Los Alamos National Laboratory has agreed to license Kilopower space reactor technology to New Mexico company Space Nuclear Power Corporation, which aims to commercialise the technology for use in space in the next few years.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority's fusion energy experiment - the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade tokamak at Culham Science Centre - has achieved first plasma for the first time. MAST Upgrade will be the forerunner of the UK's prototype fusion power plant - Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) - due for completion by 2040. It will also aid preparations for Iter - the world's largest science megaproject, under construction in the South of France, which intends to demonstrate fusion power on an industrial scale.

The US Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have agreed to extend their existing cooperation by a further 10 years. One area for continued cooperation is space nuclear power and propulsion.

Teams led by TerraPower and X-energy have been announced as the recipients of USD160 million in initial funding under the US Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. The companies get USD80 million each to build a demonstration plant that can be operational within seven years.

The Energy Impact Center has announced the first major update to OPEN100 - the world's first open-source design and implementation platform for a small, standard nuclear power plant. Launched in February 2020, the project aims to offer developers everything from a web interface to visualise plant and component design, costs studies and construction plans.

Gryphon Technologies has been awarded a USD14 million task order by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to support its Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations programme. Specifically, Gryphon will support the development and demonstration of a high-assay, low-enriched uranium nuclear thermal propulsion system.

L3Harris Technologies is to develop an engineering and operator training simulator for Terrestrial Energy's Integral Molten Salt Reactor under a newly announced contract. The simulator will support engineering activities and, subsequently, operator training as development of IMSR moves to licensing and construction prior to plant commissioning, Terrestrial said.

Digital twins of every unit in France's fleet of nuclear power reactors are to be developed under a four-year project involving partners from academia and industry. These cloned reactors will serve as a training simulator for the new generation of operators and a simulation environment for engineering studies.

Nuclear innovation is driving improvement in all parts of the industry, enhancing reliability, efficiency, economics and flexibility, World Nuclear Association Director General Agneta Rising told the International Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Forum 2020 today. She said innovation is accelerating the development and commercialisation of small modular reactors opening up additional applications for nuclear energy.

A design concept for a nuclear thermal propulsion reactor to power future astronaut missions to Mars has exceeded key performance parameters and optimised the reactor for manufacturability, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems has announced. The reactor's features include a compact core thanks to the use of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.

The use of artificial intelligence solutions could help achieve a step-change in nuclear safety, write Julianne Antrobus and Derreck Van Gelderen of PA Consulting.

Small modular reactors will be an excellent fit in a carbon-free energy future which will require all energy sources to work together, but they must be cost-competitive with other forms of electricity generation, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy President and CEO Jay Wileman told participants in World Nuclear Association's Strategic eForum last week.