Terrestrial Energy, a developer of advanced nuclear power plants using Integrated Molten Salt Reactor technology, has been admitted to the Generation IV International Forum. It is currently the only private sector company to hold this status.

The full-scale in situ system test at the Onkalo underground characterisation facility near Olkiluoto has proceeded to the concreting phase in the construction of the end plug for the deposition tunnel, Finnish waste management company Posiva has announced.

The US Department of Energy has announced a USD600 million investment in a new supercomputer, to be named Frontier. It said the machine would enable "extreme scale scientific endeavours" to lead to "breakthroughs in scientific discovery, energy assurance, economic competitiveness and national security."

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory and University of Leicester have generated usable electricity from the chemical element americium in what it believes to be a global first. The achievement is seen as a step towards potential use of americium in so-called space batteries, which may mean future space missions can be powered for up to 400 years.

Framatome, the French fuel and technology company said "two full fuel assemblies" of its Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel would be loaded at Exelon's Calvert Cliffs plant in February 2021.

TVEL, the nuclear fuel subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, is working on a 'dual-component' approach to closing the nuclear fuel cycle, as well as accident-tolerant fuel and innovations in fuel for VVER units.

The US Department of Energy has announced USD7.5 million of funding over three years to help expand and improve the quality of data needed for a wide range of nuclear-related activities from basic research in nuclear science, to isotope production, nonproliferation efforts, and nuclear power generation.

The UK’s Nuclear Innovation & Research Advisory Board has recommended that the government should consider investing up to GBP1 billion (USD1.3 billion) between 2021 and 2025 to boost the progress of innovation in the nuclear energy sector.

Japan's Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation has developed oxidation-reduction treatment technology that enables certain elements to be extracted from vitrified high-level radioactive waste. The technology will allow for the reuse of those elements and a reduction in the volume of high-level waste to be disposed of.

A joint team of UK and Japanese researchers have used the UK's synchrotron science facility to analyse the internal structure and composition of a radioactive particle collected from close to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

The US Department of Energy Office of Science has announced USD30 million of funding for experimental research on magnetic fusion energy science at to be carried out at international tokamak facilities.
 

The US Department of Energy has launched its Versatile Fast Neutron Source project to provide fast neutron testing capability to aid US development of advanced nuclear reactor technology. The Versatile Test Reactor, as it is also known, could be completed by 2026.