The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has entered into follow-on cooperative agreements with three projects aimed at securing a domestic supply of molybdenum-99 without using highly enriched uranium. The latest funding completes the full $25 million NNSA contribution to each project.

Kazakhstan, producer of more than 20,000 tonnes of natural uranium per year, has welcomed security guidance recently developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Vienna-based agency said yesterday that Kazakhstan - which established a "comprehensive system for the control and physical protection of natural uranium" in 2010 - had contributed to an IAEA publication entitled Nuclear Security in the Uranium Extraction Industry and issued in February this year.

In an address to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday in New York, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, highlighted the role of nuclear science and technology in sustainable development.

The USA has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor and verify the disposition of surplus plutonium in South Carolina, US energy secretary Ernest Moniz said on 5 December. Moniz's announcement was made at an IAEA conference which aims to strengthen global nuclear security.

Sweden has made good progress over the past five years in its legislative and regulatory framework for physical protection and computer security at nuclear power facilities and in the transport of nuclear materials, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Russian government has "suspended" a 2013 agreement with the USA on nuclear energy research and development and "terminated" another, signed in 2010, on cooperation in the conversion of Russian research reactors to low-enriched uranium fuel. The decisions were issued in separate documents signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and published on the government's website on 5 October.

Russia has suspended its 2000 agreement with the USA to reduce their surplus weapons-grade plutonium.  The suspension was made via a presidential decree issued yesterday 'on the management and disposition of plutonium designated as no longer required for defence purposes and related cooperation in this area and the protocols to this agreement'.

The impartiality of the International Atomic Energy Agency was "indispensable" to the high-level political agreement reached last year on Iran's nuclear-related activities, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told delegates at the Agency's 60th General Conference in Vienna yesterday.

Plans to construct six Westinghouse AP1000s in India have been bolstered by a joint statement issued after a bilateral strategic dialogue yesterday. The two sides also pledged to work towards India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Southeast Asia has been declared free of highly-enriched uranium following the completion of a collaborative project to downblend Indonesia's stock of HEU to low-enriched uranium.

India says it remains confident of a positive outcome concerning its application for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group after the group did not decide on the matter at its latest plenary.

A shipment of plutonium and highly enriched uranium from Japan Atomic Energy Agency's (JAEA) Fast Critical Assembly reactor has arrived at two US Department of Energy sites. Japan and the USA announced their commitment to remove the material at 2014 and 2016 nuclear summits.