A prototype detector based on a system originally developed to help detect the presence of dark matter is about to undergo testing at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. The liquid argon-based ALARM system offers significant improvements in detecting neutron and gamma radiation compared with existing technology, and could potentially be used to prevent the illicit movement of nuclear materials across international borders.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun construction at its Seibersdorf facility near Vienna of a new building that will house a nuclear security training centre. The IAEA Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre - scheduled to be operational in 2023 - will help strengthen countries' abilities to tackle nuclear terrorism in areas such as the illegal trafficking of nuclear material and the physical protection of facilities and major public events.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts last week completed a nuclear security advisory mission in Belarus, 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 has informed the agency's Board of Governors that Iran intends to use indigenously-produced uranium enriched up to 20% U-235 in the manufacture of fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, an IAEA spokesperson told World Nuclear News today. In doing so, as part of a multi-stage process, Iran will also produce uranium metal enriched up to 20% U-235.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the US administration "to lift or waive" all sanctions on Iran as agreed under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. In a report to the UN Security Council, Guterres also appealed to Iran to return to full implementation of the nuclear deal it agreed six years ago with the USA, France, the UK, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union. In addition, he urged the USA to "extend the waivers with regard to the trade in oil with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects".

The one-month extension to the 'temporary technical understanding' between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency expired on 24 June and Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters in Tehran today that no decision had yet been made on whether or not to continue with the arrangement.

The lack of progress in clarifying the International Atomic Energy Agency's questions concerning the correctness and completeness of Iran's safeguards declarations seriously affects the ability of the IAEA to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of the country's nuclear programme, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today in his opening statement to the quarterly session of the IAEA Board of Governors.

A new Master's degree programme, launched as part of the European Safeguards Training and Education project, will help ensure academics and safeguards inspectors "stay connected and do not drift away from each other", Massimo Aparo, head of the Department of Safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said today.

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency have agreed to extend their 'temporary technical understanding' by one month, until 24 June. At a press briefing held today to announce the extension, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the understanding announced in February had "left the door ajar" and the extension meant it "stayed ajar, for now".

US President Dwight Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' speech to the UN General Assembly in 1953 is still relevant as the world of today confronts the existential threat of climate change, World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León told delegates at a preparatory event for the Tenth NPT Review Conference that is expected to take place in August. Speaking at the event - titled Industry and Peaceful Applications of Nuclear Technology - Bilbao y León called upon all signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 1970, to support the expansion of civil nuclear power.

Iran on 17 April began enriching uranium up to 60%, after previously notifying the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intention to do so. Enrichment to 60% uranium-235 is being carried out in two cascades of IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at the Natanz facility.

The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group has ended its use of high-enriched uranium targets in the production of radioisotopes at the High Flux Reactor in Petten, the Netherlands. The reactor itself was converted from HEU fuel, which can pose a proliferation risk, to low-enriched uranium fuel in 2006.