The UK Atomic Energy Authority has published a statement from Jo Johnson, minister of state for universities, science, research and innovation, giving assurance on the future of research into fusion energy.

Public exposure to radiation resulting from the generation of electricity by nuclear power plants is just a fraction of that from coal-powered plants, according to a report from the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.

Australian and Chinese researchers have made progress in understanding the mechanical properties of a new class of materials for use in molten salt reactors. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation said yesterday that NiMo-SiC alloys - prepared from nickel molybdenum metal powders with added silicon carbide particles - have superior corrosion resistance and radiation damage resistance.

Iran has for the first time injected uranium hexafluoride gas into its IR-8 uranium enrichment centrifuges. The development of the next-generation centrifuges is being carried out within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said.

The UK intends to leave the European Atomic Energy Community, according to explanatory notes to a bill the government published yesterday authorising Brexit. The notes state the bill empowers the prime minister to leave both the European Union and Euratom.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee is inviting contributions to its new inquiry into priorities for nuclear research and technologies. In 2011 the Committee investigated whether the UK's research and development capabilities were sufficient to meet the country's nuclear energy needs in the future, ensuring a safe and secure supply of nuclear energy up to 2050.

The UK government has highlighted the role of nuclear power among its responses to a report by the Energy and Climate Change Committee. The parliamentary committee published its Third Report of Session 2016–17, The energy revolution and future challenges for UK energy and climate change policy, last October.

The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) has announced the successful completion of a program for EDF Energy to study the effects of irradiation creep on graphite. Over a period of four years, four consecutive irradiation stages were performed on loaded graphite specimens in the High Flux Reactor in Petten, the Netherlands.

The International Atomic Energy Agency today outlined its highlights for 2016, ahead of its 60th anniversary year. These included a report on verification and monitoring in Iran, the entry into force of the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, response to the outbreak of the Zika crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the promotion of safe nuclear solutions towards sustainable development worldwide.

Japan and the UK will expand their existing collaboration in civil nuclear activities - including decommissioning, research and development, and nuclear new build - through a memorandum of cooperation signed yesterday in Tokyo.

Physicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences have described the mobility of line defects, or dislocations, in uranium dioxide. This, they announced this week, will enable future predictions of nuclear fuel behaviour under operating conditions.

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has entered into follow-on cooperative agreements with three projects aimed at securing a domestic supply of molybdenum-99 without using highly enriched uranium. The latest funding completes the full $25 million NNSA contribution to each project.