Russia and Algeria plan to meet for talks this week on the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in Algeria, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said in an interview with Algerian newspaper L'Expression that was published on 28 February. The Russian foreign ministry published a transcript of the interview on its website the same day.

The nuclear industry today stands at a critical juncture and it is time to reassess our approach to each other and the wider world if we are to make the most of our opportunities, writes Preston Swafford.

India has amended its atomic energy act to enable the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to form joint venture companies with other Indian public sector units (PSUs) in a move that will help the state-owned company to secure funding for new projects.

French utility EDF is calling for "rapid and radical reform" of Europe's electricity market structure to allow for future investments in new generating capacity. This is needed, it says, to "face up to current challenges of the energy transition and to consumers' expectations".

Westinghouse Electric has delivered the first batch of "upgraded" nuclear fuel assemblies to the Zaporozhe nuclear power plant in Ukraine, with fuel loading at unit 5 planned for May, pending regulatory approval.

Scientists using the UK's synchrotron science facility - Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, England - have presented their research into radioactive waste containment at the world's largest science conference - the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, held on 11-15 February in Washington DC. In a statement yesterday, Diamond Light Source Ltd said this work may help to inform the UK's policy on radioactive waste disposal.

The storage and disposal of used nuclear fuel from abroad can "deliver substantial economic benefits" to South Australia, the Royal Commission investigating the state's potential participation in the nuclear fuel cycle has tentatively found.

France's nuclear regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, will get additional oversight powers under a number of decrees published by the French government last week.

French utility EDF will need to spend some €100 billion ($113 billion) on upgrading its fleet of 58 nuclear power reactors by 2030, the country's state audit office has said. The upgrades are needed to meet new safety requirements and to extend the lives of the units beyond 40 years.

Russia's gross domestic product gains three roubles for every one invested in building a nuclear power plant in the country, and two roubles for units built abroad, Rosatom deputy director general Kirill Komarov said in an interview with Vestnik Atomproma published on the state nuclear corporation's website yesterday.

US President Barack Obama wants to scrap the Department of Energy's project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina that was designed to take plutonium no longer needed for nuclear weapons and turn it into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.

The Japanese cabinet has approved a bill aimed at "taking measures necessary for the steady implementation of the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel". The bill creates a new entity responsible for reprocessing and introduces a new system for funding it.