The process of treating, cleaning and emptying the 14-metre-deep fuel element storage pool at the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant in Germany has been completed. It follows the emptying and cleaning of the reactor pool at the end of last year.

Orano USA has completed work to separate and pack the top third of the reactor vessel, with its embedded internal components, using its patented Optimized Segmentation process. The reactor vessel will be cut into three segments as the company carries out accelerated decommissioning of the plant.

Defuelling of the second of two shut-down RBMK reactors at the Leningrad nuclear power plant in Russia has now been completed, an important step in the process to decommission the units.

The first waste has been removed from the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, one of the oldest waste stores and one of the highest hazard facilities on the UK's Sellafield site.

Hydro-Québec has confirmed it is assessing the current state of the plant which closed in 2012, as it looks at options to increase its production of clean electricity.

Drone pilots have successfully completed two flight firsts on the UK's Sellafield site which are expected to lead the way to increased safety of employees during decommissioning. Sellafield has now become the first UK nuclear site to employ a drone equipped with a radiation monitor.

Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA, the Italian state-owned company responsible for decommissioning the country's nuclear power plants, has announced the launch of a tender for the dismantling of the reactor vessel and internals of the Garigliano nuclear power plant.

An International Atomic Energy Agency mission has said that Lithuania's process for selecting a site for its proposed deep geological repository for radioactive waste is in line international safety standards.

Public consultation and a round-table discussion involving a variety of organisations has concluded that the proposed decommissioning plans for Leningrad 1 and 2 meet Russian and International Atomic Energy Agency standards. The next stage is to finalise the materials before submitting them as part of the process of obtaining the necessary national licences and approvals.

Spanish decommissioning and waste management firm Enresa has assumed ownership of the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant from Nuclenor to undertake the first phase of its dismantling. A two-phase decommissioning strategy lasting about ten years is planned for the plant.

Southern Ohio Cleanup Company LLC - a joint venture led by Amentum with Fluor and Cavendish Nuclear USA - has been awarded a contract worth some USD5.87 billion by the US Department of Energy to decontaminate and decommission the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

Italy's Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA has awarded a contract worth EUR43 million (USD47 million) for the construction of the Finished Product Cementation Plant at the Itrec facility on the Rotondella site in the province of Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.