Both demonstration and test reactors are necessary to support the development and commercial deployment of the new reactor technologies that will expand access to reliable, clean energy, writes Kathryn Huff, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the US Department of Energy. This article was first published by the Office of Nuclear Energy on 30 July.

Jacques Peythieu, Chief Executive Officer of Orano Conversion & Enrichment, discusses the company's recovery from the impacts of the pandemic and industrial action, 2020 results, production ramp up at its Philippe Coste plant in France, and possible transformation of the conversion market due to the recently announced restart of Honeywell's conversion plant at Metropolis in the USA. He also assesses the prospects of enrichment market and the expected requirements for HALEU, as well as potential hurdles to supply capabilities or transportation of this material. A multinational nuclear fuel cycle company headquartered in Hauts-de-Seine, France, Orano has an order book worth EUR26 billion (USD31 billion).

The Swedish government must make a decision on the application to construct a final high-level waste repository and not consider it separately from that for an expansion of the existing Clab interim repository for used fuel, write World Nuclear Association's Director General Sama Bilbao y León and Public Affairs Manager John Lindberg. Dividing the applications, they say, is a political game of 'Fox and Geese' that is extremely unworthy of an established democracy like Sweden.

Nuclear energy must get a fair representation at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties to be held 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow, World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León has said in an open letter to COP26 President Alok Sharma. The full text of the 16 August letter is as follows.

The nuclear technology research and development centre Russia is building in the Bolivian city of El Alto will serve as a model not only for Latin America but for the global nuclear industry, Rusatom Overseas President Evgeny Pakermanov said in an interview with World Nuclear News. Rusatom Overseas is a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which in July announced the start of construction works for a research reactor facility at the CNTRD.

Molten salt reactor technology has the potential to revolutionise the commercial shipping industry by making the largest ships faster, cleaner and more efficient, Core Power Chairman and CEO Mikal Bøe said in an interview with World Nuclear News. The goal is initially to power floating production of hydrogen-derived green fuels for a vast fleet of smaller vessels and, once licensed and approved, eventually to provide onboard electric propulsion power for large ships.

The nuclear medicine sector is a small part of the wider nuclear industry, but it provides some of the most pioneering technologies in healthcare - and is close to making personalised medicine a reality. Antonis Kalemis, president of Nuclear Medicine Europe and business manager for molecular imaging at Siemens Healthineers, describes how nuclear medicine also tackles the most trenchant condition in modern healthcare: cancer.

Delivery of the UK’s net-zero goals requires a vast increase in the production of zero-carbon electricity, hydrogen and district heating. Nuclear can make a vital and commercially viable contribution to the rapid scale-up of these energy vectors, write Dr Paul Nevitt, technical director of the Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme at the National Nuclear Laboratory, Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll, managing directors at LucidCatalyst, and Scott Milne, head of insights at Energy Systems Catapult.

A common misconception about advanced nuclear technologies is that they are largely conceptual and will not be commercialised in time to contribute to meeting near-term climate goals, but a comprehensive look at global efforts to develop advanced nuclear reveals rapid progress towards commercialisation and operation, write Clean Air Task Force, ClearPath, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, Pillsbury and Third Way.

There are important lessons to be learned from the approaches that led to the rapid deployment of vaccines in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, James Naismith, professor of structural biology at the University of Oxford and director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, told World Nuclear Association's Thinking Outside the Dome - Strategic eForum on Nuclear Innovation. The following is the text of his speech.

The possible roles of advanced nuclear energy in meeting the UK’s legally binding net zero by 2050 target are not well understood and need to be clarified urgently, write Francis Livens, Gregg Butler, Juan Matthews and William Bodel of The University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute.

It's hard to imagine a future where we can decarbonise our power grid affordably without using more nuclear power, Bill Gates told participants in the Nuclear Energy Assembly, held this week as a virtual event by the Nuclear Energy Institute. The text of his keynote speech on 9 June is as follows.