Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been awarded a contract to supply a further 12 outer vertical targets for the divertor to be used in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The Japanese company has already delivered six of the components.

Fusion plants will not be subject to the same nuclear site licensing process as fission reactors, with the UK government instead proposing developer-led site selection and their designation as nationally significant infrastructure projects.

High temperature superconducting tapes for use in the UK's prototype fusion power plant will be tested in a Czech research reactor following the signing of an agreement between the UK Atomic Energy Authority and Research Centre Řež.

The manufacture of poloidal field coil No 3 - the final poloidal field coil produced for the ITER fusion machine - has been completed in the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility at the construction site in Cadarache, France.

The new partnership brings together the US Department of Energy and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to work to accelerate the demonstration and commercialisation of fusion energy. The announcement was made during a visit by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the USA.

First Light Fusion says it has taken a major step towards solving one of the major engineering challenges behind the design of an inertial confinement fusion pilot power plant.

UK-based nuclear fusion company Tokamak Energy said it is developing new laser measurement technology crucial for controlling extreme conditions inside future fusion power plants and delivering clean energy to the grid.

A new funding programme for nuclear fusion research has been announced by Germany's Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger aimed at paving the way for the first fusion power plant to be constructed in Germany by 2040.

California-based Longview Fusion Energy Systems has contracted US engineering and construction firm Fluor Corporation to design the world's first commercial laser fusion power plant.

The UK's First Light Fusion has become the first private fusion company to conduct an experiment on the Sandia National Laboratories 'Z Machine' in New Mexico USA. The experiment set a new pressure record for quartz.

The Sino-French TAC-1 consortium - led by China National Nuclear Corporation subsidiary China Nuclear Power Engineering and including Framatome - has been awarded a contract to assemble the vacuum chamber modules of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, under construction in Cadarache, southern France.

Hundreds of former staff gathered to mark the achievements of the Joint European Torus in progressing nuclear fusion. The project has been a positive example of international collaboration, those attending were told, and the European Union hopes the UK will rejoin its Euratom and Fusion4Energy programme from 2028.