The US Government Accountability Office has recommended regulators introduce additional security features after its investigators were able to use forged licences to acquire small quantities of radioactive material.

A new study published yesterday by the New Nuclear Watch Institute finds that the "supposed dependency concerns" associated with the host-vendor relationship in the nuclear energy sector are "historically and practically unfounded". The report - Energy Security in the Age of Net-Zero Ambitions and the System Value of Nuclear Power - focuses on the issue of energy security and the important contributions that nuclear power can make towards maintaining and strengthening it as energy systems decarbonise, both along the various transition pathways that energy systems have started upon and at their eventual low-carbon endpoint.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi plans to "recalibrate" the work of the Vienna-based organisation, he told a prominent think-tank in Washington DC. The IAEA will become more visible and present in its mission, bolder in its nuclear security efforts and more proactive in representing nuclear energy in the climate debate, he said.

Indian Minister of State Jitendra Singh confirmed to the country's parliament this week that a cyberattack discovered in September at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant had been limited to the plant's administrative network.

A new training course on protecting nuclear facilities against cyber-attacks has been launched by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A small amount of an explosive substance was discovered on a fork-lift truck at Vattenfall's Ringhals plant in Sweden yesterday. Police said there had been no mechanism for detonation and consequently no risk of explosion.

A Greenpeace stunt has seen a paraglider drop smoke bombs on the Bugey nuclear power plant in France. It comes before a televised debate between President Nicolas Sarkozy and election rival Francois Hollande.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has signed a partnership that will see it work with ARES to offer security simulation software to nuclear and other sites in the country.