US Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management contractors have used new techniques, including the use of a diamond wire saw, in a collaborative effort to demolish a legacy research reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory.

France's Orano Group recently signed a cooperation agreement with Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to strengthen their cooperation on the decommissioning of nuclear facilities at the Fukushima Daiichi site.

Ownership of Italy's Ispra-1 research reactor has officially been transferred to Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA (Sogin), the state-owned company responsible for dismantling the country's nuclear power plants. Decommissioning of the reactor, which ceased operation in 1973, will begin once Sogin's application has been approved.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has marked the tenth anniversary of its Network on Environmental Remediation and Management (ENVIRONET) initiative by showcasing projects it has supported, lessons learned and plans to ensure future activities inside and outside the fuel cycle benefit from an integrated approach to remediation.

French utility EDF has applied to shut down Fessenheim unit 1 on 22 February and unit 2 on 30 June next year. The announcement confirms last week's statement from Secretary of State for Ecological and Solidarity Transition Emmanuelle Wargon that France's oldest nuclear power plant would close by mid-2020.

The dismantling and decommissioning business has a promising part to play in the future of the nuclear power industry as it now demonstrates to the public that a nuclear asset can be permanently withdrawn from service in a safe, sustainable, timely and cost-effective manner, writes Philippe Knoche, CEO of Orano.

Ahead of its decommissioning, the low-enriched uranium fuel has been removed from the Saskatchewan Research Council's Slowpoke-2 research reactor in Saskatoon and transported to the USA.

The first containers of used nuclear fuel assemblies removed from the Lepse floating technical base at the Nerpa shipyard have been transported to Murmansk, Russia. The fuel is being removed under a programme managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and will be sent to Mayak for reprocessing.

Holtec International has announced completion of the pre-commissioning programme, or 'cold tests', for the Chernobyl Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility in Ukraine. It is the world's largest dry storage installation.

The final used nuclear fuel has been shipped from the Wylfa site on Anglesey, in Wales, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said today. The milestone marks the end of a programme to defuel all of the country's Magnox sites.

Japanese ministries and other organisations are working together - with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency - to deliver the ultimate decontamination and decommissioning of the former Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Progress is being made to remove all used fuel and debris from units 1-3, while the challenge of removing large volumes of treated water stored at the site is being addressed, speakers told a side event at the 63rd IAEA General Conference.

Work has been completed to remove fuel from the world's first commercial nuclear power plant at Calder Hall in west Cumbria, in northwest England. Opened on 17 October 1956, Calder Hall was in operation for 47 years, until 2003, and the defueling operation began in 2011.