The Belgian government and French utility Engie have closed the agreement covering the extension of the operation of the Tihange 3 and Doel 4 nuclear power reactors by 10 years and on all obligations related to radioactive waste.

Finnish waste management company Posiva has completed the procedure qualification test on backfill installation at the Onkalo used nuclear fuel repository. During the test, almost 12 metres of tunnel were filled with backfill clay using the backfill installation system.

The new, state-of-the-art, large-scale ventilation system at the USA's repository for the disposal of transuranic waste has now been fully commissioned and is expected to be fully operational later this year.

Finnish radioactive waste management company Posiva announced it has completed a demonstration of the functionality of the used nuclear fuel encapsulation plant at Olkiluoto.

South Korea's National Assembly has passed an act that stipulates the construction of interim storage facilities for high-level radioactive waste by 2050 and permanent disposal facilities by 2060.

A New Jersey court has ruled that used nuclear fuel storage casks at the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant are permanent fixtures and therefore taxable as real estate property.

Work has begun to place a new protective layer over historic trenches at the UK's Low Level Waste Repository site at Drigg in West Cumbria, Nuclear Waste Services has announced.

Nuclear Waste Services says that it has selected areas for detailed studies of suitability within each of the three communities involved in the process of selecting a site for the permanent deep burial of nuclear waste material.

The UK government has announced that the country's stockpile of some 140 tonnes of civil plutonium - currently stored at the Sellafield site in Cumbria - will be immobilised and eventually disposed of in a geological disposal facility. The inventory arose from the reprocessing of used fuel undertaken over many decades.

Blasting work 45 metres below ground has begun, marking the start of the expansion of Sweden's existing SFR final repository for low and intermediate-level waste at Forsmark. The extension - expected to take six years to complete - will triple the capacity of the repository.

Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority has said it is on track to complete its assessment of Posiva Oy's operating licence application for the world's first used nuclear fuel repository and submit its statement to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment "well before the end of the year".

A project to develop the case for scaling-up the harvesting of lead-212 from reprocessed uranium for use in treating cancer has been selected for funding by UK Research and Innovation.