Kansai Electric Power Company will receive a shipment of MOX fuel assemblies in 2020, according to a report in Asahi Shimbun. They would be used at Takahama 3 and 4, which are among the nine reactors operating in Japan. Mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, is nuclear fuel made from reprocessed plutonium and uranium.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a request by CB&I Areva MOX Services to terminate the construction authorisation for the partially built mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at Savannah River in South Carolina.
 

TVEL and CNLY have signed a contract for the supply of nuclear fuel for the CFR-600 sodium-cooled pool-type fast-neutron nuclear reactor under construction in Xiapu County, in China's Fujian province.

Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL has launched the batch production of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel assemblies for the BN-800 fast neutron reactor.

Orano has been contracted to carry out preparatory work for the transport of 731 used fuel assemblies from the Fugen experimental Advanced Thermal Reactor (ATR) in Japan to France for reprocessing.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has issued a contract termination notice to the consortium building the mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site.

US Energy Secretary Rick Perry has written to Congress informing it that he has effectively ended the project to construct a mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The facility, about 70% complete, was intended to dispose of 34 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium by turning it into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.

A Japanese court today rejected a lawsuit seeking to stop construction and subsequent operation of Japan Electric Power Development Corp's (J-Power's) Ohma nuclear power plant, being built in Aomori Prefecture.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) have both completed their investment of some EUR250 million (USD307 million) to acquire 5% stakes in Orano, the former Areva nuclear fuel cycle activities.

The irradiation of two fuel pins containing thorium-plutonium oxide pellets is under way at the Halden research reactor in Norway. Thor Energy - which is leading the consortium carrying out the research - said this is the start of the third phase of a five-year trial-operation of thorium-based nuclear fuels.

Cooperation on nuclear power technology is to be expanded between China General Nuclear and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission under an agreement signed yesterday in Beijing. New Areva and China National Nuclear Corporation have also agreed to work towards signing a contract for the construction of a used fuel processing and recycling facility in China.

A new nuclear fuel cycle providing acceptable and reliable back-end solutions will be essential to sustain dynamic growth in global nuclear energy, Liudmila Zalimskaya, general director of JSC Tenex, told the World Nuclear Association's Symposium in London last week. Proposed approaches centre on reprocessing and recycling of used fuel, allowing uranium and plutonium resources to be used to their fullest extent while reducing the amounts of waste for disposal.