French Orano has signed a contract with Japan's Nuclear Fuel Industries for the fabrication of 32 MOX fuel assemblies for the Takahama 3 and 4 reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Company. Mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, is nuclear fuel made from reprocessed plutonium and uranium.

Orano has won a contract to dismantle the walls and structure of two former used fuel interim storage pools at Marcoule in France. Under the contract, awarded by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, the company will use a 12-tonne robot in one of the biggest such projects carried out in the country.

Spanish manufacturer Equipos Nucleares SA has completed the installation of three heat exchangers for the primary circuit of the Jules Horowitz Reactor, under construction at Cadarache in southern France. Once in operation, the reactor will be used for testing of materials and fuels for current and future nuclear reactor designs.

France's Framatome has been awarded a contract by the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) to support research that will inform the development of new materials to be used in the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, a major upgrade to the existing Large Hadron Collider.

Spanish manufacturer Equipos Nucleares SA (ENSA) has shipped two replacement steam generators to France, completing an order received at the end of 2012 from Framatome for three such components for use in 900 MWe-class pressurised water reactors. It was not disclosed at which plant the steam generators are to be installed.

France's EDF has presented a plan - referred to as excell - that aims to drive the country's nuclear industry to achieve "the highest standards of craftsmanship, quality and excellence". The plan will be launched next year, with EUR100 million (USD112 million) earmarked for 2020-2021.

France's Orano will supply a second depleted uranium hexafluoride defluorination plant to TVEL's JSC Electrochemical Plant in Zelenogorsk in Russia's Krasnoyarsk Region under a EUR40 million (USD44 million) contract awarded by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom. The first facility has been in operation at the site for ten years.

A joint venture for the decommissioning of reactors that use graphite technology has been established by France's EDF and Veolia. Graphitech will seek contracts for assisting in the dismantling of such reactors in France, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Spain and the UK.

An agreement to cooperate on the development of fast neutron reactors has been signed between Framatome and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Mitsubishi FBR Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The partners have previously collaborated on the Astrid project.

Orano has formally established a joint venture company with Uzbekistan's State Committee on Geological and Mineral Resources. The new company, Nurlikum Mining, will conduct mineral exploration and mining activities in the Central Asian country.

A shipment of samples of plutonium oxide is en route from the UK to a laboratory at Orano's Melox plant in southern France. The samples will be used to determine if the plutonium can be used in the production of mixed-oxide fuel.

EDF has temporarily suspended operation of three units at its Cruas-Meysse nuclear power plant to assess the reactors following a magnitude 4.9 earthquake yesterday in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. No damage has been found at any nuclear facilities in the area.