Lead test assemblies of EnCore accident tolerant fuel have been installed in Engie Electrabel's Doel unit 4 in Belgium, Westinghouse Electric Company and ENUSA Industrias Avanzadas have announced. Doel 4 is the second commercial nuclear power plant in the world, and the first in Europe, into which EnCore assemblies have been installed.

The process of loading of the 177 fuel assemblies into the core of unit 5 at China's Fuqing nuclear power plant has begun, China National Nuclear Corporation announced. The unit - the first of two demonstration Hualong One reactors at the site in Fujian province - is scheduled to begin operating by the end of this year.

Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation has established a new facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, to support the development of its proprietary Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated fuel. Materials developed at there will be used in USNC's Micro Modular Reactor and other nuclear reactors, including gas-cooled reactors, light water reactors, CANDU reactors and molten salt cooled reactors.

New modular-based experiment holders developed by the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory are expected to improve transient testing on nuclear fuels and materials, and enable new clients like NASA to take advantage of the unique capabilities at INL's Transient Reactor Test Facility.

Rosatom has approved a project to upgrade an experimental shop-floor for nuclear fuel fabrication at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine, which is in Seversk, in the Tomsk region of Russia. The move will enable SCC to manufacture fuel assemblies with uranium-plutonium REMIX (regenerated mixture) fuel matrix for VVER-1000 reactors.

Fuel loading began today at unit 1 of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has announced. At 11:45am local time, the first fuel assembly was loaded into the reactor and a total of 163 assemblies will be loaded before the end of the month.

New irradiation experiments on the behaviour of nuclear fuel have recently started in the High Flux Reactor at Petten, in the Netherlands. The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group says that, by using a new measurement technique, data collected during the experiments could be used to develop new fuels and to optimise the efficiency of existing ones.

The manufacture of the first full reload batch of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel for unit 4 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in Russia has been completed by the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, in the Krasnoyarsk region. The 169 fuel assemblies have been accepted by operator Rosenergoatom, and its authorised representative VPO ZAES, which has confirmed the consignment is ready for shipment.

Energoatom has had to adjust its fuel delivery schedule owing to its financial problems, but the Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator is still ensuring a diverse range of suppliers, Natalya Shumkova, the state-run company's executive director for nuclear and radiation safety and scientific and technical support, said last week.

The US House Committee on Appropriations has denied a funding request from the US Department of Energy for fiscal 2021 for establishing a uranium stockpile. The committee requested further information from the department on the justification for the reserve and how it will be implemented.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued a permit for the pilot operation of unit 1 of the Novovoronezh II plant in an extended fuel cycle mode of 18 months. The reactor has been loaded with fresh nuclear fuel manufactured by the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant ready for the new cycle.

Loading of nuclear fuel into unit 5 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province was completed on 9 July, China National Nuclear Corporation announced the following day. Fuel loading at Tianwan 5 "laid the foundation for subsequent grid-connected power generation," it added.