The Canadian government has released a national Small Modular Reactor Action Plan, which responds to the 53 recommendations identified in the country's SMR Roadmap that was launched in November 2018. The plan lays out the next steps for the development, demonstration and deployment of SMRs for multiple applications at home and abroad.

The UK government has called on local communities across the country to put forward proposals to host the UK’s prototype fusion energy power plant. Today's announcement follows Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution and the UK’s ambition to be the first country in the world to commercialise fusion energy technology.

New additive manufacturing technologies for the design and manufacture of reactor components made from high-temperature alloys and refractory metals have been developed by BWX Technologies in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Such components could find applications in current and advanced reactors, as well as in accident-tolerant fuels.

Russia’s Siberian Chemical Combine has produced more than 1000 experimental fuel elements based on mixed uranium-plutonium nitride fuel during its eight years of participation in the Proryv (Breakthrough) project. Fuel elements of various standard sizes and structural materials were manufactured in order to find and justify the optimal configuration, SCC said in a 13 November statement.

Terrestrial Energy and Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group have started a graphite irradiation testing programme at the High Flux Reactor in the Netherlands. This work is part of broader programme underway for confirmatory testing of components and systems in the Integral Molten Salt Reactor.

The US Department of Energy yesterday released its Hydrogen Program Plan to provide a strategic framework for its hydrogen research, development, and demonstration activities. The plan, which reinforces DOE's commitment to develop the technologies that can enable hydrogen expansion in the USA, incorporates the RD&D efforts of multiple DOE offices to advance the production, transport, storage, and use of hydrogen across different sectors of the economy.

Terrestrial Energy and the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have begun detailed testing of the fuel salt for Terrestrial's Integral Molten Salt Reactor. The IMSR uses two molten salt streams - a fuel salt that contains the uranium and another salt to transfer heat from the reactor to the electricity generation system.

A new EU-funded project aims to improve confidence in nuclear safety by advancing the approach to seismic safety assessments for nuclear power plants. The 'methods and tools innovations for seismic risk assessment' (METIS) Horizon 2020 project is being led by France's EDF Group.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority's fusion energy experiment - the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade tokamak at Culham Science Centre - has achieved first plasma for the first time. MAST Upgrade will be the forerunner of the UK's prototype fusion power plant - Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) - due for completion by 2040. It will also aid preparations for Iter - the world's largest science megaproject, under construction in the South of France, which intends to demonstrate fusion power on an industrial scale.

Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) - a subsidiary of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) - has developed a design concept as part of NASA-funded research into nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) systems for potential use in deep space travel. The concept uses a specialised variation of USNC's proprietary fully ceramic microencapsulated, tristructural isotropic fuel, developed for use in power reactors.

After leaving the Iter project in 2003, Canada has now signed a cooperation agreement with the ITER Organisation for the transfer of Canadian-supplied tritium, and tritium-related equipment and technology. The agreement follows the signing in April 2018 of a Memorandum of Understanding to explore how Canada could participate in the project to construct the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

The US Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have agreed to extend their existing cooperation by a further 10 years. One area for continued cooperation is space nuclear power and propulsion.