The US State Department has announced it is launching the Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) programme, which will provide "capacity-building support to partner countries". As an initial investment, the department has committed USD5.3 million to support FIRST projects.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has designated Ontario Tech University as a Collaborating Centre to support IAEA activities on advanced nuclear power technology, including small modular reactors, as well as the non‑electric applications of nuclear energy. The institution is the first in Canada to receive such a designation.

The US Department of Energy is planning to build a microreactor to help researchers and end-users understand how microreactors can integrate with other technologies. The Microreactor Applications Research Validation and EvaLuation liquid-metal cooled microreactor could be operational within three years.

There is bipartisan support in the USA for the country to be the world's leading supplier of fuel for advanced reactors, Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said today during the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle forum, which the NEI is co-hosting this week with World Nuclear Association.

TAE Technologies, the California, USA-based fusion energy technology company, has announced that its proprietary beam-driven field-reversed configuration plasma generator has produced stable plasma at over 50 million degrees Celsius. The milestone has helped the company raise USD280 million in additional funding.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by Energy Northwest, Grant County Public Utility District and X-energy to form a partnership to support the development and commercial demonstration of the USA's first advanced nuclear reactor. The TRi Energy Partnership aims to construct a plant based on X-energy's Xe-100 reactor design at Energy Northwest's existing Columbia site in Washington.

Small modular reactors are well-equipped to drive cost-efficient decarbonisation of Canada's heavy industries, research conducted by EnviroEconomics and Navius Research on behalf of the Canadian Nuclear Association has concluded. The research studied the economic and climate implications of employing SMRs in Canada's high-emitting industrial sectors.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on research & development and technology exchange related to the operation of Korean-designed APR1400 reactors. South Korea's first APR1400 unit entered commercial operation in December 2015, while four such reactors are due to start up in the UAE by 2023.

Ontario Power Generation's Centre for Canadian Nuclear Sustainability and Moltex Energy are to collaborate on a project to demonstrate the technical viability of recycling used fuel from Candu reactors. OPG is providing CAD1 million (USD800,000) in funding for the project.

The first project of the Chinese Helium-Cooled Ceramic Breeder Test Blanket System for the Iter fusion reactor project was launched on 15 March at China National Nuclear Corporation's Southwestern Institute of Physics in Chengdu, Sichuan province. It marks the start of China's implementation phase of tritium breeding technology in Iter.

The US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has called for urgent investment by the government and private sector to enable a pilot fusion plant to be operational in the 2035-2040 timeframe.

A near doubling in annual federal appropriated funding levels for core nuclear research and development activities is needed to ensure the commercial deployment of US advanced reactors in the 2030s, a task force commissioned by the American Nuclear Society has concluded. The group said the additional funding will help meet the Biden Administration's climate goals.