Only low-level radioactive waste will be disposed of in the planned Near Surface Disposal Facility at Chalk River, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has announced. CNL made the decision not to include intermediate-level waste after reviewing comments and concerns expressed during a public comment period on the facility's draft Environmental Impact Statement.

A contract to recover and encapsulate low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste at the Marcoule nuclear research site has been awarded to Areva Projets SAS and the Wood Group by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. The contract covers some 50 tonnes of waste resulting from the treatment of fuels used in former plutonium-producing reactors there.

Parties to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management - known as the Joint Convention - have submitted national reports detailing the steps they are taking to meet their commitments under the convention ahead of next year's review meeting. Sweden's submission reflects a particularly intensive licensing phase for its used fuel management programme.

The mining of salt from the US Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is expected to resume in the coming weeks. Mining of Panel 8 was halted in 2014 following separate fire and radiological events that suspended waste emplacement operations at the facility.

Recent International Atomic Energy Agency missions have found commitment to safety by France's nuclear safety regulator and the operator of a Norwegian research reactor. The agency, which last week concluded a nuclear security advisory mission to Germany, also said Poland is committed to the safe management of radioactive waste.

A robot has been sent into Sellafield's most hazardous nuclear waste store for the first time. The Avexis will help dislodge and clear waste from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo, Sellafield Sites announced today.

Two Saab Seaeye Tiger robotic vehicles are to work in the radioactive ponds at the Sellafield nuclear site in the north-west of England. Saab Seaeye, an underwater e-robotics company, said on 2 October the vehicles' "proven thruster reliability is vitally important in a highly corrosive environment where maintenance intervention is hazardous to humans".

Russia's Federal Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety, Rosenergoatom and Mayak Production Association have completed the "hot tests" for TUK-141O casks for the transport of used nuclear fuel. The cask will replace the 13th series of transport containers and is licensed to move used fuel assemblies from VVER-1000 reactors.

Some of the fuel in the damaged unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant has melted and dropped into the primary containment vessel, initial results from using a muon detection system indicate. Part of the fuel, however, is believed to remain in the reactor pressure vessel.

Areva TN has launched the NUHOMS Matrix advanced used nuclear fuel storage overpack, which it says "addresses the challenges faced by its customers in storing used fuel safely, efficiently and competitively". The system can reduce the footprint of on-site interim fuel storage facilities by almost 50%, the company says.

Following two years of planning, demolition of the West Valley Demonstration Project vitrification facility in New York State began last week. The work is scheduled to be completed in eight months.

Member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have celebrated the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Joint Convention on Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Safety. The convention has contributed to a significant level of safety in the management of used fuel and radioactive waste, said IAEA deputy director general Juan Carlos Lentijo.