Two ships carrying mixed oxide (MOX) fuel yesterday departed from the French port of Cherbourg en route to Japan. It is the sixth such shipment of MOX fuel from Europe to Japan.

Areva has completed the clean-up and dismantling of facilities at the former mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plant at Cadarache, in southern France. The company described the project as "one of the largest dismantling projects in the world".

Japan Electric Power Development Corp has announced a further two-year delay in the construction of additional safety measures at unit 1 of the Ohma nuclear power plant, being built in Japan's Aomori prefecture. Construction of the unit is now expected to be completed in late 2023 or early 2024.

France's Areva has started fabrication of 16 mixed-oxide fuel assemblies for use in unit 4 of the Takahama nuclear power plant, Kansai Electric Power Company announced on 30 August. Although the unit is one of five Japanese reactors to have been restarted, a court injunction has suspended its operation.

A Russian government decree published yesterday indicates the country plans to construct 11 new nuclear power reactors by 2030 - including two BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors. The document, which covers "territorial planning for energy" for the period, also identifies six points for radioactive waste disposal.

Russia has started pilot testing of its new type of nuclear fuel, REMIX, at unit 3 of the Balakovo nuclear power plant. Rosenergoatom said on 1 July the unit is being loaded with a number of fuel elements containing the fuel, and that the use of REMIX "will increase the efficiency of uranium use in the nuclear industry".

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has outlined its strategic plans for reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation and terrorism, including changes to the USA's program to dispose of surplus military plutonium.

US President Barack Obama wants to scrap the Department of Energy's project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina that was designed to take plutonium no longer needed for nuclear weapons and turn it into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.

Russia is making progress with its plan to build the BREST-OD-300 reactor - part of its 'Proryv', or Breakthrough, project that aims to develop fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle. BREST is the Russian acronym for 'fast reactor with lead coolant'.

NuScale Power's small modular reactor has the capability of using mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel in addition to conventional light water reactor fuel, a study by the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has confirmed.

Completion of Japan's Rokkasho reprocessing plant and mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel factory have been postponed by around two years as work continues to comply with new safety requirements.

Rosenergoatom announced today that unit 4 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in the Sverdlovsk district of Russia had for the third time been brought to the minimum controlled power level. The country's nuclear power plant operator said the BN-800 fast neutron reactor had achieved this at 10.10pm local time yesterday.