Terrestrial Energy is submitting its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) design to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) for pre-licensing review, the Canadian company announced today. The submission marks a first step towards an eventual licence application.

Russia is making progress with its plan to build the BREST-OD-300 reactor - part of its 'Proryv', or Breakthrough, project that aims to develop fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle. BREST is the Russian acronym for 'fast reactor with lead coolant'.

NuScale Power's small modular reactor has the capability of using mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel in addition to conventional light water reactor fuel, a study by the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has confirmed.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected projects to develop a pebble bed reactor and a molten chloride fast reactor to receive multi-year cost-share funding worth up to a total of $80 million.

There has been some program "slippage" in a number of topic areas for the generic design acceptance of the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactor design, the UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation said in its latest quarterly report on GDAs issued yesterday. Westinghouse is working to "re-baseline the overall program", ONR said, "with the objective of enabling regulators to make decisions" about issuing a Design Acceptance Confirmation and Statement of Design Acceptance Confirmation in January 2017, as per the current schedule.

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.