Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has begun transferring some of the fuel assemblies stored in the communal fuel storage pool to clear sufficient space for the fuel assemblies  currently held in unit 3's pool.

The German cabinet has agreed to grant compensation of up to EUR1 billion (USD1.17 billion) to the utilities forced to shut down their nuclear power plants by the Energiewende, or energy transition, that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel introduced in response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in Japan in March 2011. At that time, Germany was obtaining around a quarter of its electricity from 17 nuclear reactors operated by EOn, RWE and Vattenfall.

The UK government has launched an open consultation on the future regulation of nuclear sites in the final stages of decommissioning and clean-up. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the consultation seeks to enable a "more flexible approach that can optimise waste management, thereby realising environmental benefits and reducing costs".

A laser-cutting robotic snake has been deployed on the highly-radioactive core of the redundant Dragon reactor at Winfrith in the UK. Meanwhile, machine learning algorithms to increase capabilities in several crucial areas of nuclear robotics - including waste handling, cell decommissioning and site monitoring with mobile robots - are to be created by a team of computer scientists from the University of Lincoln.

The announced closure of four nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania will lead to increased emissions of carbon dioxide and air pollutants, according to a report released by the Brattle Group. 

The chairman of Energy Resources of Australia has called on Australian governments to embrace the potential to expand the country's uranium mining industry and be prepared for an expansion in nuclear power generation worldwide.

Canada's National Research Universal - one of the largest and most versatile research reactors in the world - has been permanently shut down. The reactor at the Chalk River site ceased production in October 2016, but had since remained on standby.

The Japanese nuclear regulator has approved the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's plans for decommissioning the Monju prototype fast breeder reactor. JAEA submitted the plan - which had earlier been approved by a government-appointed team - to the Nuclear Regulation Authority in December last year.

Unit 2 of the Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime prefecture is to be decommissioned, Shikoku Electric Power Company announced today. It becomes the ninth operable Japanese reactor to be declared for decommissioning since the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

Unmanned aerial system technology is being developed to fly into the containment vessels of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan to assess their condition. Tokyo Electric Power Company contracted the Southwest Research Institute of the USA to carry out the work.

A pair of autonomous robots, developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute to characterise uranium deposits in process pipes, could save tens of millions of dollars in decommissioning costs at the USA's former gaseous diffusion enrichment plants.

Affiliates of Entergy Corporation and NorthStar Group Services Inc have signed agreements with State of Vermont agencies and other parties on terms for the sale approval of the shut-down Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to NorthStar. The sale will enable the accelerated decommissioning of the single-unit boiling water reactor plant.