The UK government has launched an open consultation on the future regulation of nuclear sites in the final stages of decommissioning and clean-up. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the consultation seeks to enable a "more flexible approach that can optimise waste management, thereby realising environmental benefits and reducing costs".

 BWX Technologies Inc has developed an innovative process developed to manufacture molybdenum-99 which it says is a breakthrough for medical radioisotope manufacturing technology. The company plans to introduce the technology by the end of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

A laser-cutting robotic snake has been deployed on the highly-radioactive core of the redundant Dragon reactor at Winfrith in the UK. Meanwhile, machine learning algorithms to increase capabilities in several crucial areas of nuclear robotics - including waste handling, cell decommissioning and site monitoring with mobile robots - are to be created by a team of computer scientists from the University of Lincoln.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration yesterday announced the successful testing of a uranium-fuelled Stirling engine for use in possible future missions to Mars. Testing of the Kilopower reactor - which could be used to provide power to missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond - began at NASA's Nevada National Security Site in November 2017 and was completed in March.

The US Department of Energy has selected 13 projects to receive USD60 million of cost-shared R&D funding for advanced nuclear technologies, including the first awards under the US Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Technology Development initiative. Recipients include NuScale Power's small modular reactor, which has become the first SMR to complete the first phase of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission design certification process.

Russia's floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov has left Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in Saint Petersburg, where its construction began in 2009. Housing two 35 MW KLT-40S nuclear reactors, similar to those used in Russia's nuclear-powered ice breakers, Akademik Lomonosov left the shipyard on 28 April and is now heading to its permanent base in Russia's northernmost city of Pevek.

First concrete was poured yesterday into what will become the foundations for the nuclear island buildings of unit 1 of the Kursk II nuclear power plant in western Russia. This is the first of the VVER-TOI (typical optimised, with enhanced information) design nuclear reactors.

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran and Nuclear Power Production and Development Company of Iran have signed an additional agreement to the current commercial contract for nuclear fuel supply to the Bushehr I nuclear power plant. According to the new document, Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer JSC TVEL will replace the UTVS fuel assemblies it has supplied to the VVER-1000 reactor with its more advanced TVS-2M fuel design.

Shine Medical Technologies has selected Rock Creek Innovations LLC to lead design and implementation of the instrumentation and control (I&C) protection systems for its medical isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin. Construction of the main production facility at the site is due to start soon.

The US Nuclear Energy Institute reported yesterday that coordination among the various entities involved in the development of accident-tolerant fuels has "progressed to the point that all stakeholders now agree on the feasibility of a 2023 timeline". Citing speakers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 12 April briefing on ATF, the NEI said US research, development and licensing frameworks "need to undergo a paradigm shift" to accelerate the way innovative nuclear technologies such as ATF are brought to market.

The IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations have successfully tested releasing sterile mosquitos from drones as part of efforts to suppress the insect that spreads Zika and other diseases.

A demonstration test of a process to decontaminate radioactive soil was successfully carried out last November in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture, France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission announced on 11 April. The technology was developed by CEA, Orano and Veolia.