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Australia's OPAL Multipurpose Reactor Marks 20 Years of Operation: Supporting Nuclear Medicine, Industrial Silicon Irradiation, and Neutron Science

The OPAL multipurpose reactor at the Lucas Heights campus of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), located south of Sydney, has marked the 20th anniversary of achieving first criticality. On August 12, 2006, OPAL achieved a self-sustaining controlled nuclear chain reaction, marking the facility's transition from the construction phase to the scientific operations phase. ANSTO stated that over the past 20 years, OPAL has become one of Australia's key nuclear science infrastructures, serving multiple fields including medicine, industry, and scientific research. OPAL is not a power reactor and is not used for electricity generation. According to available information, Australian federal law and relevant state and territory legislation prohibit the construction of nuclear power reactors, fuel fabrication, and waste disposal facilities. Unlike power reactors used for...

2026-08-12

UK Low-Level Waste Repository Advances Capping Project, Rail-Transported Aggregate Exceeds 285,000 Tonnes

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) is advancing capping-related works at the Low-Level Waste Repository on the west coast of Cumbria, UK, to strengthen long-term protection of existing disposal trenches and vaults. Since the repository began operations in 1959, it has supported the safe disposal of approximately 1 million cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste, making it a key facility in the UK's radioactive waste management system. NWS, part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), is primarily responsible for consolidating the UK's radioactive waste management capabilities, providing management solutions for legacy wastes from civil and defence sectors as well as wastes arising from future new-build nuclear projects...

2026-08-12

Kazakhstan's National Nuclear Center Advances Material Testing Research for Future Reactors

On August 11, the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan presented its progress in research on structural materials for advanced reactors. Yerzhan Ernatuly Sapataev, head of the Radiation Materials Science Laboratory at the center's Institute of Atomic Energy, stated that the development of next-generation reactors and fusion technologies has imposed higher requirements on structural materials in terms of high-temperature resistance, radiation tolerance, and corrosion resistance, and that material reliability will directly determine the safety and service life of future nuclear energy systems. Materials inside future reactors typically need to...

2026-08-12

Two Units of Kozloduy NPP Operating at Full Capacity as Scheduled

As of 13:00 on August 11, 2026, the two units of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant continue to operate at full capacity in accordance with the power generation schedule. The plant's operating team maintains continuous watch to ensure the safe and stable operation of the relevant facilities. To guarantee the water volume required for the circulating pump station and the technical water cooling system, the plant has implemented technical and organizational measures under existing conditions to maintain the operation of the shore pump station. The technical condition of the relevant facilities requires ongoing attention, and operational parameters are being continuously monitored on site. To optimize water intake conditions, the plant needs to clean the riverbed between the Danube River and the shore pump station. The operation of the shore pumps is being monitored, with flow regulated by adjusting the blade angles; if necessary, further...

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

Korea Fusion Energy Institute Launches Design and Manufacturing of ITER Tritium Storage and Supply Vessels

The Korea Fusion Energy Institute (KFE) announced on August 12 at its headquarters in Daejeon that it has signed a contract with a consortium comprising Iljin Power and Aizen Core to undertake the design and manufacturing of the tritium storage and supply vessels for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). ITER is currently the world's largest fusion experimental device, being jointly constructed by seven parties—Korea, the United States, the European Union, Japan, China, Russia, and India—in Cadarache, southern France. Under the procurement agreement signed between KFE and the ITER Organization in March 2025, Korea...

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

"High-Precision Analysis Technology and Engineering Application of Multi-Physics, Multi-Scale, Strongly Coupled High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor" Passes Scientific and Technological Achievement Appraisal, Reaching Internationally Leading Level

On August 7, the China Nuclear Energy Association organized a scientific and technological achievement appraisal meeting in Beijing for the high-precision analysis technology and engineering application of multi-physics, multi-scale, strongly coupled high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Ye Qizhen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, served as the leader of the project review panel. The expert group unanimously agreed to pass the achievement appraisal, recognizing it as reaching an internationally leading level. Xu Weiqiang, General Manager of the Nuclear Energy Research Institute, attended the meeting, and Liu Wei, Director of the Reactor Engineering Institute, delivered a special report. This achievement was completed through five years of joint research by Huaneng Nuclear Energy Technology Research Institute and Xi'an Jiaotong University, targeting world-class challenges such as strong multi-physics coupling in the core of pebble-bed high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, limited in-core temperature measurement points, and complex bypass flow paths. For the first time internationally, it established...

2026-08-12

Poland Plans State Capital Injection to Accelerate GE Vernova Hitachi SMR Deployment

The Polish government is seeking to accelerate the development of small modular reactor (SMR) projects. Polish Energy Minister Miłosz Motyka stated that the government is in negotiations regarding the Polish Development Fund (PFR) taking a stake in Orlen Synthos Green Energy (OSGE), with a focus on restructuring the company's shareholding. OSGE, jointly established by Polish energy giant Orlen and chemical company Synthos, plans to build a cluster of small nuclear reactors using GE Vernova Hitachi technology from the United States. Motyka noted that the core of the current negotiations is to avoid deadlock in corporate governance. If one company holds a 50% stake, the other party or other shareholders may find it difficult to form effective checks and balances on key decisions...

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

South China Regional Office of Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment Conducts Special Typhoon and Flood Prevention Inspection at Changjiang Nuclear Power Plant

Currently, Hainan has entered the peak season for typhoons and heavy rainfall. Changjiang Nuclear Power Plant, having just withstood the test of Typhoon Maysak, has been hit by continuous heavy rainfall, posing叠加 challenges to on-site safety production from extreme weather. Facing the complex and severe situation, the South China Regional Office of Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (hereinafter referred to as the South China Regional Office) took proactive action and rose to the challenge, promptly organizing a "look-back" special inspection on typhoon and flood prevention work for Units 1 and 2 of Changjiang Nuclear Power Plant. Through comprehensive, multi-level rigorous supervision, the systematic and standardized nature of the operator's natural disaster response work was once again verified. Focusing on key links, consolidating responsibilities. To prevent and mitigate flood season safety risks at the source...

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