WEST is the new name for Tore Supra, a plasma facility near Cadarache in southern France, which has been upgraded to undertake research towards the Iter fusion project. The reactor celebrated its first plasma on 14 December as part of its mission to support the Iter project.

The Australian Synchrotron and Opal Nuclear Research Reactor are identified as landmark facilities that will require ongoing investment in a draft National Infrastructure Research Roadmap released for public comment.

The Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak-type nuclear fusion reactor has achieved a world record of 70 seconds in high-performance plasma operation, South Korea's National Fusion Research Institute has announced.

The Nördlich Lägern region of Switzerland should be included in the third and final stage of the country's plan for selecting sites for two repositories, the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate has proposed. Switzerland's national radioactive waste disposal cooperative Nagra earlier suggested the area be excluded.

Four Russian cities have expressed an interest in using small reactors to supply heat and power, according to Yuriy Kuznetsov of NA Dollezhal Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering (NIKIET). A Rosatom feasibility study has concluded that up to 38 cogeneration reactors could potentially be deployed at 14 sites for this purpose.

A consortium led by Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract to examine the future decommissioning of the Iter fusion reactor, currently under construction at Cadarache in the south of France.

The University of Bristol, in England, has developed new technology that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the university has "grown a man-made diamond" that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The developers say the innovation could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life.

India is set to become an associate member of European particle physics research organisation CERN, subject to final approval by the Indian government. The move followed the signature of an agreement by CERN's director general and the chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

The USA must take action now if it wants to have a "nuclear energy option" by 2030, a Senate Appropriations subcommittee was told on 16 November.

China and the UK yesterday signed a Heads of Terms Agreement and held an unveiling ceremony for their Joint Research and Innovation Centre to be opened soon in Manchester, England. The event is the latest milestone since the JRIC was first announced during former Chancellor George Osborne's visit to Beijing in September 2015.

Institutional and cultural changes are needed if advanced nuclear reactor designs are to progress from development to deployment by 2030, the Global Nexus Initiative has said in a report to policymakers. The GNI has put forward ten policy recommendations to enable these changes.

The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced its commitment of £20 million ($25 million) for an initial phase of a new nuclear research and innovation program. This covers five major themes: advanced fuels; materials and manufacture; reactor design; advanced recycling; and strategic toolkit.