The technical specifications for the BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron nuclear reactor to be built at the Beloyarsk site in central Russia, near Yekaterinburg, have been submitted for expert review.

The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory will work with three of the world's leading nuclear products and services companies on projects that could unlock the potential of advanced nuclear reactor designs.

Canadian company Terrestrial Energy is to collaborate with the USA's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop its molten salt reactor to the engineering blueprint stage.

Martingale Inc has unveiled its ThorCon liquid-fuel nuclear reactor design, which uses uranium and thorium fuel dissolved in molten salt. Production is expected to start by 2020.

Developing new nuclear technologies requires overcoming considerable financial and regulatory hurdles, as the promise of clean, efficient electricity remains essential to US energy policy, the Nuclear Energy Institute said, following a meeting on 11 December of a House Science Committee.

The construction and operation of Hitachi-GE's Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) in the UK is justified, the country's Energy and Climate Change secretary Ed Davey has announced.

The ACP1000 reactor design has successfully passed the International Atomic Energy Agency's Generic Reactor Safety Review, China National Nuclear Corporation has announced.

Five R&D projects supporting advanced reactor technologies have been selected to receive $13 million of cost-share funding from the US Department of Energy (DoE). All of the research is being carried out by public-private partnerships.

Forthcoming units at China's Fuqing nuclear power plant are the first to be officially designated as using the Hualong One reactor design.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' European version of its Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (EU-APWR) has been formally certified as compliant by the European Utility Requirements (EUR) organisation.

Atomenergoproekt has been placed under the executive control of another Rosatom subsidiary in order to consolidate Russia's nuclear power engineering expertise into a single division.

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works technology team has unveiled its concept for a compact fusion reactor that it says offers many advantages over tokamak-based designs and could be developed and deployed within a decade.