Advanced fuel assemblies have begun an operational trial at Russia's Rostov nuclear power plant. Fuel manufacturer TVEL said if successful they would provide a higher level of performance and safety. "Fuel irradiation in a commercial reactor is an important step for the further commercialisation of this product," said Natalia Nikipelova, president of TVEL, adding: "It is symbolic that this milestone is achieved when TVEL celebrates its 25th anniversary."

Australian welding technology specialist K-TIG has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK's Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre to develop innovative automated fabrication techniques for decommissioning waste containers. Under the MoU, K-TIG will work with the Nuclear AMRC to design, develop and supply the robotic welding cell to be used in the fabrication of the 3-cubic-metre stainless steel boxes to be used to safely store the UK's decommissioning waste.

Tritium stored at Canada's Darlington nuclear power plant will be a source of helium-3 for applications in quantum computing, medicine and security. Laurentis Energy Partners plans to extract and commercialise the isotope from the end of this year.

"There is an old phrase, 'No buying; no dying", Professor James Larkin of the University of Witwatersrand told the World Nuclear Association Annual Symposium in a presentation today. "We are aiming to use nuclear science techniques to devalue rhino horn and bring an end to poaching," he said, explaining the conservation goals of the Rhisotope Project.

An experiment using neutrinos from China's Daya Bay and Ling Ao nuclear power plants has now been fully dismantled, China's Institute of High Energy Physics has announced. It was successful in measuring the interactions between neutrinos more accurately than ever before.

Both demonstration and test reactors are necessary to support the development and commercial deployment of the new reactor technologies that will expand access to reliable, clean energy, writes Kathryn Huff, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the US Department of Energy. This article was first published by the Office of Nuclear Energy on 30 July.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has signed an engineering service contract with X-energy of the USA for studies into the manufacture of major components for the Xe-100 small modular reactor. The South Korean company said participating in the project will help it to diversify its own SMR business.

The European Space Agency has awarded a contract to Belgian company Tractebel to evaluate the possibility of producing plutonium-238 for use in space exploration. Separately, US company X-energy, working as part of a General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems team, is to develop key fuel fabrication processes in support of a first-of-a-kind rocket powered by nuclear thermal propulsion under a contract awarded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

An experimental method developed by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to determine the age and origin of uranium samples is being used to investigate the provenance of historic material allegedly recovered from Nazi Germany's nuclear programme during World War II. As well as potentially solving the mystery of the 'Heisenberg cubes', these techniques could also be applied to investigations into illicit trafficking of nuclear material.

A mobile laser system developed by a research subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom has been used to remotely cut large metal plant components during a non-nuclear decommissioning process. The laser "can be used to cut metal structures up to 250mm thick, both on land and under water, in the temperature range from -50 to 40 degrees Celsius," said Azamat Bedanokov, deputy director general of the developers, the State Research Centre of the Russian Federation Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Thermonuclear Research.

A containerised Proton Exchange Membrane electrolyser is to be installed at Exelon Generation's Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant in New York State as part of a hydrogen production demonstration project. The unit will supply hydrogen for the plant's turbine cooling and chemistry control.

A group of six students recently spent nine days living in the Grimsel underground research laboratory in Switzerland in a simulated mission to the Moon. During the mission, the "astronauts" taking part in the Asclepios I project undertook several scientific experiments, the results of which could be applied to future actual space missions.