Southern Company, TerraPower and Core Power have started pumped-salt operations in the Integrated Effects Test facility at TerraPower's laboratory in Everett, Washington. The facility will be used in the development of the Molten Chloride Fast Reactor.

A design for a floating offshore nuclear power barge from HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and Kepco Engineering & Construction has received approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping.

An EDF-led consortium has been awarded UK government funding to further develop plans to use heat and electricity from Heysham 2 to create hydrogen for use in the production of asphalt and cement. Earlier this year, a feasibility study demonstrated the significant benefit the project would bring in proving how nuclear could power hydrogen electrolysis.

Two research projects are to receive funding totalling GBP1 million (USD1.2 million) from UK and Japanese research councils to develop technologies to detect and process radioactive waste. The research will support work to decommission the UK's Sellafield plant and remove radioactive debris from the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors, as well as a memorandum for collaboration on the next stage of the UK HTGR Demonstration Reactor programme.

Germany will invest more than EUR1 billion (USD1.1 billion) in fusion research over the next five years, Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger announced.

Canadian private fusion developer General Fusion has announced plans for a new Magnetised Target Fusion machine designed to achieve fusion conditions of over 100 million degrees Celsius by 2025, and progress toward scientific breakeven by 2026.

Tractebel and First Light Fusion have signed a framework agreement for the development of the Machine 4 project designed to demonstrate net energy gain.

German laser fusion developer Marvel Fusion and the USA's Colorado State University are to create a public-private partnership for the construction of a USD150 million high-power laser and fusion research facility on the CSU Foothills Campus.

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have reportedly achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the second time. The milestone was first achieved last December.

SHINE Technologies of the USA says it has demonstrated clearly visible Cherenkov radiation produced by fusion for what is believed to be the first time. Historically, fusion has been demonstrated and detected with instruments instead of a visible light.

Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation announced that a technology breakthrough in its patented Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated fuel allows a fuel geometry that results in both higher power and increased safety, enabling its Micro-Modular Reactor to produce three times more power.