Russia's Atomproekt has completed the draft design and working documents for a demonstration unit to separate tritium from contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Construction of the facility is expected to start early next year.

Mayak processing plant has signed a cooperation agreement with the Russian nuclear industry's self-regulatory organization to help it "ensure high standards of construction" at its nuclear facilities, they said in a joint statement yesterday.

Russia's reactor design subsidiary Atomproekt has reported lower earnings and net profit than expected in its first year of operations following consolidation with other Rosatom subsidiaries.

Russia expects to increase its share of the global market in products for the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle by 10% in the next 15 years, thanks to the integrated nature of Rosatom's subsidiaries, according to the head of Techsnabexport (Tenex).

Russia has signed the ten-year extension to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Framework Agreement for International Collaboration on Research and Development of Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems .

Fortum's future participation in the Hanhikivi nuclear power plant project remains unclear as the Finnish electricity producer's talks with Rosatom and Gazprom Energo on restructuring Russia's territorial generating company TGC-1 have yet to reach agreement.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is considering the option of China as a transit route for low-enriched uranium to the planned international fuel bank in Kazakhstan, a Kazakh government official has told local journalists.

Ukraine is preparing the legal document required to cancel its contract with Russia concerning the completion of two units at the Khmelnitski nuclear power plant. The move was announced yesterday by Svetlana Kulchitskaya, deputy head of the atomic energy and nuclear industry department of the Ministry of Energy and Coal.

The International Uranium Enrichment Centre in Angarsk, Russia will serve as a reference point for similar regional International Atomic Energy Agency-sponsored fuel 'banks', the agency's director general, Yukiya Amano, said last week. He said the IAEA may one day revisit a proposal to set up an international centre for the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel.

Rosgeologia, the Russian state-run geological exploration services company, last week signed a series of agreements aimed at expanding its operations. The agreements were signed on 19 June by Rosgeologia CEO Roman Panov and officials from Rosatom, VTB Bank, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the Russian Energy Ministry, the Murmansk region, the Russian State Geological Prospecting University and the Russian Academy of Sciences' institute for the integrated development of subsoil, during the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum last week.

Russia and Saudi Arabia yesterday signed an agreement to cooperate in the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The document was signed by Rosatom director general Sergey Kirienko and the president of the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy Hashim Abdullah Yamani.

The first batch of steam generators for unit 2 of the Leningrad Phase II nuclear power plant has been delivered to the construction site, Russian nuclear power plant operator Rosenergoatom said on 17 June.