Nuclear energy's share of Ukraine's electricity mix is "rapidly approaching" 60%, President Petro Poroshenko said at a meeting of the country's National Security and Defence Council yesterday, according to a statement on the presidential website. The president did not give a date by which the increase would be achieved.

An Australian parliamentary committee today recommended ratification of a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement that will permit the export of Australian uranium to Ukraine, subject to the development of a contingency plan for loss of regulatory control of the material.

The Russian government has confirmed that its 2010 agreement with Ukraine on building a third and fourth reactor at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant has been cancelled. According to a statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website for legal information on 13 January, the intergovernmental agreement was terminated on 12 May last year.

The process of sliding the arched structure into place to shield the damaged unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been completed, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced. London-based EBRD said a ceremony in Chernobyl today marked the successful conclusion of the sliding operation, which it described as a key milestone before finalisation of the international program to transform Chernobyl into an environmentally safe and secure state by November 2017.

The head of Energoatom has described the World Association of Nuclear Operators' first cross-regional review, which is taking place at the Rovno nuclear power plant in Ukraine, as a "very useful" exercise that reflects changes to WANO's approach following the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan.

The process of sliding the arched structure into place to shield the damaged unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant started today, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said. London-based EBRD described the milestone at the plant in Ukraine as "one of the most ambitious projects in the history of engineering".

Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom has agreed to enhance its cooperation with Chinese, Argentinian and Spanish companies - respectively, China National Nuclear Power, Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA and IDOM Nuclear Services.

State-owned nuclear companies Nucleoelétrica Argentina SA and Energoatom of Ukraine have signed a memorandum of understanding aiming to promote bilateral nuclear power development efforts.

The "active phase" of construction work on a central used fuel storage facility at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is expected to start in March 2017, Oleksandr Rybchuk, general director of Atomprojectengineering said.

Construction has been completed of the dividing walls between units 3 and 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, against which the New Safe Confinement over unit 4 will be placed. Completion of the new cover is scheduled for November 2017.

Askar Zhumagaliyev, chairman of KazAtomProm, and Igor Nasalik, Ukraine's energy and coal industry minister, have held their second meeting on future cooperation in the nuclear energy sector. The world's biggest uranium producer said in a statement yesterday the meeting focused on production of fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power reactors.

Energoatom and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power have agreed to cooperate in the nuclear energy sector. A memorandum of understanding - signed today in Kiev by Energoatom President Yury Nedashkovsky and KHNP President and CEO Seok Cho - aims to promote the "sustainable social and economic development" of the two countries, the Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator said.