NNL, the UK’s national laboratory for nuclear fission, has today launched its new Strategic Plan: This is NNL. With legally binding targets in the UK to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and more than 120 other countries moving towards the same goal, it is "impossible to overestimate the scale of the challenge ahead", NNL said.

Norway's Institute for Energy Technology has signed a contract with Westinghouse subsidiary Springfields Fuels Limited for the transfer of 3 tonnes of un-irradiated research reactor fuel to the UK for processing into new fuel for use in commercial nuclear power plants. The uranium fuel would otherwise have been treated as waste, stored and disposed of in Norway.

Initial results from the UK Atomic Energy Authority's new MAST Upgrade experiment at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, England, have demonstrated the effectiveness of an innovative exhaust system designed to make compact fusion power plants commercially viable. The new exhaust system - called the Super-X divertor - is designed to channel plasma out of the machine at temperatures low enough for its materials to withstand - meaning that components can last much longer.

Kwasi Kwarteng, British secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, highlighted the role of nuclear power in a statement to the House of Commons this week to mark six months since the publication of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 10-point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. During the subsequent debate, Members of Parliament quizzed Kwarteng on the government's commitment to nuclear new build.

The Nuclear Industry Association, RenewableUK and Solar Energy UK - representing Britain’s three leading zero-carbon power generators - today called for urgent action to build new wind, nuclear and solar capacity and for a binding target of 100% grid decarbonisation by 2035. In a joint statement, they wrote that, with just six months to go until the UK co-hosts the COP26 summit, Britain’s grid is "dirtier now than it was a year ago", with heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

The UN climate summit in November "must be the COP that consigns coal power to history" if the world is serious about achieving the 1.5 degree limit set by the Paris Agreement, COP26 President Alok Sharma said last week. In response, the UK's Nuclear Industry Association said that nuclear energy is the best low-carbon baseload replacement for coal, while US Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry highlighted the development of small modular reactors.

The UK SMR consortium, led by Rolls-Royce, has announced the latest design and an increase in power - from 440 MW to 470 MW - of its "compact" nuclear power station. The "refreshed design" features a faceted aesthetic roof; an earth embankment surrounding the power station to integrate with the surrounding landscape; and a more compact building footprint, the British engineering company said.

The Chapelcross Site’s storage facility has taken its first active waste package - a Ductile Cast Iron Container with waste from the site’s former cooling pond, Magnox Limited announced today.

First Light Fusion has completed construction of a 22-metre-long two-stage gas gun as part of its experimental efforts to develop "a simpler, faster, and cheaper route" to commercial fusion energy. The UK company says it has successfully fired first test shots, with fusion experimental shots on the new device starting next month.

The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy yesterday opened the Generic Design Assessment to advanced nuclear technologies. BEIS has also published a policy paper stating that the advanced nuclear sector has the potential to play an important part in the UK's Industrial Strategy.

True diversity in the workplace means heightened standards for all, writes Adriènne Kelbie in her final external article before stepping down as Chief Executive of the UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation.

A new specialist nuclear transport organisation has officially launched today in the UK. Nuclear Transport Solutions, part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, operates Direct Rail Services and Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited, which provide rail and shipping services, respectively. The NDA is also in the process of integrating its radioactive waste management businesses.