Framatome is the best partner for Lightbridge for developing, licensing and commercialising nuclear fuel assemblies based on its technology, the company's president and CEO Seth Grae told World Nuclear News. Speaking shortly after the companies announced their Enfission joint venture, he said they intend Enfission to become a major player in the international nuclear industry.

The irradiation of two fuel pins containing thorium-plutonium oxide pellets is under way at the Halden research reactor in Norway. Thor Energy - which is leading the consortium carrying out the research - said this is the start of the third phase of a five-year trial-operation of thorium-based nuclear fuels.

Westinghouse Electric Company announced yesterday it has signed a contract with Energoatom that extends its supply of nuclear fuel to VVER nuclear power plants in Ukraine from 2020 to 2025. The contract was signed by Aziz Dag, Westinghouse vice president and managing director for Northern Europe, and Yury Nedashkovsky, Energoatom president and CEO.

Russia and Argentina have signed a memorandum of understanding on uranium exploration and mining in the South American country. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is also proposing to supply Argentina with a nuclear power plant.

Sweden's Radiation Safety Authority today submitted a positive opinion to the government on Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB's (SKB's) application to build a repository for used nuclear fuel, together with a plant to encapsulate the fuel prior to disposal. However, the Land and Environment Court in Stockholm has called for further documentation on the copper capsules in which the fuel will be stored within the repository.

France's Framatome and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) have signed a protocol for the development of global strategic cooperation. They have also renewed a contract under which Framatome will supply nuclear fuel components to CNNC.

Cooperation on nuclear power technology is to be expanded between China General Nuclear and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission under an agreement signed yesterday in Beijing. New Areva and China National Nuclear Corporation have also agreed to work towards signing a contract for the construction of a used fuel processing and recycling facility in China.

China's first AP1000 fuel production line has now produced 64 sets of fuel assemblies ready for the first reloading of the Sanmen AP1000 units. Both Sanmen AP1000s are scheduled to begin operating later this year.

Russia plans to start construction next year of a nuclear fuel fabrication facility for its lead-cooled fast-neutron Brest-OD-300 reactor, Siberian Chemical Combine said on 27 December. Based in Tomsk, Siberia, SCC is a subsidiary of TVEL, the nuclear fuel manufacturing unit of state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited has announced a further three-year delay in the schedule for completing the Rokkasho reprocessing plant and J-MOX mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plant. The delay is due to additional regulatory requirements.

Magnox Ltd has emptied more than half of the used fuel from the Wylfa reactors on Anglesey, in Wales, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said today. When operating, Wylfa's two reactors together contained nearly 100,000 fuel elements.

The process of loading the 163 fuel assemblies into the core of unit 1 of the Leningrad Phase II nuclear power plant in western Russia began on 8 December, state nuclear corporation Rosatom announced. The VVER-1200 unit is scheduled to start up next year.