Belgium will only be able to meet its climate goals while achieving long-term electricity price stability and security of supply if it uses a combination of nuclear and renewable energy, according to a new study by PwC Enterprise Advisory.

Japan has established a new organisation tasked with managing its reprocessing of used fuel, METI announced on 3 October. The Nuclear Reprocessing Organisation of Japan will be funded by the country's power utilities to cover the cost of the reprocessing work.

Russia has suspended its 2000 agreement with the USA to reduce their surplus weapons-grade plutonium.  The suspension was made via a presidential decree issued yesterday 'on the management and disposition of plutonium designated as no longer required for defence purposes and related cooperation in this area and the protocols to this agreement'.

The rest of nature is at odds with humans, and it is losing. From an equilibrium population of ten million to a projected ten billion by the year 2100, nature just can't sustain this sudden escalation in population. We need to alter this trend, and that's where energy comes in, writes Dhruv Dharamshi.

A global pioneer in all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, the UK wants its collaboration with international partners to continue apace. This was the message of the country's delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 60th General Conference held last week in Vienna. The delegation included specialists in nuclear education, research, design, fuel, policy, law and finance.

Rolls-Royce will in the "coming weeks" announce the consortium it has formed to launch a small modular reactor in the UK, a spokesman for the British company told World Nuclear News today. The consortium could provide a £100 billion ($127 billion) boost to the UK economy because the companies involved are either UK-owned or have a strong UK presence, the spokesman added.

Small modular reactors could be operating in the UK by 2030 if action is taken to create investor confidence through development of a suitable policy framework, according to a new report by the Energy Technologies Institute.

Nuclear energy is relevant to "almost all" of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted last year by the United Nations General Assembly, World Nuclear Association Director General Agneta Rising said today. Rising spoke during the Scientific Forum of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 60th General Conference being held this week in Vienna.

The International Atomic Energy Agency projects continued growth in nuclear electricity generating capacity to 2030, although at a slower pace than previously anticipated. The Agency highlights nuclear energy's role in meeting global climate and sustainable development goals.

In the five-and-a-half years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, "steady progress" is being made in the decommissioning process and contaminated water management at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Hirotaka Ishihara, state minister of the cabinet office of Japan, told the International Atomic Energy Agency's 60th General Conference yesterday. Decontamination and environmental remediation are "moving forward" and the evacuation zones are "growing smaller", Ishihara said.

The impartiality of the International Atomic Energy Agency was "indispensable" to the high-level political agreement reached last year on Iran's nuclear-related activities, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told delegates at the Agency's 60th General Conference in Vienna yesterday.