USA-headquartered KBR has been awarded a contract to support the UK's Nuclear Waste Services in developing a Geological Disposal Facility. Such a facility, NWS says, will create more than 4000 jobs for the local host community.

The US Department of Energy has invited interested communities to apply for a share of USD16 million for resources to help them learn more about consent-based siting of used nuclear fuel management and interim storage. Meanwhile, the State of Nevada is seeking a resumption of the licensing procedures for the Yucca Mountain repository - with the aim of securing a permanent end to the project.

The US Department of Energy has issued a new report based on public feedback to help inform its consent-based process to identify sites for the consolidated interim storage of the USA's used nuclear fuel. The department said it will work to build trust and relationships as the process goes forward.

Following a 14-year site selection process, Switzerland's national radioactive waste disposal cooperative Nagra has proposed Nördlich Lägern in northern Switzerland as the site of a deep geological repository. A used fuel encapsulation plant is to be built at the existing Zwilag interim storage facility.

Workers at the Calcine Retrieval Project at the Idaho National Laboratory site are being trained to operate a light detection and ranging-equipped drone in preparation for mapping the interior of a high-level radioactive waste storage vault.

A contract has been signed for the environmental remediation of the former Taboshar uranium mining and processing site near the city of Istiklol in western Tajikistan. The work - to be carried out by specialists from Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom - is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

Elizabeth Muller, CEO and co-founder of Deep Isolation, says that the firm is targeting having a first deep borehole nuclear waste disposal site up and running within "five to ten years".

Environmental remediation of former uranium mining sites at Yangiabad and Charkesar in Uzbekistan is set to begin following the signing of a EUR7 million (USD7 million) grant agreement between the Environmental Remediation Account for Central Asia and the Uzbek government.

Also in this edition, Elizabeth Muller, CEO and co-founder of Deep Isolation, outlines its ambitions to "solve" the nuclear waste disposal issue.

A groundbreaking ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction of the second phase near-surface disposal facilities for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste at Gyeongju in South Korea's North Gyeongsang province.

A new dry fuel storage facility at the Atucha nuclear power plant will store fuel assemblies the pressurised heavy water reactor has used over its 48 years of operation as the unit undergoes refurbishment. The facility was built by an Argentine supply chain.

Radioactive waste processing and disposal activities have resumed for the first time at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site in Ukraine since the Russian military occupation of the area earlier this year. The first batch of waste from the plant for disposal was transferred on 21 August.