An agreement to cooperate on the development of fast neutron reactors has been signed between Framatome and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Mitsubishi FBR Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The partners have previously collaborated on the Astrid project.

Candu Energy Inc - a subsidiary of Canada's SNC-Lavalin - has been awarded a contract by China National Nuclear Power Co Ltd for pre-project work for a proposed two-unit Advanced Heavy Water Reactor plant in China. The work relates to planning and licensing in preparation for the project, construction of which is expected to start in or around 2021.

Innovation has always been at the heart of the nuclear power industry and its future depends on this commitment to technological advancement in both large and small reactor designs. This was the message of the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation General Ministerial Conference held in Washington DC last week.

The core catcher for the second unit at Kursk II in Russia has been delivered to the construction site in Western Russia. Kursk II will be the first nuclear power plant to use the VVER-TOI (typical optimised, with enhanced information) reactor design.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the US Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to share technical expertise and computing resources to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.

China's first lead-bismuth alloy zero-power reactor - Qixing (Venus) III - achieved first criticality on 9 October, the China Institute of Atomic Energy has announced. The milestone marks the start of China's core physics experiments into liquid metal cooled fast reactors.

Nuclear power can play a major role in reducing carbon emissions beyond electricity supply to include the industrial and transportation sectors, a fact that is leading to interest in integrated energy systems, José Reyes, chief technology officer at NuScale Power, said yesterday. Reyes, who is co-designer of NuScale's passively-cooled small modular reactor, spoke at the International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power being held this week at the International Atomic Energy Agency's headquarters in Vienna.

Romanian utility Nuclearelectrica has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Fostering ALFRED Construction consortium regarding cooperation on the development of the Advanced Lead Fast Reactor European Demonstrator (ALFRED). A demonstration unit is planned to be constructed in Romania.

The UK government has committed GBP220 million (USD270 million) over four years for the conceptual design of the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). The STEP programme aims to construct a fusion power plant based on the design by 2040.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has completed the first phase of a vendor design review of ARC Nuclear Canada's ARC-100 small modular reactor. The design is the third advanced reactor to complete the first phase of the CNSC's regulatory pre-licensing review.

An irradiation test on molten nuclear fuel salts inside the High Flux Reactor has been completed at Petten in the Netherlands. The results will yield new data on the safe operation of molten salt reactors.

A new small modular reactor (SMR) design has been announced by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, EDF, Naval Group and TechnicAtome. The Nuward - with a capacity of 300-400 MWe - has been jointly developed using France's experience in pressurised water reactors.