More than 30 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium has been removed from three Japanese research sites and sent to the USA for downblending or disposal, the US National Nuclear Security Administration announced.

The IVG.1M research reactor in Kurchatov, Kazakhstan, has been restarted following the completion of a project to convert it from using highly enriched uranium fuel to low-enriched uranium fuel, the country's National Nuclear Centre announced.

A shipment of plutonium accumulated from inspection samples collected in support of the International Atomic Energy Agency's safeguards mission has been removed from the agency's laboratory in Austria to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran have agreed a series of steps, to be conducted over the coming months, to accelerate and strengthen their cooperation and dialogue aimed at the resolution of outstanding safeguards issues related to three particular locations in Iran.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has called for more countries to conclude and bring into force an Additional Protocol to their Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA. The protocol gives IAEA inspectors wider access to locations and information as part of a push to further bolster the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Worldwide supplies of molybdenum-99 made without using highly enriched uranium are now sufficient for the USA to ban exports of HEU material for foreign medical isotope production.
 

Negotiations to address outstanding nuclear verification issues in Iran have so far been inconclusive, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said yesterday. Negotiations among parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - Iran and five world powers - are expected to resume in Vienna next week.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts last week completed a follow-up nuclear security advisory mission to the Czech Republic. The two-week International Physical Protection Advisory Service mission included a review of the legislative and regulatory framework for the physical protection of nuclear material and associated facilities and activities, including transport.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts last week completed a follow-up nuclear security advisory mission in Turkey, which was carried out at the request of its government. The two-week International Physical Protection Advisory Service mission reviewed the national security regime for nuclear material and associated facilities and activities.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he yesterday had a "very short but very constructive" trip to Tehran. He said Iran had agreed to allow IAEA inspectors to service monitoring and surveillance equipment and replace the digital storage media in cameras at declared nuclear sites.

The US Department of Energy and Norway’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance a cooperative project to eliminate all of Norway’s highly enriched uranium by downblending it to low-enriched uranium. The MoU calls for downblending activities to begin in 2022 using Norway's existing infrastructure, followed by the eventual deployment of the DOE's Mobile Melt-Consolidate system.

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has issued two cooperative agreements worth a total of USD37 million to NorthStar Medical Technologies, LLC to support the commercial production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99  without using high-enriched uranium. It has also launched RadSecure 100, a major radiological security initiative to enhance US radiological security at facilities in 100 metropolitan areas throughout the USA.