Energy — Timeline

Timeline

Feb 13, 2026 — Helion's Polaris (7th-gen prototype, suburban Seattle) reaches 150 million °C (~10× the sun's core) and is reported as "the first privately developed fusion machine to operate with deuterium-tritium fuel"; ~100M°C is the minimum threshold for sustained commercial fusion. As of late 2025 Polaris had not announced net energy production. (Fortune)

Jun 1 — FERC grants Constellation waiver to transfer 760 MW of Capacity Interconnection Rights from Eddystone to Crane Clean Energy Center. (Bloomberg)
Jun 2026 — Constellation says NRC could decide on Crane (TMI) restart license as soon as June 2026. (Seeking Alpha)

May 2026 — SMRIntel tracker: 13 nuclear datacenter deals announced, committing 9.8 GW of nuclear capacity to hyperscalers. (SMRIntel)

Apr 2026 — PJM reopens its long-closed interconnection queue with reformed cluster-based study process; promises 1-2 year study timelines. (Advanced Energy United)
Apr 22, 2026 — GE Vernova Q1 2026 earnings: $18.3B orders (+71% organic), $163B total backlog (+$13B in Q1), gas turbine backlog 100 GW; guidance raised to $44.5-45.5B revenue, 12-14% EBITDA margin. (SEC 8-K)
Apr 2026 — TerraPower Natrium NRC safety evaluation completed; construction permit decision expected H1 2026. (Yale Clean Energy Forum)

Q1 2026 — Global datacenter electricity demand: 132 GW (+27% from 104 GW in 2025); US datacenters 41 GW. (Gartner, IEA)
Q1 2026 — AI-optimized servers account for 31% of datacenter power consumption. (Gartner)
Q1 2026 — Vistra record Q1 EBITDA $1.494B; AWS 1,200 MW Comanche Peak PPA + Meta 2,600 MW PJM PPA confirmed in earnings. (PRNewswire)
Q1 2026 — GE Vernova electrification segment: $2.4B in datacenter equipment orders in Q1 alone (more than all of 2025).

Jan 9, 2026 — Meta contracts up to 6.6 GW of nuclear by 2035 for its "Prometheus" AI supercluster in New Albany, OH: Vistra (2.2 GW existing Ohio nuclear + 433 MW upgrades, 8-yr window), Oklo (1.2 GW, first reactors as early as 2030), TerraPower (up to eight Natrium reactors + storage; 2.6 GW + 1.2 GW storage; two units as soon as 2032). Neither Oklo nor TerraPower holds an NRC construction permit yet. (Latitude Media)
Jan 2026 — Uranium spot price surpasses $100/lb (peak $101.41); 17-month high at $83-85/lb. (Sprott, INN)
Early 2026 — CFS SPARC is 60% complete; first of 18 HTS magnets installed. (CFS press release)
Early 2026 — Cumulative private fusion investment globally surpasses $7 billion. (NEI, BusinessWire)

Dec 2025 — TerraPower NRC final safety evaluation for Natrium reactor issued. (Yale CEF)

Oct 2025 — TerraPower NRC environmental review completed for Natrium at Kemmerer, WY. (Yale CEF)

Aug 2025 — Google↔Kairos Power: the first corporate SMR PPA — Hermes 2 (Oak Ridge) supplying 50 MW by 2030, scaling to 500 MW. (hyperscaler-nuclear-procurement)

Jul 2025 — Helion Energy breaks ground on Orion fusion power plant site, Malaga, WA — for Microsoft 2028 PPA. (pdpSpectra)

May 2025 — NuScale Power receives NRC approval for uprated 77 MWe module design (from 50 MWe). (DOE, NRC)

2025 — Kazatomprom cuts 2025 production guidance; 2026 cuts follow at 10%. (INN)
2025 — Cameco signs C$2.6B uranium supply deal with India (22M lbs over 9 years from 2027). (INN)
2025 — Helion's Polaris prototype demonstrates measurable D-T fusion and achieves 150 million°C plasma temperatures — first private D-T demonstration.
2025 — GE Vernova gas turbine backlog growth begins, driven by AI datacenter demand.
2025 — US interconnection queue reaches 2,060+ GW seeking connection (growing toward 2,600 GW).
Sep 2025 — Global fusion investment (private + public) hits $10 billion cumulative. (BusinessWire)

Mar 2024 — Talen Energy sells 960 MW datacenter campus adjacent to Susquehanna nuclear plant to Amazon for $650M — first major nuclear co-location deal. (Build.inc)
Apr 2024 — GE Vernova spun out of General Electric; begins trading independently (GEV). (NYSE)
2024 — Microsoft signs 20-year PPA with Constellation Energy for all output of Crane Clean Energy Center (835 MW; TMI Unit 1 restart).
2024 — Meta signs 20-year nuclear PPA with Constellation for Clinton Power Station (IL), beginning 2027.
2024 — Google signs contracts with Kairos Power (KP-FHR) and X-energy (Xe-100) for SMR power.
2024 — Vistra signs AWS 20-year PPA for 1,200 MW at Comanche Peak nuclear.
2024 — Corporate renewable PPAs globally hit 46 GW (record); hyperscalers = 76%. (South Pole)
2024 — US interconnection queue exceeds 2,000 GW backlog for first time. (LBNL)

Nov 2023 — NuScale/UAMPS Carbon Free Power Project (Utah) cancelled due to cost escalation ($5.3B → ~$9.3B). Major setback for first-generation SMR economics.

Sep 2023 — Constellation↔Microsoft sign a 20-year PPA to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1 (Pennsylvania) — the anchor deal that opens the hyperscaler nuclear-procurement rush. (hyperscaler-nuclear-procurement)

May 2023 — NRC issues Standard Design Approval for NuScale 50 MWe module — first ever US SMR design approval.
Jan 2023 — NuScale's standard design approval makes it the only SMR with full NRC design certification — a moat against which Oklo and other advanced reactors are measured. (nuscale-q1-2026-context)

2023 — Cameco acquires 49% of Westinghouse (co-owned with Brookfield Renewable), creating vertically integrated nuclear fuel + services giant.
2023 — Uranium spot price enters sustained rally; long-term contracting accelerates.
2023 — Constellation Energy becomes independent company (spun from Exelon Feb 2022); nuclear PPA strategy takes shape.

Dec 2022 — NIF/LLNL achieves fusion ignition — first time more energy produced than laser input delivered (scientific Q > 1). (DOE)
2022 — Three Mile Island Unit 1 (Crane) closed (2019); restart discussions with Microsoft begin.
2022 — Talen Energy emerges from bankruptcy with cleaner balance sheet.

Sep 2021 — CFS demonstrates HTS (High-Temperature Superconducting) magnet at 20 Tesla — validates compact tokamak approach; SPARC fundraising begins.
2021 — Helion Energy raises massive round ($2.2B total) led by Dustin Moskovitz; Sam Altman leads separately.