Carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity generated by the UK's newest nuclear power plants will be even lower than wind and solar power, a new analysis has confirmed. A detailed and independently verified study into lifetime emissions from Hinkley Point C was carried out for EDF by environmental specialists Ricardo Energy & Environment and verified by engineering consultants WSP.

Southern Company and the US Department of Energy have signed an agreement to design, construct and operate the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment - a proof-of-concept critical fast-spectrum salt reactor. Southern will lead a collaborative effort to build the MCRE - which it says will be the world's first fast-spectrum salt reactor to achieve criticality - at Idaho National Laboratory.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory have developed a new method of simulating what happens to a nuclear fuel pin when it overheats, using a newly developed detector which they plan to use in future tests of advanced light-water reactor fuel designs, beginning next year.

Lightbridge Ltd has completed work to design an experiment for the irradiation of samples of its metallic fuel material in the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. The work was carried out in collaboration with INL under the US Department of Energy's Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear voucher programme and marks a milestone towards testing of the material in the reactor.

Five sites - one in Scotland and four in England - have been shortlisted to host the UK's prototype fusion energy plant - the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production. The site of the demonstration plant, due to begin operating by 2040, is expected to be announced at the end of next year.

The UK government has today published a strategy setting out how it will leverage scientific, commercial and international leadership to enable the delivery of fusion energy. It has also launched a consultation seeking views on the regulatory framework for ensuring the safe and effective rollout of fusion energy.

Terrestrial Energy has signed an agreement with Orano for the supply of nuclear fuel for its Integral Molten Salt Reactor. The agreement is part of Terrestrial's multiple-sourcing strategy and follows the announcement last month of a similar partnership with Westinghouse and the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory.

The PRISMAP network was recently launched which will see more than 20 European academic institutions and research centres pooling their knowledge, expertise and infrastructure to speed up the introduction of new medical radioisotopes. The network aims to provide a sustainable source of high-purity grade novel radionuclides for medical research.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority has opened its new nuclear Fusion Technology Facility at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. The facility will develop and test materials and components in the simulated conditions of a fusion power plant.

Radiation from used nuclear fuel could be used to create a valuable fuel additive needed for renewable biodiesel, scientists in Slovenia and the UK have shown. The research highlights that there are "unexplored renewable processes that can be realised using ionising radiation - especially considering used fuel pools as a source of catalytic energy," said the paper, published in Nature Communications Chemistry last week. It was written by scientists from Slovenia's Jožef Stefan Institute and the UK's Lancaster University and Aston University.

Tokamak Energy of the UK announced it has demonstrated a transformative magnet protection technology that improves the commercial viability of fusion power plants, delivering higher performance than alternative magnet systems. It said results from the latest tests validate a revolutionary approach to scaling up high-temperature superconducting magnets, which are highly resilient to plasma disruptions.

Orano's new Centre for Innovation in Extractive Metallurgy (Centre d'Innovation en Métallurgie Extractive, CIME) facility at its Bessines-sur-Gartempe site in the New Aquitaine region of France has been inaugurated by French Prime Minister Jean Castex. The new facility - one of the group's main R&D centres - will host industrial pilot tests for Orano projects under development, in particular for the recycling and recovery of radioactive and non-radioactive materials.