
Jets make Sauce Gardner the NFL's highest-paid cornerback with a $120.4M extension, AP source says
The Jets and Gardner agreed on a four-year, $120.4 million extension through the 2030 season, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the agreement had not been announced.
The contract paying the two-time All-Pro an average of $30.1 million a year comes a day after the Jets agreed to a lucrative extension with top wide receiver Garrett Wilson. That deal is worth $130 million, as the organization locked up two foundational players for the long-term future.
Gardner, who turns 25 before Week 1, was the No. 4 pick in the 2022 draft out of Cincinnati. He established himself as one of the league's top cornerbacks during his first two professional seasons, including being selected the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year.
After a down year by his standards, he is out to prove naysayers wrong, saying he has always been an underdog. After recently declining to say whether he wanted to be the richest player at the position, Gardner now has that distinction.
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AP Pro Football Writer Dennis Waszak Jr. contributed to this report.
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Winnipeg Free Press
34 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
British Open schedule on Saturday to be adjusted because of loyalist parade
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Winnipeg Free Press
34 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
A look inside a lab making the advanced fuel to power growing US nuclear energy ambitions
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) — Near signs that warn of radioactive risk at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a half-dozen workers from the nuclear power company X-energy are making what appear to be gray billiard balls. Inside, they're packed with thousands of tiny black spheres that each contain a speck of uranium enriched beyond what today's power plants use. The United States is chasing a new age of nuclear power that banks on domestic production of reactor fuel like X-energy is making, and though the work at Oak Ridge is unfolding across just 3,000 square feet, X-energy and others are already revving up for big production. President Donald Trump set a goal of quadrupling domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, signing executive orders in May to speed up development. A new wave of advanced nuclear reactors could be operational around 2030. But just like cars won't run without gas, those plants won't run without fuel. To expand nuclear energy long-term, the nation must maximize its nuclear fuel production, according to Trump. In Oak Ridge, X-energy has broken ground on a massive, nearly $2 billion campus for a new fuel fabrication facility, the first in the United States in over half a century. The nuclear fuel company Standard Nuclear, also in Oak Ridge, aims to produce metric tons of fuel for advanced reactors. A supplier named Orano is likewise looking to build a multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment facility nearby. 'This is a unique time,' said Tyler Gerczak, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's principal investigator for the cooperative with X-energy's subsidiary TRISO-X. 'The momentum is incredible.' Making the 'most robust nuclear fuel' The Associated Press toured the lab where X-energy is making small amounts of fuel for testing. Anyone beyond a magenta-and-yellow chain that warns of radioactivity must wear gowns, two layers of gloves and radiation monitors. When they leave, they're tested for radioactivity. X-energy, a Maryland-based company, uses uranium to make so-called TRISO fuel — inside what's known as 'pebbles.' Those are the billiard balls. The Energy Department says it's the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth because the particles cannot melt in a reactor. At the lab, the first step is making a uranium cocktail that resembles dark yellow lemonade. Uranium powder, in the form of triuranium octoxide, gets added to nitric acid, said Dan Brown, vice president of fuel development for TRISO-X. Then carbon and an organic solution are added. They have two glass containers set up — one wears a heated jacket, looking almost like a little sweater, that helps the uranium dissolve into the acid solution. The second cools the acid solution while the carbon source is added, which turns the mix near-black, he said. At another station, in a long clear tube, the cocktail solidifies into small black spheres with a jellybean-like consistency. 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Working to 'amp up' domestic nuclear fuel production Many next-generation reactors will use high-assay low-enriched uranium. It's fuel that's enriched to a higher level than traditional large nuclear reactors use, allowing the newer reactors to run longer and more efficiently, sit on smaller footprints and produce less waste, according to the Department of Energy. There's little of it made in the United States right now. Only Russia and China currently have the infrastructure to make large amounts of high-assay low-enriched uranium. In the United States, Centrus Energy produced the nation's first 20 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium in more than 70 years in late 2023, to show it can produce limited quantities for commercial reactors. 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X-energy is the only one with an application before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license a new fabrication facility to transform enriched uranium into fuel products for nuclear reactors. Another applicant has asked to amend an existing license to make fuel for advanced reactors, according to the NRC. About five additional companies have told the NRC they are interested in making fuel for advanced reactors. X-energy's pilot lab at the National Laboratory started in 2016. The company now has 100 acres in Oak Ridge and growing for its nuclear fuel production complex. The first factory could be operational by late 2027 or early 2028, capable at full operation of assembling enough fuel orbs to power 11 of its new-age reactors; a second by late 2029, with a capacity four times greater, said TRISO-X President Joel Duling. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'I've been through two or three 'nuclear renaissances,'' Duling said. 'This isn't a renaissance. This is a game-changer.' ___ McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at


Winnipeg Free Press
34 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘Recession pop' and new Christian music surge in the US as streaming growth slows
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