A design concept for a nuclear thermal propulsion reactor to power future astronaut missions to Mars has exceeded key performance parameters and optimised the reactor for manufacturability, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems has announced. The reactor's features include a compact core thanks to the use of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.

The US Department of Energy has delivered the nuclear power system for the Perseverance rover for NASA's Mars 2020 mission which is due to launch next month. The Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator was fuelled, built and tested by DOE's national laboratories.

Rosatom subsidiary FSUE Atomflot and shipbuilder Zvezda LLC have signed a contract on the construction of the Leader nuclear icebreaker. Part of Project 10510 and the first LC-110 icebreaker to be built, Leader will be capable of breaking through ice more than 4.5 metres thick.

Atomenergomash, the engineering division of Russia’s Rosatom, has signed a contract for the supply of RITM-200 reactor units for two more nuclear icebreakers in Project 22220. The contract was signed between Atomenergomash subsidiary OKBM Afrikantov and the Baltic Shipyard.

The first containers of used nuclear fuel assemblies removed from the Lepse floating technical base at the Nerpa shipyard have been transported to Murmansk, Russia. The fuel is being removed under a programme managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and will be sent to Mayak for reprocessing.

Fuelling of a radioisotope-based power system for NASA's Mars 2020 rover has begun. The Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator - or MMRTG - uses heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium-238 to generate electricity as well as maintaining the rover's systems at the proper operating temperatures.

A ceremony was held on 25 May at the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg to mark the launch of the Ural nuclear-powered icebreaker. The 173 metre-long Ural is one of three vessels of Project 22220 - featuring RITM-200 reactors - that will be able to break through 3-meter-thick ice as they escort vessels across the Arctic Ocean.

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.

Equipment contaminated with plutonium from the manufacturing of fuel for deep space missions has been removed from the 235-F building at the US Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, marking a milestone in reducing risk at the South Carolina facility.

Zio-Podolsk, a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has dispatched the second reactor for the Ural nuclear-powered icebreaker under construction at the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg.

BWX Technologies, Inc yesterday hosted officials from NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate for progress updates and technology demonstrations related to BWXT’s nuclear thermal propulsion programme.

Zio-Podolsk, a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has completed the welding of four hydrochambers to the reactor body of the Ural nuclear-powered icebreaker.