Lithuania's government has approved the draft concession agreement for the planned Visaginas nuclear power plant as part of major legislation on strategic energy projects, while Czech power company CEZ confirms it is looking for a strategic partner for Temelin.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has signed a partnership that will see it work with ARES to offer security simulation software to nuclear and other sites in the country.

Toshiba has secured the right to a "significant portion" of the output from the planned Madaouela uranium mine in Niger under a convertible debt-financing agreement with exploration and development company GoviEx.

The potential extension of the lives of the two operating reactors at Bulgaria's Kozloduy plant by up to 20 years will be examined by a consortium between Russia's Rosenergoatom and France's EDF under a recently signed contract.

A $1.3 billion contract to manage and operate the US Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for up to ten years has been awarded to Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC.

A wholesale electricity supplier in Mississippi is in discussions with Santee Cooper about buying a share of the output from the two reactors under construction at the VC Summer plant in South Carolina. South Mississippi Electric Power Association is also considering buying a portion of Santee Cooper's 45% ownership interest in the new units.

The partners in a joint venture to bring back uranium mining in Spain have entered an arbitration process that could result in the payment of over $200 million in damages from Enusa to Berkeley Resources. The Salamanca 1 project is unaffected and was said to remain on course for construction in 2013.

Responsibility for the decommissioning, demolition and clean-up of the UK's Dounreay nuclear site has passed to the Babcock Dounreay Partnership consortium, which has now taken over ownership of Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd.

The contractual framework for the construction of Europe's first advanced boiling water reactor has been laid down in an agreement signed by the Lithuanian government and strategic investor Hitachi.

South Carolina Electric & Gas has signed a preliminary agreement with Westinghouse and the Shaw Group to settle a dispute over early cost overruns for the construction of two AP1000 units at its VC Summer plant. A delay in receiving a licence for the units has led to a rescheduling of their completion dates.

While the bidding process for construction of a fourth reactor at Finland's Olkiluoto site has been launched, the country needs to invest in the future workforce for nuclear industry and regulation.

A $200 million contract awarded to a partnership led by EnergySolutions will see the removal of all above-ground transuranic wastes from the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by June 2014.