Rosatom plans to open a regional centre in China "as early as" the middle of this year, the Russian state nuclear corporation announced yesterday. The announcement followed a decision taken by the company's committee on strategic partnerships, alliances, mergers and acquisitions.

Russia's national operator for radioactive waste management (NO RAO) has completed the design documents for an underground research laboratory to study the feasibility of final disposal of solid high-level radioactive waste (HLW) and solid medium-level long-lived wastes in the Nizhnekansky granitoid rock massif in Zheleznogorsk. The waste would be stored at a depth of 450-525 m.

Rosenergoatom plans to launch tender at the end of April to conduct a feasibility study for preparing nine reactors for decommissioning between 2016 and 2020. A subsidiary of Rosatom, Rosenergoatom operates all of Russia's civilian nuclear power plants.

The reactor pressure vessel has been installed at unit 2 of the Novovoronezh II nuclear power plant, Russian architect-engineer AtomEnergoProekt said today. Installation was carried out in two stages.

Russia and Myanmar have agreed to cooperate in nuclear energy, Rosatom said today, during the first of a two-day working visit to the Southeast Asian country by its deputy director general Nikolay Spassky.

Russia and Jordan have signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction and operation of the Middle Eastern country's first nuclear power plant. The document was signed yesterday by Sergey Kirienko, Rosatom director general and Khaled Toukan, chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission.

The third of four Russian-produced steam generators has now been delivered to the construction site of unit 3 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province.

Rusatom Overseas is aiming to sell desalination facilities integrated with large capacity nuclear power plants to Russia's export markets.

TVEL, Russia's nuclear fuel manufacturer, has signed another contract with the Indian Department of Atomic Energy for the supply of enriched uranium fuel pellets produced by TVEL subsidiary Elemash.

The Volgodonsk branch of AEM-Technologies has completed a "key stage" in the manufacture of a steam generator for unit 4 of the Rostov nuclear power plant, packing the 11,000 stainless steel heat exchange pipes.

Russian architect-engineer AtomEnergoProekt has started work to install the reactor pressure vessel of the second unit of the Novovoronezh II nuclear power plant.

Russia has introduced an automated system for the accounting and control of its radioactive substances and waste that encompasses more than 2000 organizations. The system follows an order by state nuclear corporation Rosatom, 113 subsidiaries of which account for 96% of the country's radioactive substances and waste.