US radioactive waste management specialist Kurion has announced the completion of construction and acceptance testing of its prototype tritium management solution, the Modular Detritiation System.

UPDATED German power company EnBW has received permits for the construction of decommissioning infrastructure at its Neckarwestheim and Philippsburg nuclear power plants. The company plans to start building soon residual material treatment centres and interim site-waste storage facilities at the two sites.

Vattenfall has developed special gripping tools with which to remove more than 600 barrels of low- and intermediate-level waste from six storage pits at the decommissioned Brunsbüttel nuclear power plant in Germany.

The US Department of Energy has issued notices against Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) and Los Alamos National Security (LANS) for violations of its nuclear safety requirements regarding two 2014 incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, marking the completion of its investigations and enforcement processes.

Ahead of the start of construction later this year of a full-scale Synroc waste treatment plant, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (Ansto) is preparing to upscale the technology from a research level to an industrial scale in a pilot plant.

The Finnish regulator has given utility Fortum permission to start full operation of the liquid radioactive waste solidification facility at its Loviisa nuclear power plant. Commissioning of the waste facility began in 2006.

The storage and disposal of used nuclear fuel from abroad can "deliver substantial economic benefits" to South Australia, the Royal Commission investigating the state's potential participation in the nuclear fuel cycle has tentatively found.

Scientists using the UK's synchrotron science facility - Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, England - have presented their research into radioactive waste containment at the world's largest science conference - the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, held on 11-15 February in Washington DC. In a statement yesterday, Diamond Light Source Ltd said this work may help to inform the UK's policy on radioactive waste disposal.

Two Swiss expert groups have today released reports supporting the repository siting proposals put forward by the country's national radioactive waste disposal cooperative Nagra. However, they call for further investigations to be carried out in the Nördlich Lägern region.

Russia is making progress with its plan to build the BREST-OD-300 reactor - part of its 'Proryv', or Breakthrough, project that aims to develop fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle. BREST is the Russian acronym for 'fast reactor with lead coolant'.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has invited public comment by 15 June on a consent-based approach to siting facilities for the storage and disposal of used commercial nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

One person was killed and another injured today by a tunnel collapse within an underground laboratory operated by French waste management agency Andra. The laboratory, near Bure in the Meuse/Haute Marne area, is assessing the site for its suitability to house a national radioactive waste repository.