The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) announced today it plans to close its mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant at Sellafield “at the earliest practical opportunity” after assessing its “risk profile” in the light of the accident at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan.
The operator of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan says it has detected hot spots with the highest confirmed indoor level of radioactivity at the facility since the March 2011 accident.
An independent organisation should be set up to manage the US’s spent nuclear fuel programme and “prompt efforts” should be made to develop one or more geologic disposal facilities, according to a draft report by the Obama administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.
Spain’s nuclear regulator has approved a 10-year operating licence extension for the two-unit Ascó nuclear power plant in Catalonia, northeast Spain, for the period 2011-2021.
Chubu Electric Power Company is to spend 100 billion yen (about 1.3 billion US dollars, 900 million euro) installing tsunami defences at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture on Japan’s southern coast.
