The Open Group Launches the Industrial Advanced Nuclear™ Consortium to Accelerate Nuclear-Powered Industrial Solutions
The Open Group, a globally recognized, vendor-neutral technology and standards organization, has announced the official launch of the Industrial Advanced Nuclear™ Consortium (IANC). This new initiative marks a significant step toward integrating advanced nuclear heat and power solutions into the industrial sector. By fostering collaboration between major industrial end users, nuclear technology providers, regulators, and engineering partners, the Consortium aims to accelerate the development and deployment of nuclear-powered solutions that are reliable, cost-effective, carbon-free, and scalable to industrial needs.
Driving the Next Phase of Nuclear Innovation
The Consortium has been established with a clear mission: to standardize frameworks, guidelines, and interfaces that will make advanced nuclear technologies easier to deploy in industrial environments. Unlike traditional nuclear projects, which often face high upfront costs, regulatory delays, and design inconsistencies, the IANC seeks to create a unified open standard framework. This will allow industrial facilities to adopt nuclear-generated heat and power with greater confidence, reduced cost uncertainty, and minimized regulatory risks.
The benefits for industrial end users are expected to be substantial. Industries that rely heavily on energy and heat — such as chemicals, refining, manufacturing, and steel production — will gain access to diverse energy sources that are carbon-free, safe, and dependable. At a time when industries are under increasing pressure to decarbonize operations while maintaining competitiveness, advanced nuclear energy could play a transformative role.
Why an Open Architecture Approach Matters
Steve Nunn, President and CEO of The Open Group, emphasized the urgent need for a shift in how nuclear energy is applied to meet industrial needs.
“There is an urgent need to better leverage nuclear energy to address the application of heat and power solutions,” Nunn explained. “We believe that an open architecture approach can enable cost-effective solutions that can be replicated to drive this adoption. By bringing together large industrial end users and the supplier community, we can draw on the huge amount of industry expertise in project delivery, reduce cost and schedule uncertainty, and effectively deliver nuclear projects that serve the needs of the industry.”
This philosophy is rooted in The Open Group’s decades-long track record of creating industry-wide standards that cut across competitive boundaries. By applying the same model to nuclear energy, the Consortium intends to open up the market, reduce duplication of effort, and enable interoperable solutions that support broader adoption.
Regulatory Engagement and Safety Priorities
A core feature of the Consortium’s work will be its close collaboration with regulatory bodies, particularly the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC has expressed interest in actively engaging with the IANC to ensure that nuclear safety remains central to the adoption of new frameworks.
Mike King, the NRC’s Acting Executive Director for Operations, commented on the importance of this collaboration:
“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission looks forward to engaging with the Industrial Advanced Nuclear Consortium to embed appropriate nuclear safety concepts in their standardization work and better understand their business needs and plans. IANC’s input should inform the NRC’s efforts to modernize our regulatory framework, enable innovation, and ensure the safe and timely deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.”
This partnership reflects a growing recognition that regulatory frameworks must evolve to keep pace with technological innovation. By integrating regulatory insights into the Consortium’s early work, IANC aims to streamline the approval process, aligning industrial project timelines with nuclear deployment schedules.
Near-Term Activities and Strategic Goals
To achieve its mission, the Consortium has identified several priority activities for the near term:
- Aggregating Industrial Demand – IANC will bring together industrial companies with significant energy needs to create a unified demand signal for nuclear deployment. This collective approach is expected to give suppliers and regulators clearer visibility into market opportunities.
- Compiling Use Cases and Requirements – By documenting real-world industrial needs, the Consortium will establish a clear set of requirements for nuclear-generated heat and power. These use cases will serve as the foundation for technical and business standards.
- Generating Technical Standards and Guidelines – IANC will produce open, vendor-neutral technical standards and business process guides. These will help reduce uncertainty, promote competition, and establish predictable delivery frameworks for advanced nuclear solutions.
- Stimulating the Nuclear Ecosystem – The Consortium intends to create conditions that encourage technology providers, EPC firms, and industrial players to collaborate on scalable solutions.
Collaboration Across the Energy Ecosystem
The Consortium will not operate in isolation. Instead, it will engage broadly across the nuclear and industrial ecosystems, working with:
- Technology Providers – to ensure innovative nuclear designs align with industrial needs.
- Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Companies – to integrate nuclear projects more efficiently into industrial facility construction.
- Industrial End Users – to ensure that solutions are practical, cost-effective, and aligned with operational realities.
- Policy and Regulatory Bodies – to align nuclear deployment timelines with industrial project schedules.
Among its advocacy priorities, the IANC will focus on standardizing interfaces between nuclear and industrial facilities, which has historically been a barrier to deployment. It will also champion new business models for delivering nuclear-generated heat and power, seeking to reduce costs while improving project delivery schedules.
The Industrial Case for Nuclear Energy
The launch of the Consortium comes at a critical time. While renewable energy sources such as wind and solar continue to expand, many industrial processes still require high-temperature, continuous heat and baseload power that renewables alone cannot reliably provide. Advanced nuclear reactors, particularly small modular reactors (SMRs) and next-generation designs, are uniquely positioned to fill this gap.
Industries such as petrochemicals, fertilizer production, steelmaking, and cement manufacturing face some of the toughest decarbonization challenges. Nuclear energy, with its ability to deliver zero-carbon heat and electricity at scale, offers a viable pathway to achieving net-zero industrial operations.
