Martingale Inc has unveiled its ThorCon liquid-fuel nuclear reactor design, which uses uranium and thorium fuel dissolved in molten salt. Production is expected to start by 2020.

Qualification irradiation tests of fuel elements for the demonstration HTR-PM high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant being built at Shidaowan, China, have been completed in the Netherlands.

Nasa's Glenn Center has called on the services of the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to support its mission to develop the Kilopower project, using uranium-fuelled Stirling engines in space missions.

The UK has the opportunity "to regain technology leadership" in the ownership and development of low-carbon generation and secure energy supplies through investment in Small Modular Reactors, according to a feasibility study published yesterday by the National Nuclear Laboratory.

The UK's shut down Bradwell nuclear power plant is sporting a new look as cladding work progresses in preparation for care and maintenance. Meanwhile, UK construction and engineering group Costain plans to develop novel ways to treat irradiated graphite from decommissioned reactors.

The US House of Representatives has passed legislation to authorize Department of Energy research on whether low-dose ionizing radiation poses a risk.

The first batch of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) produced in the Canadian Light Source (CLS) linear accelerator in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan has been shipped in a developmental milestone for the non-reactor production of medical isotopes.

US energy secretary Ernest Moniz has announced major funding packages to support high performance computing projects - $325 million to build new supercomputers at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, plus $100 million for R&D into "extreme scale" supercomputing technologies.

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is to award over $8 million of funding to push forward two projects aimed at securing a domestic supply of the molybdenum-99 without using highly enriched uranium.

The US-based Electric Power Research Institute and Japan's Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry have agreed to extend their collaborative research agreement for a further five years.

A consignment of irradiated experimental fast reactor fuel has returned to the Idaho National Laboratory in the USA from France for the final stages of a study that has been ongoing for over eight years.

France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) has agreed to extend its collaboration with Belgium's Nuclear Research Centre (SCK-CEN) while entering a cooperation agreement with Spanish engineering firm Tecnatom.