Canadian company Terrestrial Energy has secured CAD$10 million ($7 million) in Series A funding to support its program to bring its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) technology to industrial markets in the 2020s.

Further research is needed to properly assess the performance and reliability of passive safety systems to be used in new nuclear power reactors designs, according to France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).

Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy has reached a regulatory milestone in its progress towards deployment of the UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, following confirmation that British regulators will move to the final step of the Generic Design Assessment. The GDA process for the UK ABWR is on schedule for completion by the end of 2017.

Westinghouse is seeking to collaborate with the US Department of Energy on the development of a lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR). It will be the company's first foray into fourth generation reactor designs.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and DTE Energy have announced plans to explore advancing the detailed design of the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR). DTE received a licence earlier this year to build and operate an ESBWR at its Fermi plant, but the utility has yet to decide whether to go ahead with the project.

China's first AP1000 reactor, Sanmen 1, is expected to begin commercial operation in September 2016, while governmental permission is expected for work to start on the first Chinese-designed CAP1400 by the end of this year.

Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc (MEPPI) is to develop the instrumentation and control systems for Holtec International's SMR-160 reactor under a long-term partnership agreement between the two companies.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced funding to support the research, development and demonstration of advanced reactor concepts. In partnership with industry, the department will fund two awards worth up to $6 million each in the 2015 financial year.

UK regulators have asked Hitachi-GE to address a series of "shortfalls" in the probabilistic safety analysis of its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). The request takes the form of a Regulatory Issue, which is the second in as many months in the generic design assessment of the reactor for its use in the UK.

Russia's reactor design subsidiary Atomproekt has reported lower earnings and net profit than expected in its first year of operations following consolidation with other Rosatom subsidiaries.

Russia has signed the ten-year extension to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Framework Agreement for International Collaboration on Research and Development of Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems .

Ukraine is preparing the legal document required to cancel its contract with Russia concerning the completion of two units at the Khmelnitski nuclear power plant. The move was announced yesterday by Svetlana Kulchitskaya, deputy head of the atomic energy and nuclear industry department of the Ministry of Energy and Coal.