The installation of a protective cover over unit 3 of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan can start as soon as the removal of rubble from the reactor building is completed, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said.

Magnox Limited has announced the completion of fuel removal from unit 1 of the Oldbury nuclear power plant in the UK as well as the retrieval of all fuel element debris from underground vaults at the Bradwell site.

Grants totalling £2.5 million ($3.9 million) have been awarded by the UK government to the National Nuclear Laboratory and the University of Manchester for the development of accident tolerant nuclear fuels.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched a special inspection at Honeywell Metropolis Works in Illinois to assess a uranium hexafluoride leak that occurred during maintenance activities at the uranium conversion facility on 1 August.

The removal of the fuel handling machine from the damaged reactor building of unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant helps clear the way for the transfer of used fuel from the unit's storage pool.

Spain's nuclear regulator has concluded that Villar de Cañas is a suitable site for a national high-level waste storage facility. However, it has requested additional technical studies and reports.

Laser technology for the removal of fuel debris from the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could be developed through a joint research agreement signed between three Japanese organizations.

Rosatom has rejected Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's claim that the Russian company failed to honour agreements on construction of a nuclear fuel fabrication facility and completion of units 3 and 4 at Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant.

Kazakh uranium mining company KazAtomProm has signed a contract with India's Department of Atomic Energy to supply 5000 tonnes of uranium over the next four years.

Russia expects to increase its share of the global market in products for the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle by 10% in the next 15 years, thanks to the integrated nature of Rosatom's subsidiaries, according to the head of Techsnabexport (Tenex).

A number of agreements were signed yesterday between Chinese and French nuclear energy companies aimed at strengthening their cooperation in the nuclear fuel cycle and power reactors.

Westinghouse Electric Company and eight European consortium partners announced today that they have received €2 million ($2.2 million) in funding from the European Union "to establish the security of supply of nuclear fuel for Russian-designed reactors in the EU". The move means that operators of Russian-built reactors in the EU will not have to rely solely on Russia's Rosatom for nuclear fuel supply.