South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill has today announced the state's plans to continue discussions on a proposed nuclear waste facility and promised a referendum to restore "bipartisanship and broad social consent" on the issue.

The decommissioning of the shut down Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will be significantly accelerated through its sale to dismantling and remediation firm NorthStar Group Services, plant owner Entergy announced yesterday.

The majority of a Citizens' Jury forming part of South Australia's community consultation in response to the state's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission Report feels the state should not pursue the opportunity to store and dispose of nuclear waste under any circumstances.

Faced with a clear but controversial recommendation from its Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission, the South Australian government has sought to reach out to its citizens with information and consultation to test the waters on how to proceed. The objective of the Royal Commission's recommendation is purely commercial, boldly to seize an opportunity to rescue the state from economic impoverishment. But the means is not intrinsically appealing to all, writes Ian Hore-Lacy.

The German cabinet yesterday adopted a draft bill on financing the decommissioning of the country's nuclear power plants and management of its radioactive waste. The bill is based on the recommendation of an independent commission reviewing the financing of Germany's nuclear phase-out.

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.

Finnish waste management company Posiva will share its experience and know-how of developing a repository for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste with the Czech Republic's Radioactive Waste Repository Authority through a four-year service contract.

The second and final shipment of high-level waste from the UK to Switzerland has been completed. The waste resulted from the reprocessing and recycling of used nuclear fuel from Swiss nuclear power plants at Sellafield.

A complex remote cutting job is underway at Sellafield to enable the removal of cladding waste from an outdated silo. Engineers are using an innovative jet to remove plates of steel while maintaining an inert atmosphere important for safety.

Japan has established a new organisation tasked with managing its reprocessing of used fuel, METI announced on 3 October. The Nuclear Reprocessing Organisation of Japan will be funded by the country's power utilities to cover the cost of the reprocessing work.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) yesterday awarded Mid-America Conversion Services, a joint venture of Atkins, Fluor and Westinghouse, a $318 million five-year contract to operate facilities to convert depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at its plants at Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio.

Holtec International has successfully completed a series of free drop-tests on its HI-STAR ATB-1T waste cask. The cask has a rectangular footprint, unlike cylindrical fuel-bearing transport casks.