A consortium led by Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract to examine the future decommissioning of the Iter fusion reactor, currently under construction at Cadarache in the south of France.

The University of Bristol, in England, has developed new technology that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the university has "grown a man-made diamond" that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The developers say the innovation could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life.

The process of sliding the arched structure into place to shield the damaged unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant started today, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said. London-based EBRD described the milestone at the plant in Ukraine as "one of the most ambitious projects in the history of engineering".

The decommissioning of the shut down Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will be significantly accelerated through its sale to dismantling and remediation firm NorthStar Group Services, plant owner Entergy announced yesterday.

EnergySolutions subsidiary ZionSolutions has successfully completed the sixth year of decommissioning work at the Zion nuclear power station with record setting performance, the company has announced. The project is on budget and ahead of schedule.

Divers are carrying out underwater work in the former cooling ponds at the Dungeness A nuclear power plant in a first for UK nuclear decommissioning. Magnox intends to roll out the technique, which brings safety and environmental benefits, to other decommissioning sites.

A proposal to change decommissioning rules in Japan could mean that operators will contribute to funds only during operation, and not, as previously, for a decade after final shutdown.

The German cabinet yesterday adopted a draft bill on financing the decommissioning of the country's nuclear power plants and management of its radioactive waste. The bill is based on the recommendation of an independent commission reviewing the financing of Germany's nuclear phase-out.

The "active phase" of construction work on a central used fuel storage facility at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is expected to start in March 2017, Oleksandr Rybchuk, general director of Atomprojectengineering said.

Finnish waste management company Posiva will share its experience and know-how of developing a repository for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste with the Czech Republic's Radioactive Waste Repository Authority through a four-year service contract.

The second and final shipment of high-level waste from the UK to Switzerland has been completed. The waste resulted from the reprocessing and recycling of used nuclear fuel from Swiss nuclear power plants at Sellafield.

Construction has been completed of the dividing walls between units 3 and 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, against which the New Safe Confinement over unit 4 will be placed. Completion of the new cover is scheduled for November 2017.