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Finland's radiation and nuclear safety authority has given its backing to Posiva's application to construct a final repository and waste encapsulation plant.

The US Department of Energy and National Academy of Sciences have been directed to work together to assess the current status of US and international research on low-dose radiation and to formulate a long-term research agenda under a bill approved by the US House of Representatives.

The interim storage of contaminated soil and other wastes generated by decontamination efforts at Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant and surrounding area will begin in March, the environment ministry has said.

A fire caused by a short circuit in the AT-1 grid automatic transformer of the South Ukraine nuclear power plant was extinguished within two hours yesterday, Energoatom, the country's state-owned nuclear power plant operator, said today.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the basic tenets of radiological protection, but their application without heed to non-radiological hazards can lead seriously astray, writes Jack Valentin, an independent radiological protection consultant.

Qualification irradiation tests of fuel elements for the demonstration HTR-PM high-temperature gas-cooled reactorÌýplant being built at Shidaowan, China, have been completed in the Netherlands.

Westinghouse and Energoatom have agreed "to significantly increase" nuclear fuel deliveries to Ukrainian nuclear power plants until 2020.

Eleven countries have presented a joint declaration to the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, urging the development of new infrastructure to replace ageing facilities used for the production of the most widely used medical radioisotope, molybdenum-99.

The US House of Representatives has passed legislationÌýto authorize Department of Energy research on whether low-dose ionizing radiation poses a risk.

The US-based Electric Power Research InstituteÌýand Japan's Central Research Institute of Electric Power IndustryÌýhave agreed to extend their collaborative research agreement for a further five years.

Testing of a new high-performance water decontamination system has started at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. When in full operation, the new system should increase water treatment capacity while significantly reducing the volume of waste generated.

More than a century has passed since radiation and nuclear energy were discovered and the image of those energy sources has undergone much evolution with the passing of several cultural waves, each of which left its mark on the public's perception and attitude to nuclear power, writes Jeremy Gordon.