Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee has announced plans to start transferring used nuclear fuel from the shut-down Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant from wet to dry storage in 2017, two years earlier than originally planned.

The first batch of unused fuel for the Prototype Fast Reactor at the UK's Dounreay site has been transported to Sellafield as part of the site's defuelling program.

The first phase of a project to repatriate Australian radioactive waste has been completed, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (Ansto) confirmed yesterday.

The Swedish nuclear regulator has recommended that the operators of the four reactors that will shut earlier than planned - Oskarshamn units 1 and 2 and Ringhals 1 and 2 - should pay higher waste fees to ensure the country's nuclear waste fund is sufficient.

The second phase of a large-scale project to remediate the former Gunnar uranium mine in Saskatchewan can go ahead after Canadian nuclear regulators decided to allow the Saskatchewan Research Council to proceed with tailings remediation.

Areva has won a contract worth "tens of millions" of Euros to dismantle the vessel internals of EDF's Superphénix fast neutron reactor at Creys-Malville in France.

SSE ChNPP said yesterday that the first 10 canisters for the dry interim fuel storage facility (ISF-2) had been delivered to the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. ISF2 is in the final construction stage under a contract Ukraine signed with US-based Holtec International in 2007. To be completed this year, it will be used to store all the used fuel on the site for at least 100 years.

The planned construction of a new high-level waste storage facility at the UK's Dounreay site is progressing with the award of three contracts. The £22 million ($33 million) facility will be an extension to the existing Dounreay Cementation Plant.

A demonstration plant to vitrify radioactive waste has completed initial commissioning prior to its deployment at the UK's Sellafield site. The full-scale GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification (ICV) plant is a collaboration between the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and US radioactive waste management specialist Kurion.

Forsmark is the best site for Sweden to dispose of used nuclear fuel, said the country's safety regulator, endorsing the site selection process which was based on volunteering municipalities.

The Australian government has shortlisted six sites for further evaluation and public consultation for a national radioactive waste management facility. The final site selection is expected to be made next year.

Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy has concluded cooperative agreements with both the UK's Cavendish Nuclear Limited and France's Areva NC concerning boiling water reactor decommissioning in Japan.