Westinghouse is seeking to collaborate with the US Department of Energy on the development of a lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR). It will be the company's first foray into fourth generation reactor designs.

The findings of a four-year study on the corrosion behaviours of magnesium and uranium may help to significantly reduce the timescale and costs of cleaning up the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo at Sellafield, one of the UK's most hazardous buildings.

Amec Foster Wheeler has been selected to lead a project to set up a new high-temperature facility in the UK for testing materials used in current and future nuclear reactors. It will be funded by a government research grant.

The first phase of a refinery pilot plant to extract uranium and rare earth metals from the Kvanefjeld deposit in Greenland has met or exceeded its targets during a 250-hour test run.

China and the UK will work together to co-fund a £50 million ($78 million) nuclear research centre, to be headquartered in the UK. Chinese vice premier Ma Kai and British chancellor George Osborne announced the plan on 21 September during the 7th UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue summit in Beijing.

A funding cut of some 60% will allow continued development of the American Centrifuge uranium enrichment technology at Oak Ridge, but will not support ongoing centrifuge operations in Piketon, Centrus Energy announced on 11 September.

Trials have been completed by UK companies Costain and Tetronics International of new technology for the vitrification of intermediate-level radioactive waste. The partners claim the technology could reduce the volume of such waste from the nuclear industry by up to 90%.

Grants totalling £2.5 million ($3.9 million) have been awarded by the UK government to the National Nuclear Laboratory and the University of Manchester for the development of accident tolerant nuclear fuels.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced funding to support the research, development and demonstration of advanced reactor concepts. In partnership with industry, the department will fund two awards worth up to $6 million each in the 2015 financial year.

A number of agreements were signed yesterday between Chinese and French nuclear energy companies aimed at strengthening their cooperation in the nuclear fuel cycle and power reactors.

A small robot has been developed to investigate the inside of the primary containment vessel of unit 2 of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Russia has signed the ten-year extension to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Framework Agreement for International Collaboration on Research and Development of Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems .