The UK's 140-tonne stockpile of civil plutonium could be used as fuel for thermal reactors or combined with the country's 100,000-tonne supply of depleted, natural and low-enriched uranium to fuel new fast reactors - or disposed of as waste in a future geological disposal facility - says a new report from The University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute exploring the options.

Simulations have shown that a fuel rod designed by the company significantly outperforms traditional MOX fuel in consuming plutonium, and would be well-suited for consuming excess weapons-grade material.

The European Space Agency has awarded a contract to Belgian company Tractebel to evaluate the possibility of producing plutonium-238 for use in space exploration. Separately, US company X-energy, working as part of a General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems team, is to develop key fuel fabrication processes in support of a first-of-a-kind rocket powered by nuclear thermal propulsion under a contract awarded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

A USD600 million settlement reached by the State of South Carolina and the US Administration has brought to an end six years of litigation concerning 9.5 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium at the Savannah River Site. Under the terms of the settlement, the US Department of Energy is now obligated to remove the material by 2037.

The US Department of Energy has delivered the nuclear power system for the Perseverance rover for NASA's Mars 2020 mission which is due to launch next month. The Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator was fuelled, built and tested by DOE's national laboratories.

A shipment of samples of plutonium oxide is en route from the UK to a laboratory at Orano's Melox plant in southern France. The samples will be used to determine if the plutonium can be used in the production of mixed-oxide fuel.

The control room for the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Facility at the US Department of Energy's Hanford site in Washington State has been commissioned. The facility is one of four major facilities that together will form the Waste Treatment and Immobilisation Plant, which will process and stabilize radioactive and chemical waste stored at the Hanford Site.

Work has started on a five-year GBP1 billion (USD1.21 billion) programme to address an identified degradation risk in a small proportion of plutonium canisters stored at Sellafield in northwest England and dating from about 50 years ago. The start has been announced with the opening and repackaging of one such can for the first time.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a request by CB&I Areva MOX Services to terminate the construction authorisation for the partially built mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at Savannah River in South Carolina.