The process of removing all 566 fuel assemblies from the storage pool of unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was completed yesterday, Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced. Fuel assemblies have already been removed from the pool at unit 4, but such work has yet to start at units 1 and 2.

​Finnish radioactive waste management company Posiva Oy has announced  that work to excavate a final disposal tunnel has started at the Onkalo underground characterisation facility near Olkiluoto. The tunnel is for the 'joint functional test', which involves small-scale final disposal under actual conditions, and is part of commissioning the geological repository. The joint functional test can be used to demonstrate that the processes and procedures related to final disposal are in order and, only then, can the disposal facility be granted an operating licence.

A revised mixed oxide fuel utilisation plan, based on the latest operational plan for the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and the MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant, has been released by Japan's Federation of Electric Power Companies. While only four Japanese reactors have so far been restarted using MOX fuel, FEPC envisages at least 12 units running on the fuel by FY2030. FEPC represents the 11 power companies, comprising nine utilities (excluding Okinawa Electric Power), Japan Atomic Power Company and the Electric Power Development Company (J-Power).

The US Department of Energy has been given approval by the Association of American Railroads to begin building and testing the Fortis specialised railcar for the transportation of used nuclear fuel. Fortis is one of two railcars being developed by DOE and could be operational within the next five years.

Orano NPS has found no corrosion concerns or precursor indications of stress corrosion cracking in 20-year-old stainless steel canisters in use at three US dry storage facilities for used nuclear fuel. Regulatory inspections of the canisters, all of which were loaded into their horizontal, above-ground NUHOMS storage modules more than 20 years ago, were carried out as part of an ageing management programme to verify the NUHOMS system is performing as designed.

There are no fundamental geologic limitations to disposing of radioactive waste in deep horizontal boreholes in Estonia, a study conducted by US nuclear waste disposal company Deep Isolation on behalf of Fermi Energia has concluded. Such a repository could be used for the disposal of used fuel from small modular reactors proposed for deployment by the Estonian company. Fermi Energia is the first European company to contract with Deep Isolation on a preliminary geologic study to manage advanced reactor waste.

A list of 67 potential sites for a radioactive waste storage facility has been published by Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA, the Italian state-owned company responsible for dismantling the country's nuclear power plants. The publication of the list on 5 January, announced in five national newspapers, started a period of public consultation.

Sweden's Studsvik has signed a contract worth SEK134 million (USD16 million) with Norway's Institute for Energy Technology for loading equipment, transport, handling equipment, examination and pre-treatment of nuclear fuel from the JEEP I research reactor at Kjeller. The fuel is currently held in an ageing storage facility at the site which does not meet current requirements.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories announced yesterday that it has completed all shipments of highly enriched uranium target residue material from Canada to the USA, bringing its TRM Repatriation Project to "a safe and successful conclusion". The culmination of nearly a decade of work and planning removes "a major nuclear liability" from the Chalk River Laboratories campus, CNL said.

Construction has been completed at the first of two sites in South Bruce, Ontario, ahead of the start of borehole drilling, Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organisation has announced. The boreholes are part of the organisation's investigations into the suitability of the site for a geologic repository for used nuclear fuel.

The European Repository Development Organisation was launched yesterday by Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, with other countries expected to join soon. It aims for member countries to work together to address the common challenges of safely managing long-lived radioactive wastes, including establishing shared multinational geological repositories.