Southern Company, TerraPower and Core Power have started pumped-salt operations in the Integrated Effects Test facility at TerraPower's laboratory in Everett, Washington. The facility will be used in the development of the Molten Chloride Fast Reactor.

A US district court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Westinghouse Electric Company seeking to prevent Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and its parent company Korea Electric Power Corporation from exporting the APR1400 reactor design without its permission.

MoltexFLEX says a reevaluation of certain aspects of its FLEX molten salt reactor design has "yielded a more robust scientific and engineering foundation" for the reactor. A refinement of the reactor design has delivered a 50% boost in power output, while maintaining previous targets for overnight capital cost and cost per MWh.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors, as well as a memorandum for collaboration on the next stage of the UK HTGR Demonstration Reactor programme.

Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy - part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry - has selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as the core company to lead the development of a high temperature gas-cooled reactor programme.

EDF, as the future operator of the potential first Nuward plant in France, has submitted the safety options file for the small modular reactor to the country's nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire.

A project for a submersible underwater power module, featuring two nuclear power units with a total capacity of 20 MWe, that can dive to a depth of 400 metres and provide energy in Arctic regions is being worked on by the Malakhit Marine Engineering Bureau in St Petersburg, Russia.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been selected by the Japanese government to lead the conceptual design of a demonstration sodium-cooled fast reactor that is to enter operation in the 2040s.

Westinghouse Electric Company has submitted the first set of documents to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for the pre-licensing vendor design review of its eVinci microreactor.

The International Atomic Energy Agency last year launched a new initiative aimed at accelerating the safe and secure deployment of advanced nuclear reactors, with a particular focus on small modular reactors. A plenary meeting of the Nuclear Harmonization Standardization Initiative has now been held to take stock of progress already achieved and to set priorities for the year to come.

Stratek Global hopes to produce a pilot plant of the High Temperature Modular Reactor (HTMR-100), which is derived from the South African Pebble Bed Modular Reactor programme.

The conceptual design of a new Polish high-temperature research reactor, developed by the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), has been unveiled. Developed with input from Japan, the reactor could be built in Poland at the NCBJ.