Unit 1 of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania is empty of all fuel, following the transportation on 11 May of the final container with damaged used nuclear fuel to a temporary storage facility.

Lithuania has strengthened its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety in recent years, an International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts has concluded. The Integrated Regulatory Review Service team yesterday completed a 17-day virtual follow-up mission to review the country's implementation of recommendations and suggestions made during an initial IRRS mission in 2016.

The ministries responsible for the energy sector in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have reached an agreement to cease electricity trading with Belarus when it commissions its nuclear power plant and to introduce a system of certificates stating the origin of electricity.

Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania has announced the removal of the last used fuel assembly from the reactor of unit 2. Some of the used fuel was removed from the reactor after its final closure in 2009, but the remainder was left pending the launch of an Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility.

Lithuania has established and maintains a robust and comprehensive physical security framework, a team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has concluded. A separate team has found that Jordan has significantly strengthened its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety in recent years.

The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania has taken another step forward in the decommissioning process with the start today of hot trials, using radioactive materials, of the new Solid Radioactive Waste Management and Storage Facility. The milestone was announced by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Germany is offering a great opportunity for new suppliers of decommissioning services because over the next five years all of its shutdown nuclear power plants will enter the decommissioning phase, Jörg Klasen, director of nuclear decommissioning services at EnBW, said yesterday. Klasen spoke at the 8th Annual Nuclear Decommissioning & Waste Management Conference Europe 2017 being held in Manchester, England. Asked where they see the biggest opportunities in nuclear decommissioning and waste management over the next five years, 57% of the conference delegates selected Germany. The UK, France, Sweden and Switzerland followed with 30%, 6%, 2% and 2%, respectively.

Lithuanian State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate said today it had issued a permit for the start of commercial operation of the country's new interim used fuel storage facility. The announcement followed State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant's successful completion yesterday of hot tests with ten new design casks. The company has demonstrated it is ready to operate the facility safely, Vatesi said.

An operating licence was issued yesterday for the new interim used fuel storage at the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania, the State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (Vatesi) announced today. The licence permits commissioning of the facility, known as the ISFSF B1 Project, and the start of hot trials with ten new design casks. ISFSF B1 Project is located in Visaginas municipality.

The estimated cost of decommissioning Soviet-designed, first-generation nuclear power reactors in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia will be at least €5.7 billion ($6.4 billion), according to the European Court of Auditors. However, it warns this could double if the cost of disposing of high-level radioactive waste is included.

Work that began in October 2011 to dismantle the turbine halls of unit 1 of the Ignalina nuclear power plant - or the B9/1 project - has been completed. The dismantled equipment weighs more than 18,000 tonnes and consists mostly of turbines, generators, heat exchangers, pumps, valves and pipes.

Cold testing - one of the first stages of the commissioning process - has been completed at the new Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility for units 1 and 2 of the shut-down Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania. The work started in January and was completed on 16 June, the plant announced yesterday.