The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected projects to develop a pebble bed reactor and a molten chloride fast reactor to receive multi-year cost-share funding worth up to a total of $80 million.

A US House of Representatives committee has approved a bipartisan bill to support federal research and development (R&D) and stimulate private investment in advanced nuclear reactor technologies. The approval came as President Barack Obama said the country must move away from "dirty energy".

A team led by Battelle Memorial Institute has been selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to drill a 16,000 feet (4880 metre) test borehole into a crystalline basement rock formation in North Dakota as part of studies into the feasibility of using boreholes for nuclear waste disposal.

Centrus Energy Corp has reached agreement with Russian uranium enrichment company Techsnabexport (Tenex) to modify the terms of the long-term supply contract they signed in 2011 and to extend their contractual relationship until 2026.

US nuclear energy programs, including small modular reactors and the development of new advanced reactors, are to receive $960 million under an appropriations act signed into law by President Barack Obama.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is preparing guidance documents on licence renewal applications to extend reactor operating lives beyond 60 years. The regulator has also approved its sixth licence renewal for a dry cask storage facility for used fuel, at the Prairie Island plant.

Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee has announced plans to start transferring used nuclear fuel from the shut-down Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant from wet to dry storage in 2017, two years earlier than originally planned.

The first of three containment vessel rings has been lowered into place at Vogtle unit 4, Georgia Power has announced.

Entergy can continue to operate Indian Point 3 while it seeks licence renewal, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has told the company. The plant's initial 40-year licence had been due to expire on 12 December.

The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio can operate until 2037 after the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the reactor's operating licence for a further 20 years.

Tennessee Valley Authority workers began loading the first of 193 nuclear fuel assemblies into Watts Bar unit 2 on 5 December.

A group led by Virginia Uranium Inc yesterday filed a second lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Virginia's moratorium on uranium mining. A suit filed by the same plaintiffs earlier this year is still ongoing.