A plate-type uranium-molybdenum fuel for research reactors has completed performance tests in the USA. The fuel could be used to replace highly-enriched uranium fuel, which can pose a proliferation risk.

Australia wishes to export uranium to India "as soon as possible", Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said today. Turnbull made his comments during an official visit to India.

CORRECTED: The loading of spherical moderator elements has begun at China's Shidaowan HTR-PM - a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) demonstration project. The unit is scheduled to begin operating later this year.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has approved the restart of Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan's fuel fabrication plant in Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture. Last month the regulator concluded the facility meets revised safety standards.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has completed a five-day investigation of the primary containment vessel (PCV) of the damaged unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant using a robot. The results of the survey will help Tepco determine the location of fuel debris within the vessel.

Areva NP has recently been awarded three patents for innovations in the fuel operation as well as anticorrosion and maintenance tooling fields. The patents were for innovations developed by Areva employees in the USA.

The first cask containing used nuclear fuel from the Sizewell B pressurised water reactor has been placed within the unit's new dry fuel store. The milestone marks the first use of dry used fuel storage technology in the UK.

The Euratom Supply Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the European Union, has approved Berkeley Energia's offtake agreement for the sale of the first production from its Salamanca uranium mine under development in Spain. The mine is expected to enter production in late 2018.

The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate has called for the systematic management of the aging of containers in the country's interim radioactive waste storage facilities. The requirement follows the completion of a study into container aging and fuel handling in such facilities.

Tokyo Electric Power Company is preparing to insert a Hitachi-developed robot into the primary containment vessel of the damaged unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Last month, a Toshiba-developed robot was used to survey the vessel of unit 2.

Areva has completed the clean-up and dismantling of facilities at the former mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plant at Cadarache, in southern France. The company described the project as "one of the largest dismantling projects in the world".

Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan's fuel fabrication plant in Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture meets new regulatory standards, the country's nuclear regulator has concluded. It becomes the first fuel cycle facility to be confirmed to meet the revised safety standards, introduced in December 2013.