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TRISO-X and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extend Advanced Nuclear Fuel R&D Collaboration

TRISO-X announced on August 11 that it has extended its Collaborative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The newly signed agreement has a term of 30 months and will continue to advance commercial-scale development of TRISO fuel, manufacturing process optimization, and technology transfer, building on the collaboration established since 2016. TRISO-X is a wholly-owned subsidiary of X-energy, primarily engaged in advanced nuclear fuel manufacturing. Under the agreement, TRISO-X will continue to operate its existing pilot-scale facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with a focus on transitioning TRISO fuel from laboratory R&D to commercial-scale manufacturing. The collaboration includes optimizing fuel...

2026-08-12

Leshan Accelerates Construction of Medical Isotope Production Base to Promote Domestic Substitution of "Anti-Cancer Nuclear Drugs"

On August 11, at the Leshan special press conference of "Myriad Scenes in Sichuan · Embarking on the '15th Five-Year Plan'", Leshan Mayor Zhao Yingchun stated that Leshan is accelerating the construction of the largest and most comprehensive medical isotope production base in China. Upon completion, the project will help break the foreign monopoly and import dependence on related products, promote the domestic substitution of anti-cancer nuclear drugs, and enable more patients to access domestically produced drugs with lower prices and better efficacy. Zhao Yingchun noted that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Leshan has focused on building the "China Green Silicon Valley", a world-class tourist destination, and a major regional transportation and logistics hub in the province, continuously promoting high-quality development, with its economic output surpassing 250 billion yuan...

2026-08-12

Chinese Team Proposes "Toxic Blood Meal" Pre-Treatment Approach to Boost Sterile Insect Technique for Mosquitoes

Chinese researchers have recently proposed a novel sex-sorting approach for the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) in mosquitoes: adding a specific agent to the blood meal ingested by female mosquitoes, leveraging the biological difference that female mosquitoes feed on blood while males do not, to substantially reduce the number of females before release. The study was published in the June issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. The Sterile Insect Technique is a pest population control method centered on radiation-induced sterility. Its basic process involves mass-rearing male target insects in the laboratory, sterilizing them through radiation exposure to render them reproductively incapable, and then releasing them into the field, where they mate with wild females to produce non-viable eggs, thereby suppressing target population growth. This technique has been incorporated into integrated pest management systems and is regarded as a relatively environmentally friendly pest control approach.

2026-08-12

Texas to Accelerate Opening of Sterile Fly Facility to Combat New World Screwworm Outbreak

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that, in response to the New World screwworm (NWS) outbreak already detected in Texas and New Mexico, the sterile fly facility at Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas, will open early next spring, approximately seven months ahead of the original schedule. Construction on the facility began in April of this year, and once completed, it will produce sterile flies to support outbreak control efforts using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). Under the plan, the facility will reach full operational capacity by the end of 2028, producing approximately 300 million sterile flies per week. The Sterile Insect Technique works by releasing sterilized flies into the environment to mate with wild screwworms, thereby interrupting the reproductive cycle and reducing the risk of continued parasite spread...

2026-08-12

French city of Illkirch plans to test sterile insect technique to combat tiger mosquitoes

Thibaud Philipps, Mayor of Illkirch-Graffenstaden in France's Bas-Rhin department, hopes to pilot the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT/TIS) locally, sterilizing male tiger mosquitoes through radiation and releasing them regularly to curb population growth. According to local authorities, tiger mosquitoes have been officially established in Illkirch-Graffenstaden since 2019. In recent years, the local tiger mosquito population has continued to increase, significantly impacting residents' daily lives. The municipal government has previously implemented multiple control measures, including launching the "Tiger Team" project in 2024 to educate the public on mosquito prevention and control methods, as well as providing subsidies of up to 50 euros per household for purchasing mosquito traps. To date, approximately 400 households have received relevant traps...

2026-08-12

LG Electronics Launches FDA-Approved 40-Inch Diagnostic Monitor for B2B Medical Imaging Market

LG Electronics announced on August 12 that it has launched a new 40-inch diagnostic monitor, the 40HT513D, targeting the business-to-business (B2B) medical display market. The product has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is primarily intended for medical image interpretation. According to the company, the 40HT513D features a curved IPS black panel with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 5120×2160, delivering approximately 11 million pixels. LG Electronics stated that this design consolidates image reading tasks that previously required three 3-megapixel monitors into a single screen. Physicians can simultaneously view and compare current and historical images from X-ray, CT scans, and MRI scans on the same display...

2026-08-12

China Bio-Pharma: Enters Cooperation Agreement with Stella Pharma on Boron Neutron Therapy Drug

China Bio-Pharma Holdings Limited announced on August 12 that the company, Pengbo (Hainan) Boron Neutron Medical Technology Co., Ltd., and Japan's Stella Pharma Corporation signed a legally binding Master Cooperation Agreement on August 11, 2026, to jointly advance the development and commercialization of Steboronine in China. Steboronine is described in the announcement as the world's first approved boron neutron therapy drug, applied in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). Under the agreement, the cooperation between the two parties is divided into a development phase and a commercialization phase. During the development phase, the cooperation aims to leverage real-world data, real-world evidence, and real-world studies generated by the China Bio-Pharma Group to facilitate Stella Pharma in obtaining and maintaining, as soon as possible, marketing approval from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for Steboronine for the treatment of head and neck cancer; after Stella Pharma obtains marketing and manufacturing approval from the Japanese government for Steboronine for meningioma, the relevant China filings may also be extended to the meningioma indication.

2026-08-12

Budapest Launches Feasibility Study for Long-Distance Heat Supply from Paks Nuclear Power Plant

On August 11, 2026, Budapest Public Services Company (BKM), in partnership with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, launched a feasibility study to explore the delivery of thermal energy from the Paks Nuclear Power Plant to the city's district heating system via a hot-water pipeline of approximately 125 kilometers. The study focuses on the technical, economic, and construction feasibility of the project. The Paks Nuclear Power Plant is located about 100 kilometers from the capital, and the current heat load of Budapest's district heating system is approximately 100 MWth in summer, peaking at 1,000 MWth in winter. The core significance of this concept lies not only in providing a low-carbon heat source for the city but also in improving the efficiency of waste heat utilization at the nuclear power plant. The Paks Nuclear Power Plant currently...

2026-08-12

Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant Launches Environmental Monitoring System, Recording Ecological Data to Build a "Digital Memory"

On August 10, the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant under construction in Mersin Province announced that its deployed high-tech environmental monitoring system has been put into operation, which will digitally record and track ecological environment changes around the plant site. The operator stated that the system not only serves the plant's own environmental compliance but also sets a new standard for environmental management in Türkiye. In terms of marine ecological monitoring, the modern chemical analysis laboratory activated on site is monitoring seawater quality in real time, regularly measuring multiple parameters such as water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen levels, and fish diversity. Through these data, the plant's impact on the marine ecosystem will be transparently documented. Particularly noteworthy...

2026-08-12

US Oak Ridge National Laboratory Restarts Tungsten-188/Rhenium-188 Generator Production to Support Targeted Cancer Therapy Research

The US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) recently restarted and upgraded its tungsten-188/rhenium-188 (W-188/Re-188) generator manufacturing operations to meet the demand for the rare medical isotope rhenium-188 in targeted cancer therapy research. The laboratory last manufactured such generators in 2011. Radiochemist Becca Hores demonstrated the assembly process of the W-188/Re-188 generator. Depending on radioactivity levels, these generators must be assembled in gloveboxes or hot cells. Image credit: Maggie Gregg/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy. Rhenium-188 is produced by the radioactive decay of tungsten-188. ORNL irradiates tungsten-186 in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) to produce tungsten-188...

2026-08-12

Brazil's uranium imports from Russia hit highest since 1997 in July, reaching $84.5 million in a single month, a 168-fold surge month-on-month

Brazil's uranium imports from Russia in July this year reached $84.5 million, equivalent to approximately 430 million reais, the highest level since 1997. Compared with the import value of only $504,000 in June, the single-month increase was as high as 168-fold, indicating that this transaction was not a general monthly fluctuation but a concentrated procurement of exceptionally large scale. Looking at historical data, Brazil's uranium imports have typically remained at the level of hundreds of thousands of dollars per month, and even previous periodic peaks were far below the scale seen in July. Materials show that there was an import peak exceeding $1 million in August 2025, but it still pales in comparison with this $84.5 million figure. This means that the July data not only changes...

2026-08-12

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Reveals Mechanism of Canine Brain Recognizing Human Negative Emotions

August 11 news, Hungarian ethologists from Eötvös Loránd University, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Vienna in Austria and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how canine brains process human facial emotions. The related paper was published in iScience. The research team designed two experiments. To avoid the influence of dogs' emotional responses to familiar people on the results, facial photos of strangers were used in the experiments. The first experiment included 8 dogs aged 18 to 53 months, including 6 Border Collies, 1 Labrador Retriever, and 1 Golden Retriever. The dogs remained in a stationary position in the scanner and could leave the device at any time. The experiment first compared happy and neutral human face images...

2026-08-12

Brazil's IRD Radiometric Metrology Laboratory Receives CTBTO Certification, Joins International Nuclear Test Monitoring Network

The Radiometric Metrology Laboratory of Brazil's Institute of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry (IRD/ANSN) has recently received certification from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), officially qualifying it to join the international verification system. The certification was granted following an on-site audit conducted by the CTBTO in Rio de Janeiro from June 16 to 25, marking the Brazilian laboratory as the 15th certified unit among the 16 treaty-designated radionuclide laboratories. The certification primarily confirmed that the laboratory meets CTBTO requirements in high-precision analysis, result reliability, data traceability, and standardization of technical procedures. The audit covered sample reception and preparation, equipment calibration, result interpretation,...

2026-08-12

India's Bihar signs memorandum of understanding for $2.3 billion small modular reactor project

The government of Bihar, India recently signed investment memorandums of understanding totaling approximately $6 billion (about €5.2 billion) with several industrial enterprises, covering sectors such as steel, textiles, food processing, pharmaceuticals, and nuclear energy. Among these, the nuclear energy project investment amounts to approximately $2.3 billion, making it the largest investment proposal among the signed agreements. According to a statement issued by the office of Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Global Renewable Advanced Clean Energy, a recently registered company headquartered in Hyderabad in central India, signed the nuclear energy memorandum of understanding. Further details...

2026-08-12

Bulgaria's Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant Faces Shutdown Risk Due to Low Danube Water Levels

On August 11, Bulgaria's Ministry of Energy warned that the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is facing the risk of reduced output or even shutdown due to the continuously declining water level of the Danube River. The plant relies on the Danube to provide cooling water for its two 1,000 MW reactors. If the water intake capacity continues to be constrained, it will directly affect the safe operation of the reactors and the stability of power supply. Bulgaria's Ministry of Energy stated that measures have been taken to ensure water supply to the cooling system, including dredging the channels connecting the Danube to coastal pumping stations to maintain the necessary flow. This summer, the Danube's water level has dropped to historic lows due to prolonged drought. Near Ruse, Bulgaria, the river's flow is already more than one meter below the safe navigation level, and it has continued to decline over the past 24 hours...

2026-08-12