The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has published its latest business plan, setting out its anticipated income and expenditure during the next financial year. It also includes a high-level 20-year overview of objectives it is working towards, and takes a more detailed look at key activities over the next three years.

A trial of bespoke equipment to lift off the top plate of the Dounreay Fast Reactor in Scotland in order to remove trapped fuel elements has been completed successfully, the Nuclear Decommissioing Authority said on 19 March. The authority said decommissioning the 50-year-old experimental reactor is one of the most technically challenging projects in its estate.

The very first radioactive sludge has been removed from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP) at Sellafield in north-west England. The FGMSP is one of the site's four Legacy Pond and Silo facilities.

Initial results from using a muon detection system at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi unit 1 in Japan appear to confirm that most of the fuel has melted and dropped from its original position within the core, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced.

Kansai Electric Power Company and the Japan Atomic Power Company have decided to decommission three nuclear power plants shut down after the Fukushima accident of 2011 rather than applying to restart them.

Construction of the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement on the site of the 1986 nuclear accident is entering its final stage, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said yesterday.

More than 90% of the contaminated water stored on the Fukushima Daiichi site will be treated by the end of May, two months later than originally planned, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) announced today.

Swiss nuclear operator Alpiq has founded a new company to offer integrated nuclear plant decommissioning services in readiness for the post-operation stage of the country's nuclear power sector.

The UK is one of the two key markets for Areva, together with China, as it is "where the group sees growth", the French engineering company's UK chief executive officer Robert Davies told World Nuclear News in an interview yesterday.

The estimated cost of decommissioning and cleaning up the Sellafield site in the UK has increased to GBP53 billion ($81 billion), the National Audit Office has noted. The increase has been attributed to a better understanding of the tasks involved.

The UK's Magnox Limited and Research Sites Restoration Limited (RSRL) are being merged into a single site licence company as part of changes being introduced by the new parent body organization Cavendish Fluor Partnership.

A project to develop new robotic techniques for use in the autonomous handling of radioactive wastes is among those recently selected for funding by the European Commission.