The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking proposals for Phases 2 and 3 of its Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations programme, which aims to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion system in orbit in fiscal year 2026.

Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein has launched the design concept for a replenishment, research and rescue vessel - referred to as Thor - that will feature a thorium molten salt reactor. It says the ship could be used as a mobile power/charging station for a new breed of battery-driven cruise ships.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will establish a demonstration hydrogen production project at the High-Temperature Test Reactor in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

A new method to extract molybdenum-99 from low-enriched uranium targets, developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich, could significantly reduce the radioactive waste produced during the production of the isotope. Mo-99 is the precursor for medical radioisotope technetium-99m, used in more than 85% of all nuclear medicine diagnostic examinations.

As the US Administration unveiled its "bold decadal vision" to accelerate fusion energy, the Department of Energy has announced up to USD50 million of federal funding to support US scientists conducting experimental research in fusion energy science at tokamak and spherical tokamak facilities at home and overseas.

UK-based innovative reactor developer Newcleo has signed a framework agreement with ENEA - the Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development - to cooperate on the development of small, lead-cooled fast reactors.

The US Department of Energy has awarded USD36 million for 11 projects seeking to increase the use of nuclear power as a reliable source of clean energy and to limit the amount of radioactive waste produced from advanced reactors.

Tokamak Energy of the UK announced it has demonstrated a world-first with its privately-funded ST40 spherical tokamak, achieving a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, the threshold required for commercial fusion energy.

Feedback is being sought on the proposed plan ahead of a formal Invitation to Tender for the Advanced Modular Reactor Research, Development & Demonstration programme.

Sandia National Laboratories has improved its Maccs code - used to simulate the impact of severe accidents at nuclear plants and other nuclear facilities - to make it better able to evaluate potential health and environmental risks posed by advanced nuclear reactors and small modular nuclear reactors.
 

The Swedish Energy Agency has awarded Swedish Modular Reactors AB - a joint venture between Uniper Sweden and LeadCold - funding of just over SEK99 million (USD10.6 million) in support of the construction of a demonstration LeadCold SEALER lead-cooled small modular reactor at the Oskarshamn plant site.

Studies at Australian nuclear science and technology organisation ANSTO have confirmed that a crocodile that lived some 93 million years ago in what is now Central Queensland ate dinosaurs. Neutron and synchrotron instruments were used to reveal and reconstruct the crocodile's fossilised stomach contents.