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Terrestrial Energy USA has extended a fuel salt testing programme at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory to include fission product solubility measurements.

A contract has been signed to design the used fuel reprocessing module of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex facility under construction at Seversk in Russia.

Finnish radioactive waste management company Posiva Oy has submitted its application for an operating licence for the used fuel encapsulation plant and final disposal facility currently under construction at Olkiluoto. The repository - the first in the world for used fuel - is expected to begin operations in the mid-2020s.

TVEL has launched a new fabrication facility for pressurised water reactor fuel at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant site in Russia. The facility will enable Rosatom's fuel division to supply modified versions of its TVS-K nuclear fuel to PWR plants around the world, the company said.
 

The first full assemblies of a new kind of nuclear fuel have been loaded into Russia's Balakovo 1 for a five-year trial. Rosatom's REMIX fuel promises to close the fuel cycle using today's light-water reactors.

The US Department of Energy is asking the public for its input on plans to create a new programme to assure the availability of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel - needed for the demonstration and commercial deployment of advanced reactors - in the USA. Meanwhile, Centrus is working with Clean Core Thorium Energy on advanced fuel using HALEU and thorium.

A pilot study by Sweden's Studsvik AB shows that all of Norway's metallic uranium research reactor fuel could be processed using its oxidation process in less than two years. Several studies have already recommended chemical treatment of the fuel before it is disposed of in an underground repository.

The US Department of Energy has issued a request for information to help it create a consent-based approach to siting an interim storage site for US used nuclear fuel. The move represents a re-start of the federal programme after plans for a repository at Yucca Mountain were dropped in 2009.

Å koda announced it has completed development of a geological disposal package for the Czech Republic's used nuclear fuel. Made of corrosion resistant steel, it is a hermetically sealed container for the highly radioactive used fuel assemblies from its VVER reactors.

Oklo Inc and Centrus Energy Corp have signed a non-binding Letter of Intent to cooperate in the deployment of a production facility for high-assay low-enriched uranium to support the commercialisation of advanced fission plants, such as Oklo's Aurora. The companies say they are "committed" to working towards establishing domestic US HALEU production capabilities.

Ukraine's nuclear power plant operator, Energoatom, is conducting the final pre-commissioning trials of the Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The company's acting president recently inspected simulation tests of the removal of nuclear fuel from unit 3 of the Rovno nuclear power plant using technology supplied by Holtec International of the USA. The transfer of fuel to the CSFSF is scheduled to begin next year.

Russia is ready to test a batch of fuel assemblies made from recycled uranium and plutonium. The REMIX fuel concept could be used with any reactor and promises a step-change in resource efficiency and waste reduction, according to Rosatom.