The Bochvar Institute has developed a fuel rod design based on nitride uranium-plutonium fuel for the BREST-OD-300 fast neutron reactor. At the same time, Rosatom’s nuclear fuel division is developing second-generation fuel rods for the BREST-OD-300 with a higher burnout level, which will be used when MNUP fabrication will shift to the re-fabrication stage. This means that irradiated fuel of the first load after irradiation and reprocessing will be used for fresh fuel fabrication. Meanwhile, Rosatom has launched a tender to study the pyrochemical processing of used nuclear fuel from fast neutron reactors.

The process of removing all 566 fuel assemblies from the storage pool of unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was completed yesterday, Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced. Fuel assemblies have already been removed from the pool at unit 4, but such work has yet to start at units 1 and 2.

A revised mixed oxide fuel utilisation plan, based on the latest operational plan for the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and the MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant, has been released by Japan's Federation of Electric Power Companies. While only four Japanese reactors have so far been restarted using MOX fuel, FEPC envisages at least 12 units running on the fuel by FY2030. FEPC represents the 11 power companies, comprising nine utilities (excluding Okinawa Electric Power), Japan Atomic Power Company and the Electric Power Development Company (J-Power).

Unit 4 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant, Russia's BN-800 reactor, has been connected to the grid and resumed operations upon completion of scheduled maintenance. For the first time the refuelling has been carried out with uranium-plutonium fuel only.

Czech scientists have received a US patent for their discovery that a polycrystalline-diamond coating can significantly protect fuel rods against corrosion during both normal reactor operation and accidents. Researchers from the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics of the Czech Technical University and the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic obtained an EU patent for the technology in April last year.

Partially used irradiated fuel from the Finnish Reactor 1 in Espoo, Finland, has been transported to the USA for use in a TRIGA Mark I research reactor operated by the US Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado. Dismantling of the Finnish reactor, which was shut down in 2015, is scheduled to begin at the end of 2022.

Honeywell has said it intends to re-open the USA's only domestic uranium conversion facility,
the Metropolis Works plant, in Metropolis, Illinois. Preparations for a 2023 restart will begin this year.

A VVER-1000 fuel licensing agreement between Westinghouse Electric Company and Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant has been described as a major step forward in Bulgaria's energy supply diversification. The agreement covers the development of safety analyses for the licensing and implementation of alternative nuclear fuel for Kozloduy unit 5.

Lead assemblies of Framatome's GAIA Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel have completed their first 18-month fuel cycle at a US nuclear power plant. This is the first time a full-length EATF concept with both pellets and cladding has completed a fuel cycle in a reactor.

Sweden's Studsvik has signed a contract worth SEK134 million (USD16 million) with Norway's Institute for Energy Technology for loading equipment, transport, handling equipment, examination and pre-treatment of nuclear fuel from the JEEP I research reactor at Kjeller. The fuel is currently held in an ageing storage facility at the site which does not meet current requirements.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories announced yesterday that it has completed all shipments of highly enriched uranium target residue material from Canada to the USA, bringing its TRM Repatriation Project to "a safe and successful conclusion". The culmination of nearly a decade of work and planning removes "a major nuclear liability" from the Chalk River Laboratories campus, CNL said.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review a topical report on Westinghouse Advanced Doped Pellet Technology Fuel, which the company has said is a major achievement for the advanced fuel portfolio it is developing as part of its EnCore fuel programme.