitors in the cars to take over in case of trouble, then testing without them. The company hopes to roll out the service in several cities this year.

To do that successfully, it needs to take on rival Waymo, which has been operating autonomous taxis for years and has far more customers. It also will also have to contend with regulatory challenges. The company is under several federal safety investigations and other probes. In California, Tesla is at risk of temporarily losing its license to sell cars in the state after a judge there ruled it had misled customers about their safety.

“Regulatory is going to be a big issue,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a well-known bull on the stock. “We’re dealing with people’s lives.”

Still, Ives said he expects Tesla’s autonomous offerings will soon overcome any setbacks.

Musk has said he hopes software updates to his cars will enable hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles to operate autonomously with zero human intervention by the end of this year. The company is also planning to begin production of its AI-powered Cybercab with no steering wheel or pedals in 2026.

To keep Musk focused on the company, Tesla’s directors awarded Musk a potentially enormous new pay package that shareholders backed at the annual meeting in November.

Musk scored another huge windfall two weeks ago when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018.

Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire later this year when he sells shares of his rocket company SpaceX to the public for the first time in what analysts expect would be a blockbuster initial public offering.

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AP video journalist Mustakim Hasnath contributed to this report from London.

A former bank is to be converted into a cafe and shop despite multiple objections.

Developers were granted permission to convert the former NatWest bank in Greengates by Bradford Council in December, despite receiving 12 objections.

The building on New Line, which is next to a pharmacy and Asda, has been vacant for more than a year, according to the council.

Residents objecting to the plans said they were concerned about the negative impact on property values, potential damage to local businesses and an increase in parking.

Welcome to OncLive®’s OncFive!

Every week, we bring you a quick roundup of the 5 top stories from the world of oncology—ranging from pivotal regulatory decisions to key pipeline updates to expert insights on breakthroughs that are moving the needle in cancer care. This resource is designed to keep you informed on the latest updates in the space, in just a matter of minutes.

Here’s what you may have missed this week:

The FDA approved narsoplimab-wuug (Yartemlea) for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients aged 2 years or older with hematopoietic stem cell transplant–associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA). The decision was supported by single-arm TA-TMA Study and expanded access program data showing a TMA complete response (CR) rate of 61% in evaluable patients, with consistent responses across adult and pediatric cohorts. Treatment led to improvements in platelet count, lactate dehydrogenase levels, organ function, and transfusion independence, with a 100-day survival rate of approximately 73% from TMA diagnosis. This marks the first FDA-approved therapy for TA-TMA, representing a practice-changing advance in post-transplant supportive care.

A new drug application has been submitted to the FDA seeking approval of bezuclastinib (CGT0486) for use in patients with nonadvanced systemic mastocytosis, based on positive results from the phase 2 SUMMIT trial (NCT05186753). Bezuclastinib significantly improved total symptom score at week 24 compared with placebo and led to higher rates of clinically meaningful symptom reduction. The agent also showcased marked biologic activity, with over 95% of evaluable patients achieving at least a 50% reduction in serum tryptase levels. These data support bezuclastinib as a potential disease-modifying therapy in a population with limited approved options.

China’s National Medical Products Administration approved ipilimumab N01 (IBI310; Tabosun) in combination with sintilimab (Tyvyt) as neoadjuvant therapy for patients with stage IIB to III resectable microsatellite instability–high/mismatch repair–deficient colon cancer. The decision was supported by data from the phase 3 NeoShot study (NCT05890742) demonstrating an 82% pathological CR (pCR) rate with the combination versus surgery alone, without increased surgical risk. Earlier phase 1b results showed significantly higher pCR rates with ipilimumab N01 plus sintilimab vs sintilimab monotherapy. This represents the world’s first approval of a CTLA-4 antibody in the neoadjuvant colon cancer setting.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approved tafasitamab-cxix (Minjuvi) plus rituximab (Rituxan) and lenalidomide (Revlimid) for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma. The decision was based on findings from the phase 3 inMIND trial (NCT04680052), which showed a significant progression-free survival (PFS) benefit over placebo plus rituximab and lenalidomide, at a median PFS of 22.4 months vs 13.9 months (HR, 0.43). Independent review confirmed durable PFS benefit, with median PFS not reached in the tafasitamab arm. This approval establishes a chemotherapy-free, dual CD19/CD20–targeted option in Japan for relapsed/refractory disease.

In December 2025, the FDA issued multiple oncology approvals, including full approval of pirtobrutinib (Jaypirca) for relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma based on findings from BRUIN CLL-321 (NCT04666038) and clearance of lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi) for relapsed/refractory marginal zone lymphoma based on data from TRANSCEND-FL (NCT04245839). Additional approvals included niraparib plus abiraterone (Akeega) for BRCA2-mutated metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer based on findings from AMPLITUDE (NCT04497844) and fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) plus pertuzumab (Perjeta) for frontline HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer based on data from DESTINY-Breast09 (NCT04784715). The agency also expanded access to subcutaneous formulations of amivantamab and hyaluronidase-lpuj (Rybrevant Faspro) and mosunetuzumab (Lunsumio VELO), improving treatment convenience without compromising efficacy. Collectively, these decisions reflect continued momentum toward precision oncology, novel drug delivery platforms, and earlier use of targeted and cellular therapies.

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Key Points

• The Trump administration and the SEC say they want to eliminate the need for quarterly financial reports by public companies, a move that would reduce the regulatory burden on companies and encourage more long-term thinking.
• But a number of factors could cause companies to continue to report more often than semiannually, including shareholder demands, the prospect of activist pressure and the possibility that less frequent reporting would result in less analyst coverage.
• Changing to semiannual reporting could also complicate capital raising, share buybacks and trading windows for insiders.

Public companies in the U.S. could soon be freed of the obligation to report financial information every quarter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has indicated it will support shifting to a semiannual reporting following President Donald Trump’s renewed call to end mandatory quarterly reporting. But many companies could decide to disclose financial information more frequently for a variety of reasons, including pressure from investors, analysts and activists, and because of potential complications for trading and fair disclosures.

Altering the reporting requirements would require the SEC to go through its rulemaking process, first proposing rules, then subjecting them to a public comment period before finally adopting them. But SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated that the SEC is fast-tracking President Trump’s proposal.

Potential Implications

Semiannual reporting would have various potential implications for public companies, positive and negative:

Long-term focus. The shift to semiannual reporting could potentially allow management to focus more on long-term investments and business strategy rather than quarterly earnings. Proponents have argued that frequent reporting on the quarterly cycle leads to greater short-term market volatility.

Reduced regulatory burden. Filing fewer regulatory filings could free up corporate resources, including those dedicated to preparing the reports and working with auditors to review 10-Q financial statements. However, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires companies to maintain robust disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting processes, separate from public reports. Companies would also need to assess how semiannual reporting would impact financial accounting processes (e.g., the frequency of impairment testing) and the external annual audit.

Increased voluntary reporting. Given the longstanding mandate and cadence of quarterly reporting, companies may continue this practice voluntarily in response to investor and analyst expectations. For example, reduced information flow could result in less analyst coverage. Companies may also be forced to continue quarterly reporting to provide comparability with competitors. Many companies in jurisdictions that mandate only semiannual reporting, such as the EU and U.K., nonetheless choose to voluntarily report earnings on a quarterly basis.

Semiannual reporting may also result in more frequent Form 8-K “Current Report” filings or press releases to communicate material developments that might otherwise be reported in the Form 10-Q under the current quarterly reporting regime.

Shareholder activists. Activist investors generally want more transparency, not less. They may pressure companies to voluntarily report key metrics in between semiannual filings and raise issues if a company chooses not to do so, or does not disclose the same level of information as competitors. If a company begins to underperform relative to its peers, an activist may use the lack of disclosure as a wedge issue. To avoid this, companies would be well advised to proactively engage with their largest shareholders to understand their desired level of reporting.

Capital raising, buybacks and trading by insiders. Semiannual reporting could also limit trading opportunities unless supplemented with interim disclosures of earnings or other material information. Longer gaps between disclosures of material nonpublic information might complicate new securities offerings and make companies more cautious about opening trading windows for share repurchases and trades by insiders, and entry into Rule 10b5-1 insider trading plans.

Regulation FD. Longer gaps between periodic reports could also present risks of inadvertent selective disclosure of material nonpublic information without broad dissemination, in violation of SEC Regulation FD. It is considered best practice to maintain “quiet periods” before quarterly earnings. Companies would need to reassess those under a semiannual reporting timeline.

Next Steps

In 2018, during President Trump’s first administration, the SEC published a request for comment on earnings releases and quarterly reports and hosted a roundtable, but declined to pursue further reforms. However, there was broad support for a change to semiannual reporting in response to a request for comment then, and the SEC can consider that in proposing rule changes. Nonetheless, as explained, any changes would take time to implement, and final rules would likely include a transition period.

In the meantime, companies will need to assess investors’ views and weigh the pros and cons before eliminating full quarterly reports.

January 3, 2026