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Drums of radioactive sludge from Sellafield's Pile Fuel Storage Pond - the world's oldest nuclear storage pond - have been processed in the site's encapsulation plant for the first time. The waste is now ready for long-term disposal.

The shipment of transuranicÌýwastes from generator sites to the Waste Isolation Pilot PlantÌýin New Mexico is set to resume in April. The US Department of EnergyÌýexpects a total of 128 shipments to be made to WIPP over the next 12 months.

German power company EnBW has received approval from the Baden-Württemberg ministry of environment to decommission and dismantle unit 1 of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant. The company expects dismantling work to begin next month and to be completed within 10-15 years.

Mid-America Conversion Services - a joint venture of Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor - has received approval from the US Department of EnergyÌýto begin operation of its depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities.

Utility EDF has rejected a French parliamentary committee report on the technical and financial feasibility of decommissioning its nuclear power plants. The report claims the clean-up of French reactors will take longer, be more challenging and cost more than EDF anticipates.

The pouring of the concrete for the foundation plate marks a milestone in the construction of the Cemex cementation facility for liquid radioactive waste produced at Italy's Eurex pilot reprocessing facility.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has signed framework agreements with the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, a precondition for the implementation of projects under an EBRD fund to deal with the remediation of former uranium mines and processing plants.

Holtec International has unveiled a new "proto-prompt" decommissioning strategy, which the US company says could see the conversion of a nuclear power plant site toÌýgreenfieldÌýstatus within about five-and-a-half years after the plant isÌýshut down.

Waste emplacement has resumed at the US Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, nearly three years after activities were halted following a waste drum rupture in an underground storage panel at the New Mexico facility.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has submitted further information on its proposed deep geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level waste to Canadian regulators. The studies, carried out in response to a ministerial request, show that relocating the repositoryÌýfrom OPG's proposed site at Bruce to one of two alternative locations would increase environmental effects and costs.

Japan and the UK will expand their existing collaboration in civil nuclear activities - including decommissioning, research and development, and nuclear new build - through a memorandum of cooperation signed yesterday in Tokyo.

Radioactive sludge has been transferred out of the world's oldest nuclear fuel pond for the first time, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd announced yesterday. The project is being delivered ten years ahead of schedule and for half the expected cost, they said in a joint statement.