The board of Boss Energy Limited has approved the final investment decision for the development of the Honeymoon in-situ leach uranium project in South Australia. The Perth-based company said it will now accelerate engineering, procurement and construction, with production set for the final quarter of 2023.

Australian uranium companies Deep Yellow and Vimy Resources have agreed to a merger by a Scheme of Arrangement, under which Deep Yellow will acquire 100% of Vimy's shares. The merger will bring together the two companies' complementary asset bases including the Mulga Rock uranium project in Western Australia and the Tumas project in Namibia.

A consignment of intermediate-level radioactive waste has been safely returned to Australia from the Sellafield plant in the UK.

Studies at Australian nuclear science and technology organisation ANSTO have confirmed that a crocodile that lived some 93 million years ago in what is now Central Queensland ate dinosaurs. Neutron and synchrotron instruments were used to reveal and reconstruct the crocodile's fossilised stomach contents.

The total cost to rehabilitate the Ranger project area is likely to be between AUD1.6 billion and AUD2.2 billion (USD1.1 billion-1.6 billion), according to preliminary findings from a reforecasting exercise by Energy Resources of Australia. The work is now expected to be completed between late 2027 and late 2028.

Cameco has requested an extension to state-level environmental approvals for the Yeelirrie project and remains committed to it, the Canadian company said. The government of Western Australia previously set a deadline of 20 January this year for the company to demonstrate "substantial commencement" of the project.

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has undertaken a review of safety and security performance at the Opal research reactor, saying its future plans are "very much anchored on high standards."

Vimy Resources Limited has announced the start of mining activities at Mulga Rock, where the excavation of a ramp at the Ambassador North pit is under way. The Government of Western Australia has confirmed "substantial commencement" of the project.

Napandee near Kimba in South Australia has been formally selected as the location of a national low and medium-level radioactive waste facility. Under the relevant legislation, the declaration today by Australia's Minister for Resources and Water Keith Pitt has the effect of the Commonwealth acquiring about 211 hectares of land for the purpose of hosting the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility.

Vimy Resources has begun a strategic review process at Mulga Rock in Western Australia after receiving unsolicited approaches from "several parties" interested in becoming involved in the uranium project. Vimy will continue working on its development of the project, where an early works programme is under way, in parallel with the strategic review.

The national secretary of the Australian Workers Union has called for the nation to reconsider its ban on civil nuclear energy and to place small modular reactors at the heart of its decarbonisation plans.

With Australia moving to decarbonise, it is time to seriously consider a role for advanced nuclear technologies like small modular reactors, the head of the Minerals Council of Australia said today.