The project to construct an underground radioactive waste repository in France has achieved "satisfactory technical maturity", the country's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety has said. However, it identified a number of issues that could potentially impact the design concept and timeline for the project.

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.

EDF Energy last month marked the completion of its first used fuel loading campaign into the new dry fuel store at its Sizewell B pressurised water reactor. It is the first dry used fuel storage facility in the UK.

Areva NP is to supply advanced fuel to four different nuclear facilities from 2020 under recently signed contracts worth $560 million. The contracts involve the company's Atrium 11 boiling water reactor and Gaia and HTP pressurised water reactor fuel designs.

Rosatom's deputy director-general for international business has described the World Nuclear Association's aim to add 1000 GWe of new capacity by 2050 as fully achievable and "perhaps modest". Kirill Komarov spoke to World Nuclear News during the AtomExpo conference and exhibition held last week in Moscow.

All the fuel element debris waste at the UK's Bradwell nuclear power plant has now been treated to reduce the radiological risk at the site, Magnox Ltd announced yesterday. Removal of the waste is an important step towards Bradwell's planned closure, it said.

More cooperation agreements and contracts have been signed by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and its subsidiaries during the IX AtomExpo International Forum it is hosting this week in Moscow. The latest agreements, with Asian and European companies, cover collaboration in a wide range of nuclear-related areas and beyond.

Rosatom and its subsidiaries yesterday signed agreements with a number of governments, companies and universities during the IX AtomExpo International Forum it is hosting this week in Moscow.

The process of loading fuel into unit 4 of the Fuqing nuclear power plant in China's Fujian province has begun, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced today. The unit is expected to start up later this year.

Westinghouse Electric Company yesterday announced the formal launch of its "accident-tolerant fuel solution", EnCore Fuel, during the company's Fuel Users' Group Meeting. EnCore Fuel is intended to offer "design-basis-altering safety, greater uranium efficiency and estimated economic benefits up to hundreds of millions of dollars" to Westinghouse's nuclear fuel customers.

International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Yukiya Amano yesterday updated the agency's board of governors on recent developments including the IAEA's storage facility for low-enriched uranium - known as the LEU Bank - which will be inaugurated on 29 August and should receive its first uranium in 2018.

Germany's tax on nuclear fuel is "unconstitutional and void", the country's highest court has ruled. German utilities may stand to be reimbursed some €6.3 billion ($7.1 billion) they paid between 2011 and 2016 as a result of the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling.