MON AM News: SHINE enters agreement for advancing efforts to recycle spent nuclear fuel; WEDC providing grant for Marathon City downtown development

June 22, 2026

— SHINE Technologies has announced a new partnership with a French company advancing efforts to recycle spent nuclear fuel.

The Janesville nuclear technology business recently announced details for the agreement with newcleo, which develops advanced nuclear reactors and fuel.

Under the partnership, the two companies will explore possibilities for SHINE supplying newcleo with materials derived from spent nuclear fuel. The French company in turn would use those materials to manufacture “mixed oxide” or MOX fuel, which is being touted as a more sustainable alternative fuel for nuclear reactors.

Meanwhile, the companies say they will jointly pursue U.S. federal funding opportunities and other ways to work together domestically and in the European Union, according to the announcement.

SHINE CEO and founder Greg Piefer says recycling spent fuel helps reduce constraints on expanding nuclear energy production, while also repurposing decades worth of built-up waste.

“Working with newcleo connects our capabilities directly to reactors designed to run on recycled fuel,” he said in a statement. “That closed fuel cycle effectively makes nuclear energy renewable and fundamentally changes its economics.”

The partnership comes on the heels of SHINE being chosen for “advanced negotiations” by the U.S. Department of Energy to convert surplus plutonium originally meant for nuclear weapons into reactor fuel.

The company says it’s working on nuclear fuel “reprocessing” technology to extract uranium and plutonium from existing spent nuclear fuel inventory, pointing to the U.S. stockpile that has at least 90,000 metric tons. SHINE is seeking to stand up a commercial pilot facility by the early 2030s that could process 100 metric tons of used fuel each year.

Using the closed fuel cycle that Piefer is touting, the businesses say they can “significantly reduce the volume and radioactivity levels” of spent nuclear fuel, reducing the cost of long-term storage for what’s left over.

They’re planning to start technical scoping this year, leading up to joint federal funding proposals after that point. Financial details of the partnership aren’t being disclosed.

See the release.

Check out an earlier podcast with Piefer.

— WEDC is providing a $250,000 grant to support a downtown development in Marathon County, which will feature a health clinic, grocery store and community event space.

The state agency on Friday announced details for the project in Marathon City, located just west of Wausau. It’s being led by Taryn Stittleburg, a clinical nutritionist, chiropractor and owner of Stittleburg Restorative Health Care.

She says the WEDC grant has helped “bridge the gap” for financing the project.

“I don’t know that we would have been able to make this project without this financing piece,” Stittleburg said in the release.

Along with the planned Integrate Functional Health clinic — an expansion of Stittleburg’s existing business — the project will include a farm-to-table grocery store called Whole Roots & Co., as well as event space.

Steve Cherek, the village’s administrator, says the new grocery option is “definitely needed” as many residents drive to Wausau for healthy grocery options that aren’t currently available locally.

“Here you can now walk straight downtown and grab the items you may need,” he said.

See the release.

— Local officials in Bayfield are touting a new analysis showing visitors to the northern Wisconsin city generated $70.5 million in economic impact in 2025.

The Bayfield Chamber & Visitor Bureau recently released the findings from local business consulting firm Camstra Analytics. Tourism remains a “major economic driver” for the area along part of Wisconsin’s far northern shoreline, officials said in the announcement.

The analysis puts the direct visitor spending total for the year at $54.2 million, including about 270,000 visitors to Bayfield last year.

Carol Fahrenkrog, the bureau’s executive director, says the figures illustrate the value of strategic tourism promotion and its impact on businesses in the area.

“These numbers tell the story of how important visitors are to Bayfield’s local economy,” Fahrenkrog said in a statement.

See the release.

— Wisconsin Clean Cities is offering assistance to businesses and other applicants seeking funding for electric vehicle charging stations along key travel routes in the state.

The advocacy group is urging interested parties to reach out for help with applying, as the state Department of Transportation is now taking applications to expand coverage of federally funded EV charging stations at specified state and U.S. highway corridors.

The state DOT recently released the Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Connecting Corridors request for proposals, which includes details on how to apply.

Applicants can include private companies as well as tribal groups and nonprofit organizations authorized to do business in the state. The opportunity excludes utilities, governmental entities and higher education institutions, according to the group’s recent email.

A total of $40 million is available, the group notes, adding applicants are being asked to pitch in a 20% match from non-federal sources. The application deadline is July 24, and awards will be announced in the fall.

— UW-Madison Prof. Owen Tamplin’s work to better understand how certain rare cancers develop has been complicated by uncertainty around federal research funding, as highlighted in a recent article in the university’s alumni magazine.

Tamplin, an assistant professor in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, is using embryonic zebra fish to model brain tumor development in hopes of shedding light on this process and enabling earlier detection.

His work has implications for patients like Owen Petrzelka, who died in 2020 at age 6 after being diagnosed with a rare cancer known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG. Both his story and Tamplin’s research were the focus of “The Two Owens,” published in the summer 2026 edition of “On Wisconsin.”

While Tamplin’s research through the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research could help scientists grasp why DIPG happens and in which patients, he has encountered new hurdles with federal grant funding under the Trump administration.

The article highlights the challenges health researchers face when confronted with uncertainty at the federal level about funding support for ongoing projects, as well as how they’re rising to meet them.

Read the full article.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

Sign up here.

— In the latest GOP radio address, Sen. Dan Feyen celebrated Father’s Day and says Republicans supported reforms to increase childcare access and provide relief to parents.

The Fond du Lac Republican says Republicans expanded the Wisconsin Shares program and helped create additional childcare slots by expanding workforce opportunities and eliminating administrative red tape.

“And the best part? We were able to find sustainable, long-term solutions rather than making temporary, pandemic-era programs permanent,” Feyen says.

Legislative Republicans opposed extending the Child Care Counts program, instead reaching an agreement with Dem Gov. Tony Evers to use interest from it for a new bridge program providing monthly payments.

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