The used fuel covered by a contract Areva signed last month with Dutch utility EPZ to supply three "next-generation" TN 17 MAX casks contains 96% of valuable energy materials that can be recycled through treatment-recycling operations, Areva spokesperson Caroline Sagne told World Nuclear News today.

Vietnamese officials have chosen Rosatom's AES-2006 design for the country's first nuclear power plant at Ninh Thuan, increasing the planned capacity of the four unit plant by about 800 MWe. A second plant should follow based on a partnership with Japan.

Areva and Westinghouse are to supply fuel for units 1 and 2, respectively, of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant between 2016 and 2019 under renewed contracts with Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj.

The new joint venture agreement for Advanced Fuel CANDU Reactor development is a clear step towards building new CANDU units, even if thorium takes a back seat to recycling uranium, writes Ian Hore-Lacy, Senior Research Analyst with the World Nuclear Association.

UPDATED Russia has agreed to build up to eight new nuclear power reactor units in Iran - four at Bushehr and four at another, yet to be determined site.

Westinghouse has filed an application with the South African high court charging Eskom with contempt of court over the utility's failure to supply documentation under a previous court order.

Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has signed a contract with a South Korean consortium to upgrade its research reactor.

Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom and Czech engineering company Škoda JS have signed a memorandum of cooperation and an agreement on confidentiality.

UPDATED The Areva-Siemens consortium supplying the first-of-a-kind Olkiluoto 3 EPR has updated its arbitration claim against Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to €3.4 billion ($4.3 billion).

Work to deactivate the former Paducah gaseous diffusion enrichment plant can begin in earnest after Centrus Energy subsidiary United States Enrichment Corporation formally handed back full control of the Kentucky complex to the US Department of Energy (DoE).

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) has revised its estimated costs and losses relating to the continued delay in completion of the first-of-a-kind EPR at Olkiluoto.

South Africa is moving towards signing framework agreements with China and Japan and is inviting would-be reactor vendor countries to participate in workshops to showcase their offerings as it moves through the pre-procurement phase of its nuclear new-build plans.