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 head of the Canadian nuclear regulator has written to Québec's minister for sustainable development, environment and climate change questioning the recommendations made by a public consultation on uranium mining in the province.

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.

Kyushu Electric Power Company plans to apply to regulators for the final 'applied safety inspection' of Sendai 1 on 3 August. This check is expected to take one week, making 10 August a potential start-up date.

UK regulators have asked Hitachi-GE to address a series of "shortfalls" in the probabilistic safety analysis of its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). The request takes the form of a Regulatory Issue, which is the second in as many months in the generic design assessment of the reactor for its use in the UK.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board announced that construction of unit 2 of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu has been completed. It also issued a licence for the regular operation of unit 1 and a siting permit for a project to build four reactors in Gorakhpur in Haryana.

Japan's nuclear regulator has given Shikoku Electric Power Company permission to make changes to the reactor installation of unit 3 of its Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime prefecture. It marks the first of three regulatory approvals required for restarting the unit.

Mayak processing plant has signed a cooperation agreement with the Russian nuclear industry's self-regulatory organization to help it "ensure high standards of construction" at its nuclear facilities, they said in a joint statement yesterday.

The US nuclear regulatory commission (NRC) has asked the owners of nuclear fuel facilities to provide more information on how they respond to natural phenomena. The commission said that apart from the need for this information, it is otherwise satisfied  that "little or no further action" is needed to apply the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident.

The Swedish nuclear regulator has said it believes the country's radioactive waste management company can meet all the safety and radiation protection requirements for its planned repository for used nuclear fuel.

Concerns about reactor chemistry issues related to Hitachi-GE's Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) have been raised by UK regulators in their assessment of the design. The company, however, is confident these concerns can be resolved.

OKG, the operator of the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden, has applied for an environmental court ruling in preparation for the future decommissioning of unit 1. No shutdown date has yet been determined for the reactor.