The main clean-up contractor at the US Department of Energy's Idaho Site, has entombed an historic nuclear reactor in place and treated the reactor's remaining sodium coolant six months ahead of schedule and under budget.

The Canadian National Energy Alliance (CNEA) consortium has been named as the Canadian government's preferred bidder to manage and operate nuclear science and technology organization Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL).

The US nuclear regulatory commission (NRC) has asked the owners of nuclear fuel facilities to provide more information on how they respond to natural phenomena. The commission said that apart from the need for this information, it is otherwise satisfied  that "little or no further action" is needed to apply the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident.

Sixty-eight projects have been selected to share over $60 million of US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear energy research and infrastructure enhancement awards. The projects, including some international collaborations, have been selected for their potential to create scientific breakthroughs.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued a construction licence for the multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor, or MBIR by its Russian acronym. The reactor complex will be located at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, in Dimitrovgrad.

Belgium's Tractebel Engineering has signed a contract to be owner's engineer for the planned Pallas research reactor to be built at Petten in the Netherlands. The facility will replace the existing High Flux Reactor that has been in operation since 1961 and take over its role as a major supplier of the world's medical radioisotopes.

The leaders of two rival projects to produce molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) commercially in the USA are united in their goal to reinvigorate the country's domestic supply of the lifesaving radioisotope.

Rosenergoatom has reportedly postponed construction of the BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant "indefinitely" on the need to improve fuel for the reactor and amid speculation about the cost-effectiveness of the project.

Coquí RadioPharmaceuticals Corp has completed the schematic design of its $330 million medical isotope production facility to be built in Alachua, Florida. Coquí Pharma will soon enter the detailed design phase as it readies to submit its construction licence application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of 2015.

The Caribbean's only research reactor will be converted from highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel later this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. The change will decrease proliferation risks while doubling the reactor's utilization capacity.

Russia and Myanmar have agreed to cooperate in nuclear energy, Rosatom said today, during the first of a two-day working visit to the Southeast Asian country by its deputy director general Nikolay Spassky.

South Korea and Qatar are to cooperate on the training of nuclear experts and on the construction of a research reactor under a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries yesterday.