The Office of Nuclear Energy, part of the US Department of Energy, has outlined its plan to support the existing US nuclear generation fleet, demonstrate the latest innovations in nuclear energy technologies and explore new market opportunities. The Strategic Vision is a blueprint for NE to achieve its mission of advancing nuclear energy science and technology to meet US energy, environmental and economic needs.

Nuclear science and non-power nuclear applications have never been more important, writes Dr. Yuri Seleznev, rector of Rosatom Technical Academy (Rosatom Tech).

The UK and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) have signed a Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. This is separate from the wider UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement that was also announced on 24 December and which has since been approved by ambassadors from the 27 EU Member States, paving the way for it to take effect on 1 January. UK lawmakers will tomorrow return to the House of Commons, the lower chamber of parliament, to vote on the so-called post-Brexit trade deal.

The US Department of Energy has announced USD20 million in awards for the third of three programmes under its new Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy has selected three teams to receive FY2020 funding for the ARDP's Advanced Reactor Concepts-20 programme.

The US Congress voted to approve appropriations for fiscal year 2021 that includes USD1.5 billion for the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy. The appropriations also include USD150 million to initiate the uranium reserve programme to address challenges to the production of domestic uranium.

The Canadian government has released a national Small Modular Reactor Action Plan, which responds to the 53 recommendations identified in the country's SMR Roadmap that was launched in November 2018. The plan lays out the next steps for the development, demonstration and deployment of SMRs for multiple applications at home and abroad.

The UK government has called on local communities across the country to put forward proposals to host the UK’s prototype fusion energy power plant. Today's announcement follows Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution and the UK’s ambition to be the first country in the world to commercialise fusion energy technology.

New additive manufacturing technologies for the design and manufacture of reactor components made from high-temperature alloys and refractory metals have been developed by BWX Technologies in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Such components could find applications in current and advanced reactors, as well as in accident-tolerant fuels.

Russia’s Siberian Chemical Combine has produced more than 1000 experimental fuel elements based on mixed uranium-plutonium nitride fuel during its eight years of participation in the Proryv (Breakthrough) project. Fuel elements of various standard sizes and structural materials were manufactured in order to find and justify the optimal configuration, SCC said in a 13 November statement.

Terrestrial Energy and Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group have started a graphite irradiation testing programme at the High Flux Reactor in the Netherlands. This work is part of broader programme underway for confirmatory testing of components and systems in the Integral Molten Salt Reactor.

The US Department of Energy yesterday released its Hydrogen Program Plan to provide a strategic framework for its hydrogen research, development, and demonstration activities. The plan, which reinforces DOE's commitment to develop the technologies that can enable hydrogen expansion in the USA, incorporates the RD&D efforts of multiple DOE offices to advance the production, transport, storage, and use of hydrogen across different sectors of the economy.

Terrestrial Energy and the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have begun detailed testing of the fuel salt for Terrestrial's Integral Molten Salt Reactor. The IMSR uses two molten salt streams - a fuel salt that contains the uranium and another salt to transfer heat from the reactor to the electricity generation system.