Routine transuranic waste handling processing and underground emplacement activities at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, suspended following the discovery of a misaligned waste container, resumed on 2 June.

SNC-Lavalin subsidiary SNC-Lavalin Nuclear (USA) Inc has signed a letter of agreement with Nuclear Development LLC to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services to complete construction of Bellefonte 1. Nuclear Development's acquisition of the Alabama facility is due to close later this year.

NuScale Power announced today that its small modular reactor can generate 20% more power than originally planned, according to advanced testing and modelling tools that helped the Oregon, USA-headquartered company identify "optimisation opportunities".

Ten projects have been selected to receive a total of up to USD24 million in funding under a new programme from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy initiative. The projects selected include a transportable gas-cooled reactor, and technology to support load-following, improve safety and reduce costs in advanced reactors.

US President Donald Trump has directed Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to take immediate action to stop the loss of "fuel-secure power facilities" from the country's power grid, including nuclear power plants that are facing premature retirement.

Japan's Toshiba Corporation is to withdraw from the project to construct two of its advanced boiling water reactors (ABWRs) as units 3 and 4 of the South Texas Project in the USA. The company said the project, which has failed to find investors, is no longer financially viable.

The US Department of Justice and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have submitted a statement to a court of appeal saying federal rules do not pre-empt Illinois' zero emission credit programme. The court is hearing an appeal against an earlier ruling that dismissed a lawsuit aimed at invalidating the programme, which provides financial support to Exelon's Quad Cities and Clinton nuclear power plants.

Governor Phil Murphy has signed legislation to establish a Zero Emissions Certificate programme that will enable New Jersey's nuclear power plants to continue operating by recognising and compensating them for their carbon-free attributes. The bill was one of several legislative initiatives signed by Murphy yesterday to advance the state's clean energy economy.

A new long-term contract between Global Nuclear Fuel and Entergy Nuclear will see Entergy become the first customer to take delivery of GNF3 advanced fuel in reload quantities.

The US Supreme Court is to consider whether federal law pre-empts Virginia's ban on uranium mining after finding in favour of a petition by Virginia Uranium, Inc against an earlier appeal court ruling. The court is expected to consider the question later this year.

Dominion Energy is to provide funding that could lead to commercialising the BWRX-300 small modular reactor, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy announced today. The 300 MWe reactor is derived from GEH's 1520 MWe Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor design.

US utility Dominion Energy has awarded Framatome a contract to provide steam generator services for its fleet of six nuclear power reactors. The inspection and maintenance work - scheduled to take place during outage over the next two years - will partly be carried out using robots.