UK-based nuclear fusion company Tokamak Energy and Japan's Sumitomo Corporation have agreed to collaborate on the development, implementation and scaling-up of commercial fusion energy in Japan and worldwide.

Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy - part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry - has selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as the core company to lead the development of a high temperature gas-cooled reactor programme.

A lead assembly of Framatome's 100% Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel has successfully completed its first cycle of operation at a US nuclear power plant. The assembly was inserted into unit 2 of the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland during a refueling outage in early 2021.

The USA's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has finalised an agreement with Lockheed Martin to begin work on the fabrication and design of an experimental nuclear thermal rocket and its engine. BWX Technologies, one of Lockheed Martin's partners in the effort, will develop the nuclear reactor and fabricate the HALEU fuel.

A study commissioned by the American Bureau of Shipping has explored the potential of advanced nuclear reactor technology for commercial marine propulsion, whilst a study led by UK-based innovative reactor developer Newcleo will consider the feasibility of nuclear applications to the shipping industry, including the firm's small modular lead-cooled fast reactor technology.

Specialists from Rosatom's TVEL have told an international nuclear fuel conference that the Russian-designed TVS-K fuel for Western-design pressurised water reactors had demonstrated "excellent behaviour under commercial operating conditions".

Investment in the global fusion industry has now reached a cumulative USD6.21 billion, up from USD4.8 billion a year ago, according to the third annual Global Fusion Industry Report from the Fusion Industry Association. The report surveyed 43 private fusion companies, up from 27 a year earlier.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been selected by the Japanese government to lead the conceptual design of a demonstration sodium-cooled fast reactor that is to enter operation in the 2040s.

The Danish developer of floating Compact Molten Salt Reactors, Seaborg, has decided to change the fuel type for the initial power barges to low-enriched uranium "due to the risks associated with developing a sufficient supply of high-assay low-enriched uranium" to meet its planned timeline.

A structural performance test of a scaled-down Hualong One containment building in serious accident conditions has been successfully completed by China's Harbin Institute of Technology. A team of researchers - which included workers from China National Nuclear Corporation's China Nuclear Power Engineering division - spent three years making preparations for the test.

A collaboration between the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Dell Technologies, Intel and the University of Cambridge will explore how supercomputers and artificial intelligence technologies with advanced predictive capabilities can deliver a 'digital twin' of the UK's prototype fusion power plant design.

Framatome has signed a collaboration agreement with EDF to test its PROtect enhanced accident tolerant fuel technology. Under the agreement, four lead fuel assemblies will be loaded into one of EDF's French reactors by the end of this year.