The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the ITER International Fusion Energy Organisation are to enhance their cooperation in nuclear fusion research and related activities following the signing of an agreement that expands one signed in 2008.

A research centre to support China's push for nuclear fusion power has been approved. It will  be able to test large superconducting magnets and filters under operational conditions.

The UK and the European Commission signed a contract extension today for the world’s largest fusion research facility, Joint European Torus. The extension secures at least EUR100 million (USD112 million) in additional inward investment from the EU over the next two years and "brings reassurance" for the more than 500 staff at the site in Culham, near Oxford, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said.

The US Department of Energy Office of Science has announced USD30 million of funding for experimental research on magnetic fusion energy science at to be carried out at international tokamak facilities.
 

The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) of the Netherlands has completed the irradiation testing in the High Flux Reactor of a new type of metal that will be used in a test programme of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

The US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has announced six new collaborations with industry on projects to advance commercial nuclear energy technologies. Meanwhile, the DOE has announced separate funding solicitations for research into fusion energy and transformative energy technologies.

The USA should continue its participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project and develop a national research programme towards building a compact pilot plant, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority and First Light Fusion are collaborating to convert fusion reactions into heat to enable clean power production. The ‘Fusion Island’ project is to be partly funded by a government grant.

First Light Fusion - a researcher of inertial confinement fusion - has successfully fired the first test 'shot' on one of the six limbs of its newly-constructed pulsed power device 'Machine 3'.

Tokamak Energy announced today that it has achieved plasma temperatures of over 15 million degrees Celsius, hotter than the centre of the Sun. The Oxford, England-based company turned on its ST40 reactor for the first time in April 2017.

Canada has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iter Organisation to explore how Canada can participate in the project to construct the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The fusion reactor - construction of which began in 2010 - is scheduled to achieve first plasma in 2025.

First Light Fusion is investing GBP3.6 million (USD5.0 million) building what it says will be the only pulsed power machine of its scale in the world dedicated to researching fusion energy. The Oxford, England-based company said on 12 March it expects to commission the device - Machine 3 - by the end of this year.