The US Department of Energy is teaming up with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and providing USD5.8 million in funding for a project to demonstrate how three construction technologies from other industries can be applied to advanced reactor designs, to improve the economics of bringing advanced reactors to market. The Advanced Construction Technology Initiative aims to reduce cost overruns and schedule slippages.
 

The world's first cosmic-ray muon detector developed specifically for use in industry-standard boreholes, has been deployed at Orano's McClean Lake site in northern Saskatchewan where it will be used to image a uranium deposit. The technology developed by Canadian start-up company Ideon Technologies could transform mineral exploration.

The European Commission has adopted the Euratom Work Programme 2021-2022, implementing the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025, which complements Horizon Europe. The Work Programme outlines the objectives and specific topic areas that will receive EUR300 million (USD355 million) in funding.

A new technology using drones is set to be deployed for the remote monitoring of radiation measurements at former uranium mining and processing areas in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with gamma spectrometers have been developed by a German consortium in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

NASA has marked the 60th anniversary of the launch into space of its first nuclear-powered satellite. Transit IV-A - an experimental navigational satellite with a radioisotope-powered generator - was launched by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from Cape Canaveral on 29 June 1961, and NASA has since flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear power system.

Oklo Inc has announced a USD2 million cost-share award from the US Department of Energy supported by the Technology Commercialisation Fund. Oklo is matching USD1 million in funds in a public-private partnership with the DOE and Argonne National Laboratory. The TCF project will enable the commercialisation of advanced fuel recycling capabilities by utilising electrorefining technology.

Global crises like the coronavirus pandemic and climate change can create a strong impetus for the rapid acceleration of new technological development, panellists at a World Nuclear Association Strategic eForum said this week. Governments also have an important part to play in facilitating the right market conditions to enable innovation to flourish, while effective communication is vital in all sectors.

There are important lessons to be learned from the approaches that led to the rapid deployment of vaccines in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, James Naismith, professor of structural biology at the University of Oxford and director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, told World Nuclear Association's Thinking Outside the Dome - Strategic eForum on Nuclear Innovation. The following is the text of his speech.

British engineering firm Rolls-Royce will ensure its new products are compatible with net zero by 2030 and its whole business by 2050. Small modular reactors will play a role in meeting these targets. In June 2020, Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East joined the UN High Level Climate Champions to launch the Race to Zero, the United Nation's campaign to mobilise leadership of businesses, cities and investors to commit to net-zero emissions by the middle of the century at the latest.

Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies - a subsidiary of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation - is providing "critical support" to both prime contractors in the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations programme to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion system for cislunar operations. USNC-Tech is the only company participating in both tracks of the programme.

Canadian company General Fusion is to build and operate a plant to demonstrate its nuclear fusion technology at UKAEA's Culham Campus near Oxford in the UK. The Fusion Demonstration Plant will pave the way for a commercial pilot plant using Magnetised Target Fusion technology and is expected to begin operations in 2025.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a licence amendment that will allow Centrus Energy Corp to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium at its Piketon enrichment facility. Centrus expects to begin demonstrating HALEU production at the facility in Ohio early next year.