The Japan Atomic Energy Agency has resumed operation of the High-Temperature Test Reactor in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture. The small prototype reactor becomes the first Japanese gas-cooled reactor to restart following the introduction of new safety regulations.

Russia's Rosatom has launched construction works for a research reactor facility in Bolivia, which is part of a nuclear technology research and development centre in the city of El Alto. A ceremony held yesterday to mark the pouring of first concrete was attended by Bolivian President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora and Rosatom First Deputy Director General for Corporate Development and International Business Kirill Komarov.

Norway's Institute for Energy Technology has signed a contract with Westinghouse subsidiary Springfields Fuels Limited for the transfer of 3 tonnes of un-irradiated research reactor fuel to the UK for processing into new fuel for use in commercial nuclear power plants. The uranium fuel would otherwise have been treated as waste, stored and disposed of in Norway.

Work has begun on a major overhaul of a test reactor at the heart of the USA's nuclear energy research infrastructure. This will be the sixth time the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory, which began operations in 1967, has undergone the process to enable it to continue its essential function for at least another decade.

A major renovation project has been completed at TRIGA International's fuel fabrication facility in Romans-sur-Isère, southeastern France. The facility is the only supplier of uranium-zirconium hydride fuel for use in TRIGA-type research reactors. The upgrades will ensure the continued operation of 36 such reactors around the world.

The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group has ended its use of high-enriched uranium targets in the production of radioisotopes at the High Flux Reactor in Petten, the Netherlands. The reactor itself was converted from HEU fuel, which can pose a proliferation risk, to low-enriched uranium fuel in 2006.

The US Department of Energy has awarded BWXT Nuclear Operations Group two contracts worth a total of USD35 million. The first is for the recovery and conversion of uranium, while the second is for the completion of a new research reactor fuel line at its Lynchburg, Virginia facility.

Partially used irradiated fuel from the Finnish Reactor 1 in Espoo, Finland, has been transported to the USA for use in a TRIGA Mark I research reactor operated by the US Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado. Dismantling of the Finnish reactor, which was shut down in 2015, is scheduled to begin at the end of 2022.

Sweden's Studsvik has signed a contract worth SEK134 million (USD16 million) with Norway's Institute for Energy Technology for loading equipment, transport, handling equipment, examination and pre-treatment of nuclear fuel from the JEEP I research reactor at Kjeller. The fuel is currently held in an ageing storage facility at the site which does not meet current requirements.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC's process to produce molybdenum-99 from concentrated Mo-98 and related software upgrades for its RadioGenix System technetium-99m generator. This will significantly increase US production and capacity for non-uranium based Mo-99, the company says.

Workers have begun activities to prepare for the demolition of a nuclear reactor at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, the Office of Environmental Management at the US Department of Energy announced on 22 December. A team from EM, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the US Army Corp Engineers performed core drilling, surveying, sampling, and a study of potential demolition impacts last month.

The US Department of Energy has released the draft Environmental Impact Statement for construction of the Versatile Test Reactor, a sodium-cooled reactor that will provide a source of fast neutrons needed to test advanced reactor technology, fuels and related materials. The draft EIS will be open for a 45-day public comment period.