The construction of a used fuel processing and recycling facility in China is expected to begin in 2020 and be completed by 2030. The facility will be based on French technology.

Holtec International is in talks with Turboatom on the manufacture of equipment for a central used fuel storage facility the US company is contracted to build in Ukraine.

A ceremony was held on 28 August to mark the official opening of South Korea's underground low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang province.

Cold testing - one of the first stages of the commissioning process - has started at the new Solid Waste Management and Storage Facilities at the shut down Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania.

The UK regulator has given approval for the inactive commissioning process to begin at a dry nuclear fuel store at Sizewell B, the country's first such nuclear fuel storage facility. Construction of the store began in early 2013.

Trials have been completed by UK companies Costain and Tetronics International of new technology for the vitrification of intermediate-level radioactive waste. The partners claim the technology could reduce the volume of such waste from the nuclear industry by up to 90%.

Following a strategic environmental assessment and public consultation, the German cabinet yesterday adopted a draft national radioactive waste disposal program proposed by the country's environment ministry.

The installation of a protective cover over unit 3 of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan can start as soon as the removal of rubble from the reactor building is completed, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said.

Magnox Limited has announced the completion of fuel removal from unit 1 of the Oldbury nuclear power plant in the UK as well as the retrieval of all fuel element debris from underground vaults at the Bradwell site.

The removal of the fuel handling machine from the damaged reactor building of unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant helps clear the way for the transfer of used fuel from the unit's storage pool.

A new target date is to be set for the resumption of waste emplacement operations at the USA's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) transuranic waste disposal facility after the Department of Energy determined that the previously announced target of March 2016 is no longer viable.

Holtec International has unveiled the schedule for its proposed consolidated interim storage facility for used nuclear fuel, with start-up slated for 2020. Holtec sees the facility, to be built in south-eastern New Mexico, as the only solution being put forward to deal with the USA's 70,000 tonnes of used nuclear fuel that is currently located in 35 states and at about 70 sites.