The UK's First Light Fusion has successfully completed constructing and testing its Machine 3 - the only pulsed power machine of its scale in the world dedicated to researching fusion energy. The company aims to demonstrate first fusion later this year.

Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom and the Russian State Academy of Sciences are to cooperate on joint scientific, technical and innovative activities in areas including nuclear energy, nuclear medicine and other areas under an agreement signed in Moscow on 7 February.

NRG is to carry out testing of materials, including graphite, for key components of Terrestrial Energy's Integral Molten Salt Reactor power plant in the High-Flux Reactor at Petten in the Netherlands under a contract announced on 5 February.

The US Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy has confirmed it awarded a total of USD111.2 million in funding to three industry partners to develop accident tolerant fuels. The awards were made to General Electric, Framatome and Westinghouse in late 2018.

The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) of the Netherlands has completed the irradiation testing in the High Flux Reactor of a new type of metal that will be used in a test programme of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

The first Russian-made experimental nuclear fuel assemblies based on accident-tolerant fuel for light water reactors have been loaded for testing into the water loops of the MIR research reactor at the State Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad.

China General Nuclear has begun irradiation testing of a prototype accident-tolerant fuel rod in a research reactor, marking the first time that Chinese-developed ATF has been irradiated.

China National Nuclear Corporation and Suzhou University have signed a strategic cooperation agreement aimed at expanding their existing cooperation in nuclear medicine and nuclear technology applications. Suzhou University is in the eastern-central coastal province of Jiangsu.

The US Department of Energy has completed an environmental assessment clearing the way for the fabrication of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for advanced nuclear reactors at the Idaho National Laboratory. Meanwhile, the US Department of Defense has issued a Request for Information for a small mobile reactor using HALEU fuel to provide electrical power in rapid response scenarios.

Westinghouse Electric Company has received USD93.6 million of funding from the US Department of Energy for its EnCore accident-tolerant fuel programme.

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has launched a target programme for scientific research, Nuclear and Radiation Technologies for the Energy Sector and Social Needs for 2019-2023. The resolution was adopted on 16 January, following a meeting of the presidium of the institution, chaired by its president, Boris Paton.

The Advancing Nuclear Medicine consortium, led by the Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, has been awarded a EUR6.8 million (USD7.7 million) subsidy to develop FIELD-LAB. This Dutch initiative is aimed at accelerating the development and introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals.