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.

Testing has begun on VVER-type fuel elements with uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide fuel in the MIR research reactor. Based on the results of irradiation and tests, scientists "intend to substantiate the efficiency and safety of MOX fuel operation in VVER reactors".

Steady Energy aims to build the world's first district heating plant featuring its LDR-50 small modular reactor by 2030. The company - which has been spun out from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland - has raised EUR2 million (USD2.2 million) in seed funding led by VTT, Yes VC and Lifeline Ventures.

Stratek Global hopes to produce a pilot plant of the High Temperature Modular Reactor (HTMR-100), which is derived from the South African Pebble Bed Modular Reactor programme.

Kepco Nuclear Fuel and GS Engineering & Construction, together with Denmark's Seaborg Technologies, are to investigate the feasibility of developing a low-enriched uranium fuel salt production facility in South Korea. Seaborg is developing compact molten salt reactor technology.

Belgian engineering firm Tractebel has signed a framework cooperation agreement to strengthen and extend its collaboration with France's Nuward and EDF in the development of the Nuward small modular reactor technology.