UK-based research and development company Innovative Physics Ltd and China Environmental Protection Company Ltd have signed an agreement on technologies and skills to further improve the safety of nuclear power plants in China and overseas.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the ITER International Fusion Energy Organisation are to enhance their cooperation in nuclear fusion research and related activities following the signing of an agreement that expands one signed in 2008.

Engineers at Lancaster University are developing computer systems for robots handling hazardous nuclear waste. The software will make the robots semi-autonomous - simplifying human control, which has to be done remotely due to the highly radioactive environments in which the robots operate.

Six university projects will develop instrumentation and tools for the USA's forthcoming Versatile Test Reactor using USD1.7 million in funding just allocated by Idaho National Laboratory.

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has used the experience it has gained from developing robots for inspecting nuclear power plants in accident situations to develop an explosion-proof robot for inspecting and monitoring industrial facilities. A prototype EX ROVR robot has been tested at a Japanese oil refinery.

A new use of neutron detectors for reactor monitoring and safeguards, developed by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd, could potentially be used for the independent verification of nuclear reactor activities and for monitoring the sealed cores of some small modular reactors.

Faster research into nuclear fuel performance is now possible at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor through the use of tiny samples, known as MiniFuel.

Framatome has received a voucher through the US Department of Energy's Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear programme to support development of Lightbridge Fuel in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory.

A partnership between Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organisation and Ocean Networks Canada has carried out its first six-month underwater experiment to better understand the behaviour of elements of the engineered-barrier system it plans to use in a deep geological repository. Ocean Networks Canada is an oceanographic research and monitoring arm of the University of Victoria.

The US Department of Energy has selected three projects in three states in its latest quarterly application review to receive funding for cost-shared research and development for advanced nuclear technologies. The three projects will receive a total of almost USD10.6 million.

China National Nuclear Corporation says it is now capable of mass producing China Fuel 3 (CF3) fuel assemblies for the domestically-designed HPR1000 (Hualong One) pressurised water reactor design.

NuScale Power and Enfission, LLC are to work together to explore the use of Enfission's next-generation nuclear fuel technology in NuScale's small modular reactors (SMRs) under a newly announced memorandum of understanding.