The UK HPR1000 is the Hualong One design that General Nuclear Services - a subsidiary of EDF and China General Nuclear - proposes to use at a prospective new nuclear power plant in Bradwell, England.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi FBR Systems have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TerraPower of the USA to cooperate on the development of sodium-cooled fast reactors. TerraPower - founded by Bill Gates - is developing the Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor.

The application and interpretation of the same safety objectives into specific national regulatory requirements and guidance result in significant differences between the same reactor design when deployed in different countries, writes Claude Mayoral. A more harmonised approach to regulation will be needed to enable the widespread deployment of small modular and advanced reactor designs.

French engineering group Assystem has signed a cooperation agreement with newly-created French micro-reactor developer Naarea to build its ultra-compact eXtra Small Modular Reactor (XSMR). Dassault Systèmes is to supply Naarea with a cloud-based platform on which to virtually design the 1 to 40 MW molten salt reactor. Naarea expects the first units of XSMR to be produced by 2030.

The UK will build a high-temperature gas reactor as the centrepiece of its Advanced Modular Reactor Research, Development & Demonstration Programme, energy minister Greg Hands has confirmed. "I'm pleased to announce that we will focus on HTGRs as the technology choice for the programme moving forward," he told the Nuclear2021 conference organised in London by the Nuclear Industry Association yesterday. His statement served as a confirmation of the technology, which had emerged as the UK government's preference after a round of consultations earlier this year.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration is seeking proposals from nuclear and space industry leaders to develop innovative technologies for a fission surface power system for lunar power applications. It hopes to deploy such a system by 2030.

The US Department of Energy is funding an independent review by a technical advisory body to Ukraine's nuclear regulator of the NuScale Power Module Safety Analysis Report. This review will be made available to any utility in Ukraine interested in deploying NuScale Power's small modular reactor technology.

Rolls-Royce SMR Limited has submitted its 470 MWe small modular reactor design for entry to the UK's Generic Design Assessment regulatory process. The review of the SMR design - based on a small pressurised water reactor - will formally begin once the government has assessed the company's capability and capacity to successfully enter the GDA process.

France's nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, has approved EDF's proposed solution for rectifying a design anomaly on three nozzles in the main primary system of the Flamanville EPR reactor. EDF's proposal to install a retaining collar around each of the concerned connections is not expected to delay the planned startup of the unit in late-2022.

Prospective small reactor vendor Terrestrial Energy has announced that its IMSR400 power plant configuration will include twin reactors and generators. The move is a response to utility requirements and will increase cost competitiveness, the Canadian company said.

The private sector must be prepared to provide the funds needed to take new and innovative reactor technologies from the first deployment stage to wide-scale commercial operation, Jigar Shah, director of the Loans Program Office at the US Department of Energy, said yesterday during World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium. He said the LPO is developing the business models needed to deploy new nuclear.

Russia's MBIR multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor is now in the installation phase, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachov announced yesterday. Likhachov's announcement was made during a working trip to the city of Dimitrovgrad in the Ulyanovsk region to monitor the construction of the reactor, which began at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in September 2015.