Shine Medical Isotopes yesterday broke ground on its first medical isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin. Commercial production of isotopes, including molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), is scheduled to begin in 2021.

Three Mile Island unit 1 will shut down by 30 September as no state-level policy solution can now be enacted in time to reverse the premature retirement of the Pennsylvania plant, Exelon Generation announced yesterday.

The US Department of Energy has announced a USD600 million investment in a new supercomputer, to be named Frontier. It said the machine would enable "extreme scale scientific endeavours" to lead to "breakthroughs in scientific discovery, energy assurance, economic competitiveness and national security."

Individual electrical components at Vogtle 3 are now permanently powered, Georgia Power announced yesterday. The completion of initial energisation represents a significant milestone as the US nuclear project moves from construction towards system operations.

The USA and UK have conducted a transfer of some 700 kg of high enriched uranium (HEU) from Dounreay to the USA. The engineering firm, Wood, created specialist facilities for the air shipment.

Framatome, the French fuel and technology company said "two full fuel assemblies" of its Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel would be loaded at Exelon's Calvert Cliffs plant in February 2021.

Kazatomprom's uranium production for the first quarter of 2019 was 4% down from the same period in 2018 as the Kazakh company continues with its plan to reduce production. Meanwhile, US uranium production for the quarter was 74% down from 2018.

CORRECTED - The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has said it will issue a direct final rule certifying the Korean-designed Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR-1400). The certification, valid for 15 years, will state that the NRC finds the design fully acceptable for deployment in the USA.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has joined the US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Exelon, which owns the Limerick, Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island nuclear power plants in the state, welcomed the move.

US small modular reactor developer NuScale Power has signed a memorandum of understanding with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction - part of South Korea's Doosan Group - for strategic cooperation to support deployment of the NuScale Power Module worldwide.

EnergySolutions is to decommission the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska - which was permanently shut down in October 2016 - under a contract signed yesterday with owner Omaha Public Power District.

US Senator John Barrasso has released a discussion draft of legislation that would reform the country's nuclear waste management policy to ensure the federal government's legal obligations to dispose of used nuclear fuel and high-level waste are fulfilled.