Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said it recently started manufacturing casks for the transport and storage of used nuclear fuel for Shikoku Electric Power Company. The utility will use them at an interim dry storage facility at its Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime Prefecture.

The first rail transfer of stainless steel drums of waste from the Winfrith Magnox site to Nuclear Waste Services' Low Level Waste Repository site has been completed. The waste's radiation levels have decayed sufficiently for it now to be reclassified as low-level waste.

Recent geopolitical events have not had a material impact on Kazatomprom's group operations to date, the company said as it announced its 2021 full year results.

A consignment of intermediate-level radioactive waste has been safely returned to Australia from the Sellafield plant in the UK.

Framatome has received approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission of a licence amendment allowing its shipping containers to be used to transport fresh nuclear fuel with enrichment above 5%.

Kepco Nuclear Fuel has developed a light-water reactor fuel transport container that meets international requirements with domestic technology.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd has placed an order with Holtec International subsidiary Holtec Asia to supply HI-STAR transport casks to serve away-from-reactor storage for Kudankulam units 1 and 2. NPCIL has also issued a call for tenders for the construction of a used fuel storage facility for Kudankulam units 3 and 4.

The US Department of Energy has issued a request for proposals for the fabrication and testing of a prototype eight-axle railcar - known as Fortis - to carry used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
 

Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organisation has released two planning documents that address the wide range of priorities, questions and concerns heard to date from Canadians and Indigenous peoples about the transportation of used nuclear fuel.

The UK's specialist nuclear transport ships and their base in Barrow-in-Furness will be managed by AW Ship Management under a five-year contract announced today. The deal - worth GBP59 million (USD78 million) - concerns three ships owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority through its subsidiary Nuclear Transport Solutions.

Nuclear fuel cycle companies are taking steps to reduce their operational carbon emissions through recent announcements. Orano is partnering with freight rail operator Fret SNCF to develop its carbon-free transport in France and Europe; UK company Nuclear Transport Solutions' rail division has launched a new locomotive design to trial the use of a low-emission renewable alternative to diesel; and in Russia, ARMZ Mining Machinery has increased the use of battery-operated machinery at its Priargunsky mining operations.

The world's only nuclear powered cargo ship yesterday set sail from the Russian port of St Petersburg laden with a cargo of components destined for the Rooppur nuclear power plant under construction in Bangladesh. The NS Sevmorput, which is operated by Rosatom enterprise Atomflot, is transporting the 1400 tonne cargo - described as mainly comprising "metal structures and mechanisms" - to the port of Vladivostock.