Cold testing - one of the first stages of the commissioning process - has been completed at the new Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility for units 1 and 2 of the shut-down Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania. The work started in January and was completed on 16 June, the plant announced yesterday.

France's Areva today presented plans for the sale of a majority stake of its reactor business to EDF and a restructuring through the creation of a new company focused on the nuclear fuel cycle. The process is expected to be completed next year.

In preparation for the installation of a fuel removal machine and a protective cover over unit 3 of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, workers have carried out a practice run of installing roof modules onto the base of the fuel handling machine.

Spain's nuclear regulator has approved the renewal for a further ten years of the operating licence for Enusa's Juzbado nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Salamanca.

The IAEA Low Enriched Uranium Storage Facility - or 'bank' - is scheduled to be ready for operations by September 2017, following the conclusion of a partnership agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Kazakhstan this week.

The McClean Lake uranium mill in northern Saskatchewan has obtained authorization from the Canadian nuclear regulator almost to double its annual production.

The loading of fuel into the core of the second unit at the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in China's Guangxi province has been completed. The unit is expected to start up later this year.

Global Nuclear Fuel Americas (GNF-A) and Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL have agreed to work together to introduce Russian-designed pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel into the USA.

Construction has been completed of China's first production line for the manufacture of fuel for AP1000 reactors. The new production line is to make two sets of dummy assemblies ahead of full production.

Fuel loading operations are under way at the second unit of the Changjiang nuclear power plant, under construction on China's southern island province of Hainan. The reactor is expected to begin operating later this year.

South Australia's Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle has delivered its final report, recommending that the government should pursue the establishment of storage and disposal facilities for multi-national used nuclear fuel and intermediate-level waste. The announcement has been greeted as a fundamental change in the global nuclear waste discourse.

Westinghouse Electric Company has announced the expansion of its nuclear fuel factory in Västerås, Sweden. The US-based firm, which is majority-owned by Japan's Toshiba, said the expansion is a response to growing demand for nuclear fuel supply diversification for VVER-1000 reactors in Europe.