Canadian federal and provincial authorities have completed their technical assessment of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories' draft environmental impact statement for the proposed in-situ decommissioning of Whiteshell Reactor 1.

The Centre for Advanced Robotics at the Queen Mary University of London was recently awarded a GBP1.0 million ($1.3 million) grant to help establish a centre of excellence for nuclear robotics in the UK. The focus of the centre will be to develop technology for aiding radioactive waste management.

Magnox Ltd has emptied more than half of the used fuel from the Wylfa reactors on Anglesey, in Wales, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said today. When operating, Wylfa's two reactors together contained nearly 100,000 fuel elements.

The UK government has announced a series of measure that aim to realise the full potential of the of the country's nuclear power industry. The document 'Government to support development of next-generation nuclear technology' follows publication of the Industrial Strategy white paper last month, a core objective of which is to "ensure the UK is developing the technologies of the future and preparing to seize the opportunities they bring and build on its strengths", the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has extended the deadline for public comments on Canadian Nuclear Laboratories' draft Environmental Impact Statement for decommissioning the country's first ever nuclear power reactor by two weeks to 13 February. The Nuclear Power Demonstration reactor was the prototype for the Candu reactor design.

A demonstration test run of the Plasma Melting Facility at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria has been completed. The facility will be used to treat low- and intermediate-level solid radioactive waste, reducing its volume and immobilising it.

Installation of critical systems is progressing within the New Safe Confinement covering the damaged unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The enormous arched structure was put in place one year ago and is expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2018.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has requested an amended timeline for its Near Surface Disposal Facility project to allow sufficient time to respond to regulatory requests for technical information before submitting its final Environmental Impact Statement for the facility.

Russia's Rosatom and the French radioactive waste management agency Andra yesterday signed a cooperation agreement concerning the final isolation of radioactive waste. The agreement builds on a memorandum of understanding the two parties signed in 2012.

Current solutions for intermediate and higher activity radioactive wastes storage are temporary. Nuclear waste stores have lifetimes of around 100 years and storage ponds, which dissipate the decay heat from used nuclear fuel and act as powerful radiation shields, several decades. Research into biogeochemical control over radionuclide behaviour is therefore of great value for a deep geological disposal solution, writes Katherine Morris.

The dismantling of the central chimney at the shutdown Garigliano nuclear power plant in Italy was completed yesterday, Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA announced. Preparations to demolish the 95-meter-high chimney began in March 2014.

Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organisation has begun drilling the first borehole to obtain geological core samples, in its search for a potential deep repository for the long-term management of the country's used nuclear fuel.