USEC is to wind up operations this month at the Paducah plant it leases from the US Department of Energy. The 1950s facility is the last remaining gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment plant in the world.

The Dutch government has confirmed its intention to sell its one-third stake in Urenco, clearing the way for the possible full privatization of the world's second-largest uranium enrichment company.

Decisions on the future of South Korea's fuel cycle have been put off for another two years. The country wants to recycle and reprocess used reactor fuel but requires American consent.

The British government will go ahead with a process to sell its stake in Urenco, subject to security concerns and the company's complex ownership structure.

Two more companies have registered their interest in operating the US Department of Energy's (DoE's) Paducah gaseous diffusion enrichment plant and utilising DoE's inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride.

GE-Hitachi subsidiary Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) has formalised a proposal to set up a laser uranium enrichment plant using SILEX technology at the US Department of Energy's Paducah enrichment site in Kentucky.

The first domestically-produced centrifuge has been successfully installed at a uranium enrichment plant at the Lanzhou Nuclear Fuel Complex, China National Nuclear Corporation announced. China has previously relied on Russian enrichment technology.

Responsibility for Britain's stake in Urenco has been moved between government departments in a measure that will help the country's work on a possible sale.

Urenco's Louisiana Energy Services (LES) has submitted a licence amendment request that would allow it to increase annual capacity at the Urenco USA (UUSA) centrifuge facility to 10 million SWU by 2020.

The US Department of Energy is in preliminary discussions with Global Laser Enrichment about establishing a laser enrichment facility at the site of the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant in Kentucky to enrich its stockpiles of high-assay depleted uranium tails.

CORRECTED: Alexey Grigoriev, general director of Russian uranium enrichment company Techsnabexport (Tenex) since 2007, has stepped down to pursue another post within the nuclear power industry. The move comes as plans are announced to incorporate Tenex into Rosatom's international business unit.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the first ever construction and operation licence for a full scale laser enrichment facility – opening the door to commercialisation of this new nuclear technology.