Gallium nitride semiconductors can successfully withstand the harsh environment near a nuclear reactor core, researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found. The discovery could enable electronic components to be placed closer to sensors in an operating reactor leading to more precise and accurate measurements with safety and operational benefits.

A groundbreaking ceremony has been held at the Minerva particle accelerator construction site in Mol, Belgium, marking the start of the first of three phases of the development of the Myrrha accelerator-driven research reactor.

The installation of 380 foundation piles - each 33 metres in length - has been completed in the construction pit for the Pallas research reactor in Petten, the Netherlands. Pallas is planned to replace the existing High Flux Reactor. 

Dismantling of the Finnish Reactor 1 research reactor at Aalto University's Otaniemi campus in Espoo has been completed, marking the first nuclear reactor to be decommissioned in Finland. The experience gained will serve as a model for decommissioning commercial nuclear reactors in the country.

The Low Intensity Test Reactor, known as Building 3005, was built in 1949 as a criticality testing facility that used highly enriched fuel with water as a coolant, and operated until 1968 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA.

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has signed bilateral agreements with Japan and South Korea to cooperate in optimising the nuclear non-proliferation features of their respective research reactor models aimed at export markets.

The operator of the Hoger Onderwijs research reactor in the Netherlands has enhanced safety since a previous review mission in September 2021, a follow-up International Atomic Energy Agency mission has concluded.

Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission and nuclear construction specialists INVAP have held a workshop focused on the design of the facility which will form part of the complex alongside the new RA-10 multipurpose reactor.

France's Framatome and Germany's Technical University of Munich have agreed to establish the industrialisation process for the manufacture of monolithic molybdenum-uranium fuel for the university's FRM II research reactor. Framatome noted this low-enriched fuel will benefit from the highest uranium fuel density ever realised in Europe for research reactor operations.

All remaining highly enriched uranium from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's Japan Materials Testing Reactor Critical Assembly has now been returned to the USA. Japan and the USA have been cooperating for many years to repatriate HEU from Japanese research reactors to the USA.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute's successful irradiation tests and positive inspection of high-density uranium silicide fuel signal potential for high-enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium conversion of high-performance research reactors, aiming to bolster international nuclear non-proliferation efforts upon commercialisation.

As well as preparing to issue a Request for Proposals for 2500 MW of new nuclear "this calendar year", the Nuclear Energy Summit was told that South Africa is developing its Pebble Bed Modular Reactor technology and "deserves the opportunity to implement the complete nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful uses".