The first cask containing used nuclear fuel from the Sizewell B pressurised water reactor has been placed within the unit's new dry fuel store. The milestone marks the first use of dry used fuel storage technology in the UK.

USA-based firms Bechtel and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) have today announced the formation of an alliance to offer decommissioning and dismantling services for nuclear power plants in Germany and Sweden.

The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate has called for the systematic management of the aging of containers in the country's interim radioactive waste storage facilities. The requirement follows the completion of a study into container aging and fuel handling in such facilities.

A US business consortium has called for "decisive, swift and tangible" action on used nuclear fuel and high-level waste storage, including the re-establishment of the Office for Civilian Radioactive Waste Management and re-engagement with the Yucca Mountain review process. The US Nuclear Infrastructure Council says the current "impasse" is costing US taxpayers billions of dollars. 

Areva has completed the clean-up and dismantling of facilities at the former mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plant at Cadarache, in southern France. The company described the project as "one of the largest dismantling projects in the world".

Holtec International has won a contract for the turnkey supply of a dry cask storage facility at the Krško nuclear power plant in Slovenia. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

Drums of radioactive sludge from Sellafield's Pile Fuel Storage Pond - the world's oldest nuclear storage pond - have been processed in the site's encapsulation plant for the first time. The waste is now ready for long-term disposal.

The shipment of transuranic wastes from generator sites to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is set to resume in April. The US Department of Energy expects a total of 128 shipments to be made to WIPP over the next 12 months.

German power company EnBW has received approval from the Baden-Württemberg ministry of environment to decommission and dismantle unit 1 of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant. The company expects dismantling work to begin next month and to be completed within 10-15 years.

Mid-America Conversion Services - a joint venture of Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor - has received approval from the US Department of Energy to begin operation of its depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities.

Utility EDF has rejected a French parliamentary committee report on the technical and financial feasibility of decommissioning its nuclear power plants. The report claims the clean-up of French reactors will take longer, be more challenging and cost more than EDF anticipates.

The pouring of the concrete for the foundation plate marks a milestone in the construction of the Cemex cementation facility for liquid radioactive waste produced at Italy's Eurex pilot reprocessing facility.