OECD experts foresee that accident tolerant fuels (ATF) will dominate the nuclear fuel market within 10 to 20 years. This is a very short timeframe by the standards of the nuclear industry, where reactor research and preparation alone can take up to a decade, writes Natalia Nikipelova, president of Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL. Such an optimistic forecast means that ATF is a product very much anticipated by the market. After all, ensuring nuclear safety - that there will be no serious consequences even in the event of incidents as grave as Fukushima - is a crucial step towards increasing public acceptance of nuclear energy. And, as we all know, where there is demand, supply will follow.

Norway's Institute for Energy Technology has signed a contract with Westinghouse subsidiary Springfields Fuels Limited for the transfer of 3 tonnes of un-irradiated research reactor fuel to the UK for processing into new fuel for use in commercial nuclear power plants. The uranium fuel would otherwise have been treated as waste, stored and disposed of in Norway.

Ukraine's nuclear regulator has issued a permit to SSE Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant for the retrieval of undamaged used nuclear fuel from the ISF-1 interim used fuel wet storage facility. The fuel will be moved into the new ISF-2 dry storage facility. The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine has also issued a licence for the operation of the Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant at the Chernobyl site.

TVEL, the fuel manufacturer subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has completed development of a new modification of VVER-440 fuel for the Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland. It says the modified VVER-440 fuel bundle with higher uranium load will enhance the efficiency of fuel usage, as well as the power plant's operation in general.

The final canister containing used fuel has been removed from the storage pool of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey, USA, and placed in an on-site dry storage facility. Holtec International said the plant's defuelling - completed in just 32 months following the plant's permanent shutdown - has set a new world record.

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.

Lightbridge Corporation has demonstrated the manufacturing process for surrogate fuel rods for commercial-scale small modular reactors, using an internally developed and patented high-temperature coextrusion process.

Excavation of the first final disposal tunnel has started at the Onkalo underground used nuclear fuel repository near Olkiluoto, Finnish radioactive waste management company Posiva Oy announced today. The repository - the first in the world for used fuel - is expected to begin operations in the mid-2020s.

The first multi-purpose canister containing fuel has been loaded into a HI-STORM FW module and placed into the new on-site used fuel dry storage facility at Brazil's Angra nuclear power plant, Holtec International has announced. This marks the official start of the storage facility's planned 50 years of operation as well as the first use of Holtec's HI-TRAN 300 single-failure proof vertical heavy load hauler.

The loading of fuel assemblies into the core of the reactor of unit 6 at the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province began on 14 April, China National Nuclear Corporation has announced. The domestically-designed ACPR1000 reactor is scheduled to enter commercial operation by the end of this year.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has fabricated proprietary advanced fuel pellets for Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation's Micro Modular Reactor. This is the first time that a TRISO-based nuclear fuel has been manufactured in Canada.

The business case behind the decision to restart the USA's only domestic uranium conversion facility announced earlier this year rested on suitable answers to several "puzzle piece" questions falling into place, ConverDyn's Malcolm Critchley told the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle forum yesterday.