The USA's National Ignition Facility has achieved a record fusion yield that it says puts it "at the threshold of fusion ignition". The record laser shot produced 25 times more than the facility's next best experiment.

A legacy radioactive source from a US Department of Energy waste inventory is now being reused more than 40 years after it was put into storage. The collaborative effort to prepare and transport the small neutron-emitting, plutonium-beryllium source from Idaho National Laboratory to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory takes the 'reduce, reuse and recycle' concept to the next level, the Department's Office of Environmental Management said.

The governments of Australia and the UK have signed a letter of intent to establish a partnership on low emissions solutions including clean hydrogen and small modular reactors. Meanwhile, the Australian Research Council  has awarded funding to a newly launched project to develop fuel for hydrogen-boron fusion which its participants say has the potential to re-establish Australia as a leader in fusion research and clean energy technology.

The nuclear technology research and development centre Russia is building in the Bolivian city of El Alto will serve as a model not only for Latin America but for the global nuclear industry, Rusatom Overseas President Evgeny Pakermanov said in an interview with World Nuclear News. Rusatom Overseas is a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which in July announced the start of construction works for a research reactor facility at the CNTRD.

A prototype detector based on a system originally developed to help detect the presence of dark matter is about to undergo testing at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. The liquid argon-based ALARM system offers significant improvements in detecting neutron and gamma radiation compared with existing technology, and could potentially be used to prevent the illicit movement of nuclear materials across international borders.

Irradiated lead test rods containing Westinghouse's EnCore advanced fuel technology have arrived at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory where they will undergo a year of testing to support regulatory licensing efforts. The fuel is being developed under the DOE's Accident Tolerant Fuel Program, an industry-led effort looking to commercialise new fuels within the decade.

Fusion energy developer Helion Energy has broken ground on a new facility in Everett, Washington, which will house its seventh generation fusion prototype, known as Polaris. Construction of the facility, which will also produce helium-3 fuel, is expected to be completed in early-2022. Meanwhile, General Fusion and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories are to collaborate on the development of tritium extraction techniques for use in commercial fusion power plants.

Russia's Rosatom has launched construction works for a research reactor facility in Bolivia, which is part of a nuclear technology research and development centre in the city of El Alto. A ceremony held yesterday to mark the pouring of first concrete was attended by Bolivian President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora and Rosatom First Deputy Director General for Corporate Development and International Business Kirill Komarov.

Three reactor design concept proposals for a nuclear thermal propulsion system for deep space missions have been selected by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy. The reactor will be a critical component of a nuclear thermal engine, which would utilise high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.

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.

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation and EDF have announced their plans to cooperate on nuclear energy R&D under a new Memorandum of Understanding, which includes exploring the production of 'green hydrogen' powered by nuclear energy.