A power assist suit to help workers following a serious nuclear accident has been jointly developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Japan Atomic Power Company. The device enables workers to lift loads up to 40kg.

The Swedish nuclear regulator has recommended that the operators of the four reactors that will shut earlier than planned - Oskarshamn units 1 and 2 and Ringhals 1 and 2 - should pay higher waste fees to ensure the country's nuclear waste fund is sufficient.

The second phase of a large-scale project to remediate the former Gunnar uranium mine in Saskatchewan can go ahead after Canadian nuclear regulators decided to allow the Saskatchewan Research Council to proceed with tailings remediation.

Areva has won a contract worth "tens of millions" of Euros to dismantle the vessel internals of EDF's Superphénix fast neutron reactor at Creys-Malville in France.

SSE ChNPP said yesterday that the first 10 canisters for the dry interim fuel storage facility (ISF-2) had been delivered to the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. ISF2 is in the final construction stage under a contract Ukraine signed with US-based Holtec International in 2007. To be completed this year, it will be used to store all the used fuel on the site for at least 100 years.

(Updated with comment from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) The UK will invest at least £250 million ($377 million) over the next five years in an "ambitious" nuclear research and development program, according to the Conservative Party-led government's Spending Review and Autumn Statement published yesterday. British Chancellor George Osborne's 'Comprehensive Spending Review' says this program will "revive the UK's nuclear expertise" and position the country as "a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies".

The planned construction of a new high-level waste storage facility at the UK's Dounreay site is progressing with the award of three contracts. The £22 million ($33 million) facility will be an extension to the existing Dounreay Cementation Plant.

A demonstration plant to vitrify radioactive waste has completed initial commissioning prior to its deployment at the UK's Sellafield site. The full-scale GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification (ICV) plant is a collaboration between the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and US radioactive waste management specialist Kurion.

Energy Solutions EU (ES EU) and the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) met in court this week over the company's claim the government agency violated its own rules last year when it awarded a contract to manage the Magnox Ltd and Research Site Restoration Ltd nuclear sites.

The Russian government has approved the federal target program (FTP) for nuclear and radiation safety for 2016-2020 and the period up to 2030, Russian news agency Nuclear.Ru reported today, citing an unnamed source at Rosatom.

Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy has concluded cooperative agreements with both the UK's Cavendish Nuclear Limited and France's Areva NC concerning boiling water reactor decommissioning in Japan.

Five canisters of vitrified high-level waste (HLW) from a former nuclear fuel reprocessing plant have been placed in long-term outdoor storage, in a first for US decommissioning.