Operators of most of the USA's boiling water reactors (BWRs) must upgrade their emergency venting systems under a revised order from the country's nuclear regulator.

Japanese boiling water reactor (BWRs) will be fitted with Areva-supplied filtered containment venting systems under an agreement with Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has requested more than ¥600 billion ($6 billion) in additional government funds to help pay compensation claims resulting from the accident at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Residents will be able to repair tsunami damage in the town of Futaba after the Japanese government decided to prepare for the removal of parts of the town from the Fukushima evacuation zone.

New cooling towers will help to ensure safety at Finland's Loviisa nuclear power plant even if the seawater normally used to cool the plant were to be unavailable.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has drafted new guidelines to protect workers and the public in a radiological emergency. Open for public comment, the latest draft is an update to EPA guidelines issued in 1992.

Contracts have been signed for the operation of two regional US response centres to manage emergency backup equipment, while newly released performance metrics for 2012 show US plants achieving good safety performances.

Nuclear power is going through some of its toughest ever years, but retains majority global policy support, the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle conference heard today in Singapore.

Long-standing plans for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukushima prefecture have been dropped by utility Tohoku Electric Power Company. The Namie-Odaka plant was first proposed some 45 years ago.

A catastrophic fire and explosion at a Total oil terminal could affect safety at the adjacent Gravelines nuclear power plant, an annual review of nuclear safety in France has revealed. Total and EDF will make changes to avoid effects on nuclear safety from a previously unconsidered scenario.

The Mühleberg nuclear power plant could avoid shutdown this year and operate until 2022 under an initiative announced by the government of the Swiss canton of Bern. Operator BKW FMB Energy said the proposal for a negotiated shutdown "could be an option."

The forced closure of two of its four nuclear power reactors in 2011 contributed to a 4.3% drop in profits in 2012, German utility EnBW reported.