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.

The UK government has announced a series of measure that aim to realise the full potential of the of the country's nuclear power industry. The document 'Government to support development of next-generation nuclear technology' follows publication of the Industrial Strategy white paper last month, a core objective of which is to "ensure the UK is developing the technologies of the future and preparing to seize the opportunities they bring and build on its strengths", the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said.

A contract to recover and encapsulate low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste at the Marcoule nuclear research site has been awarded to Areva Projets SAS and the Wood Group by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. The contract covers some 50 tonnes of waste resulting from the treatment of fuels used in former plutonium-producing reactors there.

Lightbridge Corporation has signed orders with the Institute for Energy Technology, operator of Norway's Halden research reactor, for the design and fabrication of a second irradiation rig for testing of its fuels. The IFE is already manufacturing a first test rig ready for irradiation testing of Lightbridge's fuel samples in the reactor.