The first containers of used nuclear fuel assemblies removed from the Lepse floating technical base at the Nerpa shipyard have been transported to Murmansk, Russia. The fuel is being removed under a programme managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and will be sent to Mayak for reprocessing.

Holtec International has announced completion of the pre-commissioning programme, or 'cold tests', for the Chernobyl Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility in Ukraine. It is the world's largest dry storage installation.

The final used nuclear fuel has been shipped from the Wylfa site on Anglesey, in Wales, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said today. The milestone marks the end of a programme to defuel all of the country's Magnox sites.

Japanese ministries and other organisations are working together - with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency - to deliver the ultimate decontamination and decommissioning of the former Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Progress is being made to remove all used fuel and debris from units 1-3, while the challenge of removing large volumes of treated water stored at the site is being addressed, speakers told a side event at the 63rd IAEA General Conference.

Work has been completed to remove fuel from the world's first commercial nuclear power plant at Calder Hall in west Cumbria, in northwest England. Opened on 17 October 1956, Calder Hall was in operation for 47 years, until 2003, and the defueling operation began in 2011.

British nuclear services company Cavendish Nuclear has been awarded a contract by Japan Atomic Energy Agency to support decommissioning of the Monju prototype fast breeder reactor. Cavendish, a subsidiary of Babcock International Group, has been involved in the ongoing decommissioning of the fast reactors at the UK's Dounreay site.

Holtec International has completed its acquisition of the shut-down Pilgrim nuclear power plant from Entergy Corporation. The plant is the second US decommissioning project to be acquired by Holtec.

Tokyo Electric Power Company will consider the decommissioning of one or more units at its seven-unit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the company has informed Kashiwazaki City Mayor Masahiro Sakurai. The utility plans to restart units 6 and 7 at the plant, in Japan's Niigata Prefecture.

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency has signed agreements with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organisation to cooperate on decommissioning nuclear facilities and radioactive waste management.

The control room for the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Facility at the US Department of Energy's Hanford site in Washington State has been commissioned. The facility is one of four major facilities that together will form the Waste Treatment and Immobilisation Plant, which will process and stabilize radioactive and chemical waste stored at the Hanford Site.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may consider the commercial financing of nuclear safety and decommissioning projects as it looks beyond its traditional remit of legacy projects supported by donor funds, Balthasar Lindauer, director of the EBRD’s Nuclear Safety Department, said in an interview with World Nuclear News at the bank's London headquarters on 22 July.

A contract has been signed between SSE Chernobyl NPP and construction company Ukrbudmontazh for the creation of infrastructure for the early dismantling of the Shelter Object. This structure, widely known as the 'sarcophagus', was hastily constructed over the remains of the destroyed reactor of unit 4 in the weeks after the 1986 accident.