The Lithuanian government has decided to establish a working group to report on nuclear energy development opportunities in the country, with small modular reactors seen as a likely option.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Lithuania's interim Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys have signed an intergovernmental agreement to cooperate on the development of Lithuania's civil nuclear power programme, with a particular focus on the deployment of small modular reactors.

US-based company Amentum has been awarded a contract worth an estimated EUR5.5 million (about USD6 million) to consult for the first-of-a-kind dismantling of steam drum separators at units 1 and 2 of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania.

Lithuania has identified 77 potential locations for its planned geological repository for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. A final decision on the facility's location is not expected until 2047.

US microreactor developer Last Energy has formed a partnership with the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence to jointly research military applications for micro-nuclear power technologies and explore opportunities for future deployment on NATO military installations.

The general concept for the construction of a geological disposal facility in clay-based rocks for Lithuania's radioactive waste has been developed by the State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant with assistance from Finnish waste management company Posiva.

An International Atomic Energy Agency mission has said that Lithuania's process for selecting a site for its proposed deep geological repository for radioactive waste is in line international safety standards.

Lithuania's State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant has signed two contracts with international consortiums for the design of technologies for dismantling the two shut down RBMK reactors at the plant.

Belarus's Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk said that work on the second unit at the country's first nuclear power plant is proceeding on schedule - and said that the feasibility of building a second nuclear power plant in the country is ongoing.