UPDATED: A site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has been selected as the site for the USA's first commercial high-assay low-enriched uranium-based fuel fabrication facility. Construction of the TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility, or TF3, is to begin this year, with commissioning and start-up as soon as 2025. The company has submitted a licence application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The process of loading the 157 fuel assemblies into the core of unit 6 of the Hongyanhe plant in Liaoning province has been completed, China General Nuclear announced. The unit - the second of two ACPR-1000 reactors built as Phase II of the plant - is scheduled to begin operations later this year.

Ensuring a steady demand for high-assay low-enriched uranium is one of the two main challenges to achieving sustainable production of the material, Orano has said in response to a US Department of Energy request for information.

Brazilian utility Eletronuclear has awarded front-end fuel cycle company Industrias Nucleares do Brasil a contract to supply fuel assemblies to units 1 and 2 of the Angra nuclear power plant.

Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation has adopted two 3D printers from additive manufacturing technology company Desktop Metal to form nuclear-grade silicon carbide for use in its innovative Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated nuclear fuel.

Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation plans to begin operations later this year at its Pilot Fuel Manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, subject to regulatory approvals. The facility will process feedstock uranium powder into TRISO fuel particles and subsequently produce the company's proprietary FCM fuel in multiple kilogram quantities.
 

The Finnish government and nuclear regulator have published a comprehensive plan and an environmental impact assessment for the management of all the used fuel and radioactive waste generated in the country.

Framatome has received approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission of a licence amendment allowing its shipping containers to be used to transport fresh nuclear fuel with enrichment above 5%.

Kepco Nuclear Fuel has developed a light-water reactor fuel transport container that meets international requirements with domestic technology.

Eletronuclear of Brazil has begun transferring used fuel assemblies into dry storage at Angra unit 1 as part of a process that will make space in the reactor's used fuel pool for the next five years of operation.

California-based Oklo Inc and Argonne National Laboratory have signed an agreement formalising their commitment to commercialising recycling technology for advanced reactor fuel as part of a US Department of Energy-funded project.

The US Department of Energy has agreed a nine-year contract with TRIGA International to secure new fuel elements for its TRIGA research reactors. These will be the first fuel elements to be fabricated since the recent reopening of TRIGA International's fuel fabrication facility in France, which shut for refurbishment in 2012.