The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine has issued a permit to SSE Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to start commissioning work at the Chernobyl Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility, which upon loading will be the world's largest dry storage installation.

EDF has received regulatory approval to start generating low carbon power again from Reactor 3 at Hunterston B power station in Ayrshire, Scotland. This follows a two-year inspection and investment programme. EDF also said the plant will move into the defuelling phase no later than 7 January 2022. This is subject to a further inspection in the spring of 2021 and then regulatory approval for a final six months of operation.

NextEra Energy Resources has said it is not feasible to repair storm damage to cooling towers at the Duane Arnold Energy Center ahead of its scheduled permanent closure on 30 October. The single-unit plant has been offline since the storm on 10 August.

The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has launched a public consultation on its Draft Strategy, Cleaning up the UK's earliest nuclear sites, caring for people and the environment. Its strategy is a requirement of the Energy Act, covers 100+ years, is published every five years and includes a public consultation period of 12 weeks. The latest consultation ends on 8 November.

The US Department of Energy has authorised the start of 'hot' or radioactive operations at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at its Savannah River Site. The first-of-a-kind facility will process 31 million gallons (117 million litres) of radioactive salt waste currently stored in underground tanks at the South Carolina location.

The final canister of used fuel from the shut-down San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has now been transferred into dry storage, marking a milestone for the decommissioning of the California site.

Jacobs and IS Instruments have designed a new type of Raman spectroscopy technology to detect radioactive contamination or other hazardous substances in waste stores and nuclear facilities undergoing decommissioning.

Ontario Power Generation has launched the Centre for Canadian Nuclear Sustainability to support preparations for the decommissioning of the Pickering nuclear power plant. The regional hub will integrate collaboration and research to strengthen Ontario's supply chain for nuclear decommissioning.

Rosenergoatom, the operator subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, is establishing a new experimental and demonstration engineering centre for the decommissioning of RBMK reactors. The new centre will be based at the Leningrad plant site in the Leningrad region of Russia, with a branch at the Beloyarsk plant in the Sverdlovsk region.

The US Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) has awarded multiple contracts to provide nationwide deactivation, decommissioning and removal services at "excess" facilities across the EM complex.

French utility EDF yesterday permanently shut down unit 2 of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in eastern France as scheduled. Its closure, together with that of unit 1 in February, was necessary under the country's energy transition law before EDF can bring new nuclear capacity online.

The dismantling of the Ulysse experimental reactor at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission's Saclay site near Paris has been completed. The low-power reactor, which was shut down in 2007, was mainly operated for teaching and continuing education purposes by the National Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology.