The agrarian committee of Russia's Federation Council has approved measures aimed at providing state incentives to the country's uranium mining industry, Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ), the uranium mining arm of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said yesterday. The Federation Council is the upper chamber of the Federal Assembly, the upper house of the Russian parliament.

Energoatom, Ukraine's nuclear power plant operator, has drawn attention to misreporting by some Ukrainian media that have claimed the country's regulator does not intend to renew the operating licence of unit 2 of the South Ukraine nuclear power plant.

A group of US electric utilities has formally expressed interest in Lightbridge Corporation's novel metallic fuel design to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The loading of fuel assemblies into the reactor core of unit 2 at the Fuqing plant in China's Fujian province has been completed in preparation for startup.

Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF) has made its next-generation GNF3 boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel assembly available to customers for the first time.

The government of Kazakhstan has approved a draft agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on establishing a low-enriched uranium 'fuel bank' in Kazakhstan.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is planning to provide refuelling services to pressurized water reactors (PWRs), and has agreed to conduct PWR refuelling work for Exelon.

Major civil construction work has been completed for an underground dry used fuel storage facility at Ameren's Callaway nuclear power plant in Missouri. The first canisters containing used fuel are scheduled to be put in place in July, Holtec International said.

Holtec International and Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance have announced plans for a consolidated interim used nuclear fuel storage facility in south-eastern New Mexico.

French engineering company Areva has for the first time signed a contract with Energoatom for the supply of enriched uranium to be used at Ukraine's nuclear power reactors. The first batches will be delivered in 2015.

Westinghouse is to increase the capacity of the cooling system at Sweden's central interim storage facility for used nuclear fuel (Clab) at Oskarshamn under a contract signed with with the country's radioactive waste management company, Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB).

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to sign an agreement today, during a state visit to Moscow by Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, that paves the way for Rosatom to build a sixth nuclear reactor in the South American country.