• ‘World’s first’ molten salt nuclear reactor to enter commercial operation by 2035

    The world’s first fast neutron nuclear reactor is a step closer to reality following a €23m funding round. French start-up Stellaria has announced it has raised a further €23m to build a new kind of nuclear reactor called Stellarium in Grenoble, France. This brings the company’s total funding to €33m, including €10m through the France 2030 program. Founded in 2023 as a spin-off from the French nuclear research commission CEA and energy management company Schneider Electric, Stellaria has been raising investment to build the Stellarium fast neutron molten salt reactor. This fourth-generation reactor will be capable of operating in a closed fuel cycle using molten salt technology and nuclear isogeneration. It has a target capacity of 110MWe (110 megawatts of usable electric power) …

  • Government strikes deal with private investors to fund £38bn Sizewell C nuclear plant

    The government has agreed a funding package with private investors to help it spread the cost of the upcoming £38bn Sizewell C nuclear plant, although it will remain the largest shareholder in the project. In June, energy secretary Ed Miliband confirmed an initial £14.2bn in funding for the plant as part of plans to kickstart a “golden age” of nuclear energy in the UK and decarbonise the electricity grid. But the massive scale of the project has meant the government wanted to find external investors to help spread the financial burden. In total, the taxpayer will take an initial 44.9% stake, while the new shareholders include investment group La Caisse with 20%, Centrica with 15% and Amber Infrastructure with an “initial” 7.6%. This comes alongside French energy giant EDF taking a 12…

  • ChatGPT paid subscribers to be first to access OpenAI’s agentic tool

    ChatGPT’s paid subscribers will have access to ChatGPT agent, a new tool capable of actively completing tasks instead of just answering questions. Agentic AI is considered to be the next generation of AI. As its name suggests, agentic AI refers to large language models (LLMs) that have the agency to act on their own initiative. OpenAI has launched an example of an agentic AI in the form of ChatGPT agent. It describes this new tool as “Agentic AI = LLM + planning + tools + the ability to act. It’s not just generating text – it’s doing things on your behalf.” Built on its core LLM (GPT-4.5), ChatGPT agent is “wrapped in an agentic layer that lets it act, browse, fill forms, run code or connect to services”. It works by accessing the internet through its own browser or “virtual computer…

  • Manufacturers urge HS2 revival to unlock rail freight growth

    Manufacturers have urged the government to revive the northern section of HS2 in order to allow an expansion of rail freight in the UK. Rail freight usage will need to rise at least 75% by 2050 in order to remove lorries from UK roads and decarbonise the transport sector. However, a report from Make UK and Barclays Corporate Bank warns that domestic rail capacity is simply too low to accommodate the amount of additional rail freight needed. It calls for the sections linking Birmingham with both Leeds and Manchester to be revived as a way to shift goods around the manufacturing hubs in the North of Great Britain, as well as helping to meet demand for their products in the South. It advocates for a series of logistics hubs along the HS2 corridor that would link major ports such as Felixstowe…

  • Major new report calls for Ofwat to be scrapped in water industry shake-up

    A major report into the England and Wales’ ‘broken’ water industry has set out recommendations for reform, including scrapping the current water regulator Ofwat. The UK water sector has been under fire for several years. Last month MPs called for ‘root and branch’ reform of the ‘failing sector’, while a report in April found that there were almost 600,000 confirmed sewage discharges in 2024. The Independent Water Commission, which delivers recommendations to the government on reforming the water sector, has now published a major report setting out 88 recommendations to bring about “fundamental reform”. Commission chair Sir Jon Cunliffe said: “In this report I have considered what is best for the long-term future of water. “Restoring trust has been central to our work. Trust that bills…

  • £15m initiative launched to bring nature closer to millions in UK towns and cities

    Nature Towns and Cities has launched to bring nature and green spaces closer to people living in urban areas across the UK. Nature Towns and Cities is a partnership initiative between Natural England, the National Trust and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The aim is to support local authorities and community partners with capacity and resources to create more accessible green spaces in towns and cities. The initiative’s first phase will involve £15.5m being invested in 40 towns and cities across the UK. These 19 partnership projects will install green spaces in urban environments to help bring residents closer to nature. Eilish McGuinness, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “This exciting initiative, working with partners right across the UK, will give…

  • Britain’s £225m Isambard-AI supercomputer goes live – 10x faster than next-best machine

    Britain’s most powerful supercomputer, the £225m Isambard-AI, has been officially launched in Bristol with promises that it could enable breakthroughs in areas such as medicine, robotics and climate change. The supercomputer went from conception to deployment in just under two years and houses a colossal 21 exaflops of AI performance, powered by 5,448 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. Isambard-AI is more than 10 times faster than the UK’s next fastest supercomputer and has more computing power than all other UK supercomputers combined. Scientists at Bristol University believe it could open the door to a range of applications, such as faster, more accurate cancer diagnoses and new clean energy innovations. It is already being used to analyse recordings from wearable cameras and other…

  • Industry insight: Demystifying quantum technology

    This is article was written for E+T Magazine by Matt Himsworth, chief scientific officer at Aquark Technologies. In engineering, we’re always searching for more precise tools, more accurate measurements, and more innovative approaches to solving complex problems. The good news is that quantum technologies are emerging as powerful additions to our toolkit. Quantum is not merely a series of distant theoretical concepts; it’s providing us with practical applications ready for implementation across a range of engineering disciplines right now. Although quantum computing captures most of the headlines, the immediate use cases for quantum technologies in engineering lie elsewhere. Unlike in quantum computing, where valuable applications are still a few years away, quantum sensing and quantum…

  • Satellite data reveals how climate change is accelerating glacier melt

    Glacier monitoring using satellites is helping scientists to track ice melt and launch early warning systems to prevent climate-related disasters. Formed from snow that has accumulated on land over centuries, glaciers store around 70% of the planet’s fresh water. Their high reflectivity has a regulating effect on the climate as they reflect the Sun’s rays back into space, reducing the absorption of solar energy on the Earth’s surface. Climate change and rising temperatures are causing glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, the consequences of which scientists have warned us about for some time. A study published in February 2025 in Nature reported that between 2000 and 2023 the world’s mountain glaciers on average lost 6,542 billion tonnes of ice. This glacier ice loss has directly contributed…

  • Drax emissions rise 16% as power station remains UK’s top carbon emitter

    Drax power station has been crowned the UK’s “largest single source of carbon emissions” yet again, with emissions rising 16% from last year. Located near Selby in North Yorkshire, Drax started life as a coal-fired power station when it was opened in 1974, but started co-firing biomass by 2010 in response to government concerns about the UK’s carbon emissions. According to a report from think tank Ember, Drax has now been the UK’s top emitter for the last 10 years running. It was found to emit more than the next four largest polluters combined and more than the six most emitting gas power plants combined. Its emissions are equivalent to over 10% of the UK’s total transport emissions and nearly 3% of the country’s territorial total. The wood pellets burned by the power plant have an equivalent…

  • Entangled blackworm ‘blob’ that moves as one inspires robotic platform

    A robotic platform inspired by California blackworms, known for tangling together into a moving blob, has been built by researchers at Harvard University. When California blackworms are exposed to dry conditions or other environmental stressors they will clump together to form an entangled blob. Doing so helps conserve moisture and regulate temperature. Just as quickly as they entangle, they can also disentangle when they sense danger, such as the approach of a predator. A research team led by Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) used this blackworm behaviour as the inspiration for the design of a robotic platform that similarly features robotic worms that join together to accomplish tasks, such as crossing gaps or climbing walls. “We look at the…

  • Nuclear and SMRs to play ‘important role’ in UK’s decarbonised power grid by 2050

    Decarbonising the UK’s energy system by 2050 could feature numerous credible pathways, as outlined in a report by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). NESO’s Future Energy Scenarios (FES): pathways to net zero 2025 report explores the routes to reach net zero in 2050 for energy demand and supply. NESO expects to see electricity demand increase from 290 Terawatt-hour (TWh) today to as much as 785TWh by 2050. Meeting this demand with clean, renewable electricity will be a challenge. The report outlines three potential pathways to reach a net zero energy system. Each has varying reliance on the speed of technology uptake such as battery storage solutions, electrification from various sources including nuclear power, low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen and the level of consumer engagement…

  • Floating platform aims to produce synthetic fuels using wind, seawater and air

    A floating platform is being developed that can produce low-carbon synthetic fuels from a combination of wind energy, seawater and ambient air. Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have installed a modular plant on a barge designed to act as a testbed for larger floating platforms that could eventually sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Climate experts believe that preventing additional global warming will require both slashing the use of fossil fuels and permanently removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere that have already been emitted. But technologies for carbon removal remain costly, energy-intensive – or both – and unproven at large scale. The test platform is equipped with a direct air capture plant (DAC) for recovering CO2 from…

  • World’s largest human imaging project hits milestone of 100,000 body scans

    UK Biobank has completed its goal of collecting the brain, body and bone scans of 100,000 volunteers. UK Biobank is a large-scale biomedical research database and resource. Launched in 2006, it aims to gather detailed health data of people’s bodies to support research into the causes, prevention and treatment of diseases. Between 2006 and 2010 it had recruited 500,000 volunteers between the ages of 40 and 69 to take part in its research. These volunteers completed baseline assessments, helping the project to build a detailed profile of each participant’s health, lifestyle and biology. In 2014, UK Biobank started piloting an imaging project in which a person’s entire body would be scanned. Following the pilot’s success, the main phase of the project kicked off in 2016. It aimed to invite…

  • Engineering ambition is powering a new era of UK start-ups

    Entrepreneurs - the risk takers and visionary’s - have more support than ever if they want to sow start-up seeds. It seems like entrepreneurs are everywhere – from the BBC’s Dragons’ Den to the world’s richest man appearing in a baseball cap in the Oval Office. It wasn’t always that way – particularly in the UK, where the second half of the 20th century saw a focus on ‘a steady job and a solid pension’. Back then, starting your own business was seen as the province of a small cabal of industrialists. But as the gig economy has expanded, enterprise has become the fashion. It seems everyone wants to be their own boss. It’s become particularly prevalent in deep tech: if you have a good idea, then go for it. Rupert Baines, most recently CEO of UK tech start-ups UltraSoC and QPT and entrepreneur…

  • £650m UK government scheme to slash EV upfront costs and boost adoption

    A new £650m grant will enable drivers across the UK to purchase dozens of new electric vehicle (EV) models at discounted prices. Under the Electric Car Grant (ECG) scheme, a discount of £3,750 will be available at the point of sale for new eligible EVs priced at or under £37,000. Recent months have seen a surge in EV adoption, with a total of 46,700 new electric cars registered across the UK in June 2025, marking a substantial 45.5% increase on the same month in 2024. The government hopes this new scheme will see that number increase even further, particularly since the upfront costs required to switch to EVs are often seen as a key barrier to adoption. With the government maintaining its pledge to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, the ECG had been preceded by calls…

  • Lunar soil breakthrough offers path to fuel, water and oxygen for Moon missions

    Scientists have developed a technology to extract water from lunar soil and use it to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen and chemicals for fuel. The team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong believes the technique could make a manned base on the Moon a more viable option while potentially making it easier to conduct future deep space exploration using the lunar surface as a launchpad. “We never fully imagined the ‘magic’ that the lunar soil possessed,” said researcher Lu Wang. “The biggest surprise for us was the tangible success of this integrated approach. The one-step integration of lunar H2O extraction and photothermal CO2 catalysis could enhance energy utilisation efficiency and decrease the cost and complexity of infrastructure development.” Currently, the cost of transporting…

  • Construction on Port Talbot electric arc furnace begins as UK steelmakers pivot to low-carbon

    Construction has begun on Tata Steel’s electric arc furnace (EAF), which will eventually allow one of Britain’s remaining steelworks to transition to low-carbon production. In 2023, the government struck a deal with Tata to invest £500m of taxpayer funds in the Port Talbot plant to help fund construction on the EAF. The deal helped to keep the loss-making plant open, with the firm saying it was losing £1.7m a day – a figure that was disputed by unions at the time. EAFs use an electric current to melt scrap steel or iron to produce new high-quality steel, whereas traditional blast furnaces use coke – a carbon-intensive fuel made from coal. The technology could allow carbon emissions at Port Talbot to be reduced by 90%, as long as the energy is generated by renewable sources. The government…

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  • UK manufacturing output surpasses pre-pandemic levels for the first time

    All English regions and the three devolved nations have seen manufacturing output rise back above 2019 levels for the first time, according to a report from Make UK. Make UK, which represents UK manufacturers, and accountancy and business advisory firm BDO have published their annual Regional manufacturing outlook report. It marks the 11th annual review of manufacturing activity across UK regions and nations. The standout takeaway from the report, based on the latest data on output to the end of 2023, is that all regions are back above 2019 levels. The South West is the strongest performing region with output more than a quarter (27%) above 2019 levels. This was followed by the East of England (21%) and the North West, which had output up by a fifth. According to the report, this is…

  • Large solar farms deplete Britain’s prime agricultural land, threaten food security – report

    CPRE, the countryside charity, has called for new solar farms to be banned from the UK’s highest-grade farmland over concerns that they impact domestic food security. A report from the body claims that 59% of England's largest operational solar farms are located on productive farmland, while almost a third (31%) of the area they cover is classified as the nation’s ‘best and most versatile’ (BMV) agricultural land. Solar power is one of the primary forms of energy generation that the UK will need to utilise if Labour’s plan to decarbonise the grid by 2030 is to be achieved. However, figures from last year showed that solar was responsible for just 5% of energy generated, compared with 30% from wind. CPRE is calling for 60% of the UK’s solar to be generated on rooftops, alongside a ban…

  • Cleaning up smog in east Asia could be speeding up climate change

    Efforts in east Asia to tackle air pollution might have led to a further acceleration in global warming, a study has found. China, the largest economy in the area, has significantly cut air pollution over the past decade, with harmful smog reducing by 41% between 2013 and 2022. It achieved this primarily through placing limits on coal plants as well as implementing desulphurisation technologies. But while the burning of fossil fuels increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the sulphate aerosols emitted have a cooling effect by shading Earth’s surface from sunlight. Researchers at CICERO Centre for International Climate Research have found that air pollution therefore inadvertently held in check some greenhouse gas-driven warming. According to a 2021 study by the Intergovernmental…

  • Major 100MW battery project to stabilise and decarbonise UK grid gets green light

    British renewable energy company RES has received consent from Rushcliffe Borough Council to build a 99.9MW battery energy storage system (BESS) near the defunct Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. The Winking Hill BESS in Nottinghamshire will connect directly into the substation that previously served the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. After 60 years, this power station – which was the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station – closed for good on 30 September 2024. The BESS facility will be located on land off West Leake Lane, near Ratcliffe-on-Soar. The battery system will store surplus electricity and then release it during periods of high demand. This way it will provide stability services to help grid operators balance supply and demand. It will also help reach the government…

  • ‘Woefully’ handled PFI deals leave UK taxpayers with £136bn bill and crumbling assets

    The UK lacks a “credible pipeline” for infrastructure projects, which has led to a “drain of skills overseas” and billions of pounds owed to ongoing private finance initiative (PFI) contracts, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have said. In a report, it warned that overuse of PFI has led to poor-quality assets being handed back to the public sector. The system was first introduced in 1992 under John Major’s Conservative government. The idea was to involve private sector investment in public infrastructure projects such as hospitals, schools, roads and prisons. From 1997 onwards, Tony Blair significantly expanded the use of PFIs, particularly for NHS and education projects. But criticisms of PFI grew over time, with concerns that the projects offered poor value for money. In 2018…

  • More sections of London Underground get 4G and 5G coverage ahead of full roll-out in 2026

    Mobile phone coverage has been expanded to more areas of the London Underground network, with further stations and tunnels to go live in the coming months, Transport for London (TfL) has announced. Further stretches of the Piccadilly, Northern and Victoria lines will now have 4G and 5G coverage as TfL and Boldyn Networks, TfL’s partner in delivering the connectivity, work on expanding mobile coverage across the entire Tube network. Coverage has been expanded along the Northern line, including the tunnelled section between Balham and South Wimbledon, as well as Kennington, Oval, Tooting Broadway and South Wimbledon stations. Passengers in south London travelling along the Northern line from South Wimbledon to Stockwell also now have continuous coverage. The Bank branch of the Northern…

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