There has been no enforced shutdown of a nuclear power reactor due to the effects of COVID-19 on the workforce or supply chains, according to reports from operators and regulators received through the International Atomic Energy Agency's COVID-19 Operational Experience Network and International Reporting System for Operating Experience.

A ceremony was held today to mark the official opening of a state-of-the-art laboratory building, named after former International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano, at the agency's Seibersdorf site outside Vienna, Austria. The new facility will increase the IAEA's capacity to assist countries in fighting and preventing transboundary animal and zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, and to tackle challenges related to climate change and food safety.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's newly-published Harmonised Safety Culture Model describes the traits and attributes that are observed when a strong culture for safety is present. The model, it says, is a comprehensive tool intended for all organisations that deal directly or indirectly with ionizing radiation, enabling them to set goals, implement changes, and measure progress.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has provided Belarus with a mobile laboratory for assessing radiological threats associated with forest fires in the Polessie State Radio-Ecological Reserve, adjacent to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Recent fires in the exclusion zone did not lead to a hazardous increase in air-borne radioactive particles.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has released the final report from its January 2018 mission to France to review radioactive waste management and decommissioning in the country. The review team said it had been "impressed with the nature and implementation of the French national programme".

UPDATED An initiative by the International Atomic Energy Agency to help some 120 countries contain the COVID-19 pandemic has received strong extrabudgetary backing from Member States, with voluntary pledges so far totalling around EUR22 million (USD24 million). Japanese pharmaceutical firm Takeda has also committed to donate almost USD5 million.

Radiation is an "effective and established" tool to sterilise personal protective equipment (PPE) that is in high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, except for respiratory face masks as it weakens their filters, the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday.

International air transport has been the main bottleneck in getting radioisotopes and nuclear medicines where they are needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Nuclear Medicine Europe says there are signs the situation is improving.

The recent fires in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine have not led to a hazardous increase in air-borne radioactive particles, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on 24 April. The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine has regularly provided information on the fires through the IAEA's Unified System for Information Exchange in Incidents and Emergencies.

New safety recommendations for small modular reactors (SMRs) are now available, following a meeting in Vienna on 25-28 March of the SMR Regulators' Forum, a group of experts working on the development of national standards specific to SMRs. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which hosts the forum, says it does not currently have plans to develop safety standards specific to SMRs.

The production of medical radioisotopes has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic but bottlenecks in transport and distribution could lead to shortages at hospitals, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency survey of the research reactors where the isotopes are produced.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has signed an agreement - known as a Practical Arrangement - with the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at enhancing cooperation.