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.

Russia's gross domestic product gains three roubles for every one invested in building a nuclear power plant in the country, and two roubles for units built abroad, Rosatom deputy director general Kirill Komarov said in an interview with Vestnik Atomproma published on the state nuclear corporation's website yesterday.

French utility EDF will need to spend some €100 billion ($113 billion) on upgrading its fleet of 58 nuclear power reactors by 2030, the country's state audit office has said. The upgrades are needed to meet new safety requirements and to extend the lives of the units beyond 40 years.

US President Barack Obama wants to scrap the Department of Energy's project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina that was designed to take plutonium no longer needed for nuclear weapons and turn it into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.

Russia's Kurchatov Institute and state nuclear corporation Rosatom have signed a cooperation agreement "to harness synergies in the joint development of promising new technologies and the modernization of existing technology in the nuclear power and energy transport sector".

The Japanese cabinet has approved a bill aimed at "taking measures necessary for the steady implementation of the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel". The bill creates a new entity responsible for reprocessing and introduces a new system for funding it.

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.

An EU Council of Ministers working group has recommended the European Atomic Energy Community's (Euratom's) participation in the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) be extended for a further ten years. The final adoption of this decision by the Council of Ministers is expected soon.

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'.

Swedish utility Vattenfall has announced a loss of SEK19.8 billion ($2.4 billion) in 2015, its third consecutive annual loss. It attributed this partly to continued low electricity prices and unprofitable Swedish nuclear power reactors.

King Abdullah II of Jordan has stressed the importance of moving ahead with the country's plans for nuclear energy, calling for Jordan to become a role model for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

French diplomats met with Ukrainian parliamentarians last week to discuss increased cooperation between the two countries in nuclear energy. Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom announced on 29 January that a meeting with the parliamentary Committee on the Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety had been held the previous day on the initiative of the French embassy in Kiev.