The very first radioactive sludge has been removed from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP) at Sellafield in north-west England. The FGMSP is one of the site's four Legacy Pond and Silo facilities.

The underground tunnel in which the Full-scale Emplacement Experiment will be carried out at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory in Switzerland has been sealed and monitoring has begun. The experiment aims to simulate the conditions within a repository containing high-level radioactive waste.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will prepare a supplement to the Department of Energy's environmental impact statement on the proposed geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The public were informed yesterday via a notice in the Federal Register.

The estimated cost of decommissioning and cleaning up the Sellafield site in the UK has increased to GBP53 billion ($81 billion), the National Audit Office has noted. The increase has been attributed to a better understanding of the tasks involved.

The transfer of radioactive soil and waste generated from clean-up work following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a provisional storage site has been approved by the governor of Fukushima prefecture and the mayors of Futaba and Okuma.

Australian landholders have until 5 May to put forward potential sites for a national radioactive waste management facility under a voluntary site nomination process launched by the Australian government.

Finnish nuclear operators had set aside a total of €2.38 billion ($2.67 billion) by the end of 2014 - up from €2.27 billion ($2.55 billion) by the end of 2013 and €2.16 billion ($2.42 billion) by the end of 2012 - for waste disposal and decommissioning activities, the country's Ministry for Employment and the Economy has reported.

A project to develop new robotic techniques for use in the autonomous handling of radioactive wastes is among those recently selected for funding by the European Commission.

Russia has introduced an automated system for the accounting and control of its radioactive substances and waste that encompasses more than 2000 organizations. The system follows an order by state nuclear corporation Rosatom, 113 subsidiaries of which account for 96% of the country's radioactive substances and waste.

The removal of two million litres of liquid radioactive waste from silos used to store swarf waste from Magnox fuel reprocessing at the UK's Sellafield site marks a significant hazard reduction milestone, according to Sellafield Ltd.

Significant tasks have been completed in the clean-up and decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, an international expert mission has concluded. However, it says many challenging issues remain.

Russia's Atomenergomash has developed a unique mobile facility for processing low-level waste.