Australian welding technology specialist K-TIG has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK's Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre to develop innovative automated fabrication techniques for decommissioning waste containers. Under the MoU, K-TIG will work with the Nuclear AMRC to design, develop and supply the robotic welding cell to be used in the fabrication of the 3-cubic-metre stainless steel boxes to be used to safely store the UK's decommissioning waste.

Australia is to acquire nuclear submarines as the first initiative under a new enhanced trilateral security partnership announced by the leaders of Australia, the UK and the USA. The submarines are to be built in Australia, but the country is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

The UK's GMB union has warned that decarbonisation goals and nuclear industry jobs will both be at risk unless the government supports Sizewell C and other new build efforts. The Trade Unions Congress adopted GMB's call, and separately added that UK manufacturing jobs would suffer if decarbonisation targets are not met.

Westinghouse, the UK National Nuclear Laboratory and Terrestrial Energy have announced a partnership in the UK to advance the industrial scale up and commercial supply of enriched uranium fuel for use in Terrestrial's Integral Molten Salt Reactor. An agreement between the three defines the process for delivering IMSR fuel for commercial use, concurrent with schedules for commercial operation of IMSR power plants.

Uranium enrichment services provider Urenco has approved the progression of the Urenco Metals Recycling facility project based at its Urenco Nuclear Stewardship subsidiary in Capenhurst, UK. The project will now move into the design phase. The facility, planned to begin operation in 2024, will provide a wide range of metallic treatment services for recycling and disposal.

Nuclear energy must get a fair representation at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties to be held 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow, World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León has said in an open letter to COP26 President Alok Sharma. The full text of the 16 August letter is as follows.

The UK government says nuclear will play a significant role in developing a thriving low-carbon hydrogen sector to meet the country's ambition for 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. Releasing its Hydrogen Strategy today, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said a hydrogen economy could support over 9000 UK jobs and unlock GBP4 billion (USD5.5 billion) in investment by 2030, potentially rising to 100,000 jobs and worth up to GBP13 billion by 2050.

The UK has launched a consultation on proposed regulations for nuclear-powered ships that would enable UK-flagged vessels to use the power source and international vessels to visit its ports. "The UK is committed to enabling the adoption of new technologies that manufacturers and ship owners may choose to meet legal requirements relating to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore will establish a regulatory framework that will support nuclear-powered ships as an alternative fuel option," said the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency.

Cavendish Nuclear has been awarded a contract by Magnox Limited to supply the Concrete Box Loading Facility at the decommissioned Hinkley Point A nuclear power plant in the UK. The facility will be used to process and package solid intermediate-level radioactive waste.

Dounreay Site Restoration Limited has awarded two contracts worth a combined GBP11.2 million (USD15.9 million) to USA-based engineering group Jacobs for decommissioning work at the Dounreay site in Scotland. Under the contracts, Jacobs will upgrade the ventilation system at the Prototype Fast Reactor and develop the decommissioning strategy for the fast reactor fuel reprocessing plant in the Fuel Cycle Area.

A new study published yesterday by the New Nuclear Watch Institute finds that the "supposed dependency concerns" associated with the host-vendor relationship in the nuclear energy sector are "historically and practically unfounded". The report - Energy Security in the Age of Net-Zero Ambitions and the System Value of Nuclear Power - focuses on the issue of energy security and the important contributions that nuclear power can make towards maintaining and strengthening it as energy systems decarbonise, both along the various transition pathways that energy systems have started upon and at their eventual low-carbon endpoint.

The UK government today published a Call for Evidence that sets out its suggested approach to building the first advanced modular reactor demonstrator. This will specifically explore high temperature gas reactors as the most promising model for the demonstration programme, which ministers are investing GBP170 million (USD237 million) into delivering by the early 2030s.