Rolls-Royce SMR has awarded a contract to Westinghouse for the development of a fuel design for its small modular reactor. Meanwhile, it has partnered with the UK's National Physical Laboratory to investigate safe automated reactor operation for SMRs.

Newcleo, the UK-headquartered developer of small modular lead-cooled fast reactors, has signed a cooperation and investment agreement with the Tosto Group to advance the industrialisation of Newcleo's reactors.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory have used the lab's Transient Reactor Test Facility to perform the first test of its kind to be carried out in the USA for more than 35 years.

Southern Company, TerraPower and Core Power have started pumped-salt operations in the Integrated Effects Test facility at TerraPower's laboratory in Everett, Washington. The facility will be used in the development of the Molten Chloride Fast Reactor.

A design for a floating offshore nuclear power barge from HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and Kepco Engineering & Construction has received approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping.

An EDF-led consortium has been awarded UK government funding to further develop plans to use heat and electricity from Heysham 2 to create hydrogen for use in the production of asphalt and cement. Earlier this year, a feasibility study demonstrated the significant benefit the project would bring in proving how nuclear could power hydrogen electrolysis.

Two research projects are to receive funding totalling GBP1 million (USD1.2 million) from UK and Japanese research councils to develop technologies to detect and process radioactive waste. The research will support work to decommission the UK's Sellafield plant and remove radioactive debris from the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors, as well as a memorandum for collaboration on the next stage of the UK HTGR Demonstration Reactor programme.

Germany will invest more than EUR1 billion (USD1.1 billion) in fusion research over the next five years, Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger announced.

Canadian private fusion developer General Fusion has announced plans for a new Magnetised Target Fusion machine designed to achieve fusion conditions of over 100 million degrees Celsius by 2025, and progress toward scientific breakeven by 2026.

Tractebel and First Light Fusion have signed a framework agreement for the development of the Machine 4 project designed to demonstrate net energy gain.

German laser fusion developer Marvel Fusion and the USA's Colorado State University are to create a public-private partnership for the construction of a USD150 million high-power laser and fusion research facility on the CSU Foothills Campus.