The US Department of Energy has approved Critical Decision 1 for the Versatile Test Reactor, meaning the project can now move to the engineering design phase. DOE has requested USD295 million for FY 2021 for the one-of-a-kind facility that would support research and development of innovative nuclear energy and other technologies.

TVEL, the fuel manufacturer subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has supplied fuel for the Budapest Research Reactor in Hungary. The VVR-M2 fuel assemblies - manufactured by the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant - were supplied under a contract signed in 2019 with the Centre for Energy Research of Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

New modular-based experiment holders developed by the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory are expected to improve transient testing on nuclear fuels and materials, and enable new clients like NASA to take advantage of the unique capabilities at INL's Transient Reactor Test Facility.

Řež, operator of the LVR-15 research reactor in the Czech Republic, has continued to improve safety since a previous review in 2003, implementing significant refurbishments to modernise the reactor's systems and components, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts. The team also found areas for further safety enhancements, inlcuding in organisation and operational safety programmes.

Battelle Energy Alliance has begun contract negotiations with a team led by Bechtel National Inc and including TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to support the design and build phase of the Versatile Test Reactor. The reactor will be a one-of-a-kind facility that would support research and development of innovative, clean nuclear energy technologies.

Researchers at Belgium's Nuclear Research Centre have for the first time succeeded in accelerating a proton beam through the recently connected radio frequency quadrupole. The RFQ is a component of the particle accelerator that will drive the Myrrha sub-critical research reactor.

The dismantling of the Ulysse experimental reactor at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission's Saclay site near Paris has been completed. The low-power reactor, which was shut down in 2007, was mainly operated for teaching and continuing education purposes by the National Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology.

The decommissioning of Norway's shut down research reactors at Halden and Kjeller will cost around NOK20 billion (USD1.96 billion) and take 20-25 years, according to a report commissioned by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

X-energy's TRISO-X fuel is to be irradiated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nuclear Reactor Laboratory's research reactor, the company has announced. Data from the irradiation testing will be used to support licensing of X-energy's Xe-100 and other TRISO-based reactors.

France's Framatome and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany have started commercial development of nuclear research reactor fuels based on uranium-molybdenum fuel alloys. The fuel can be used instead of highly enriched uranium, which is seen as a potential nuclear proliferation risk.

The production of medical radioisotopes has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic but bottlenecks in transport and distribution could lead to shortages at hospitals, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency survey of the research reactors where the isotopes are produced.

Finnish utility Fortum has been awarded a contract by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland to decommission the Finnish Reactor 1 research reactor in Espoo. It will be the first nuclear reactor to be decommissioned in Finland.