Both demonstration and test reactors are necessary to support the development and commercial deployment of the new reactor technologies that will expand access to reliable, clean energy, writes Kathryn Huff, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the US Department of Energy. This article was first published by the Office of Nuclear Energy on 30 July.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has signed an engineering service contract with X-energy of the USA for studies into the manufacture of major components for the Xe-100 small modular reactor. The South Korean company said participating in the project will help it to diversify its own SMR business.

The European Space Agency has awarded a contract to Belgian company Tractebel to evaluate the possibility of producing plutonium-238 for use in space exploration. Separately, US company X-energy, working as part of a General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems team, is to develop key fuel fabrication processes in support of a first-of-a-kind rocket powered by nuclear thermal propulsion under a contract awarded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

An experimental method developed by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to determine the age and origin of uranium samples is being used to investigate the provenance of historic material allegedly recovered from Nazi Germany's nuclear programme during World War II. As well as potentially solving the mystery of the 'Heisenberg cubes', these techniques could also be applied to investigations into illicit trafficking of nuclear material.

A mobile laser system developed by a research subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom has been used to remotely cut large metal plant components during a non-nuclear decommissioning process. The laser "can be used to cut metal structures up to 250mm thick, both on land and under water, in the temperature range from -50 to 40 degrees Celsius," said Azamat Bedanokov, deputy director general of the developers, the State Research Centre of the Russian Federation Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Thermonuclear Research.

A containerised Proton Exchange Membrane electrolyser is to be installed at Exelon Generation's Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant in New York State as part of a hydrogen production demonstration project. The unit will supply hydrogen for the plant's turbine cooling and chemistry control.

A group of six students recently spent nine days living in the Grimsel underground research laboratory in Switzerland in a simulated mission to the Moon. During the mission, the "astronauts" taking part in the Asclepios I project undertook several scientific experiments, the results of which could be applied to future actual space missions.

The USA's National Ignition Facility has achieved a record fusion yield that it says puts it "at the threshold of fusion ignition". The record laser shot produced 25 times more than the facility's next best experiment.

A legacy radioactive source from a US Department of Energy waste inventory is now being reused more than 40 years after it was put into storage. The collaborative effort to prepare and transport the small neutron-emitting, plutonium-beryllium source from Idaho National Laboratory to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory takes the 'reduce, reuse and recycle' concept to the next level, the Department's Office of Environmental Management said.

The governments of Australia and the UK have signed a letter of intent to establish a partnership on low emissions solutions including clean hydrogen and small modular reactors. Meanwhile, the Australian Research Council  has awarded funding to a newly launched project to develop fuel for hydrogen-boron fusion which its participants say has the potential to re-establish Australia as a leader in fusion research and clean energy technology.

The nuclear technology research and development centre Russia is building in the Bolivian city of El Alto will serve as a model not only for Latin America but for the global nuclear industry, Rusatom Overseas President Evgeny Pakermanov said in an interview with World Nuclear News. Rusatom Overseas is a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which in July announced the start of construction works for a research reactor facility at the CNTRD.

A prototype detector based on a system originally developed to help detect the presence of dark matter is about to undergo testing at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. The liquid argon-based ALARM system offers significant improvements in detecting neutron and gamma radiation compared with existing technology, and could potentially be used to prevent the illicit movement of nuclear materials across international borders.