More than 30 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium has been removed from three Japanese research sites and sent to the USA for downblending or disposal, the US National Nuclear Security Administration announced.

USA-based engineering group Jacobs has been selected by Tokyo Electric Power Company to support decommissioning efforts at its damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. The announcement came as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said there had been "remarkable progress" in decommissioning the site.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has endorsed Tokyo Electric Power Company's plan to discharge treated water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea. It will give its official approval of the plan following a 30-day public comment period.

There is renewed interest in nuclear power from a decarbonisation and energy security perspective, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said while announcing progress in its 2021 Medium-Term Business Plan, which covers the period FY2021-FY2023. The company said it will continue supporting the restart of Japan's reactors while developing small modular reactors and advanced reactors.

The task force report is the first in a series of reports due to be published as a result of International Atomic Energy Agency missions to Japan in the coming months and years to assess the water discharge against IAEA safety standards.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will establish a demonstration hydrogen production project at the High-Temperature Test Reactor in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said it recently started manufacturing casks for the transport and storage of used nuclear fuel for Shikoku Electric Power Company. The utility will use them at an interim dry storage facility at its Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime Prefecture.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation has made a strategic investment of USD110 million in NuScale Power of the USA through a purchase of equity from Fluor Corporation, who remains the majority owner in NuScale. NuScale said the investment represents an expansion in US-Japanese cooperation to progress the deployment of advanced nuclear energy technology.

The International Atomic Energy Agency task force "observed a robust commitment to align the regulatory plans related to the treated water discharge with IAEA safety standards" during the five-day visit to Japan.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s experts collected samples for testing and gathered information about Japan’s plan to discharge treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the sea.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi FBR Systems have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TerraPower of the USA to cooperate on the development of sodium-cooled fast reactors. TerraPower - founded by Bill Gates - is developing the Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor.

Shikoku Electric Power Company restarted unit 3 of its Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime Prefecture yesterday. The reactor - one of the few to have been restarted since the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant - had been offline since December 2019 due to a periodic inspection and a subsequent court injunction.