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Tokyo Electric Power Company has completed a five-day investigation of the primary containment vessel (PCV) of the damaged unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant using a robot. The results of the survey will help Tepco determine the location of fuel debris within the vessel.

Areva NP has recently been awarded three patents for innovations in the fuel operation as well as anticorrosion and maintenance tooling fields. The patents were for innovations developed by Areva employees in the USA.

The first cask containing used nuclear fuel from the Sizewell B pressurised water reactor has been placed within the unit's new dry fuel store. The milestone marks the first use of dry used fuel storage technology in the UK.

The Euratom Supply Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the European Union, has approved Berkeley Energia's offtake agreement for the sale of the first production from its Salamanca uranium mine under development in Spain. The mine is expected to enter production in late 2018.

The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety InspectorateÌýhas called for the systematic management of the aging of containers in the country's interim radioactive waste storage facilities. The requirement follows the completion of a study into container aging and fuel handling in such facilities.

Tokyo Electric Power CompanyÌýis preparing to insert a Hitachi-developed robot into the primary containment vessel of the damaged unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Last month, a Toshiba-developed robot was used to survey the vessel of unit 2.

Areva has completed the clean-up and dismantling of facilities at the former mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plant at Cadarache, in southern France. The company described the project as "one of the largest dismantling projects in the world".

Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan'sÌýfuel fabrication plant in Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture meets new regulatory standards, the country's nuclear regulator has concluded. It becomes the first fuel cycle facility to be confirmed to meet the revised safety standards, introduced in December 2013.

The International Atomic Energy AgencyÌýwill look to strengthen its activities to bolster nuclear safety around the world, the agency's director-general Yukiya Amano told its board of governors yesterday. He also informed the board of progress in the IAEA's other work.

The UK's nuclear industry will need more than two years of Brexit negotiations to prepare for a departure from the European Atomic Energy Community, experts told members of parliament last week. The country's numerous arrangements with European Union member states would each need to be replicated and this could take a decade, they said.

Holtec International has won a contract for the turnkey supply of a dry cask storage facility at the Krško nuclear power plant in Slovenia. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

France's Areva and China National Nuclear CorporationÌýhave signed a framework agreement for industrial and commercial cooperation in the nuclear fuel cycle.