Former prime minister and anti-nuclear exponent Junichiro Koizumi is expected to announce a “bill” abandoning nuclear power plants and promoting natural energy next month. Asahi.com

The Japanese company building a reprocessing plant for spent nuclear fuel pushed back the planned completion date by another three years Friday, further clouding prospects for realizing the nuclear fuel cycle sought by the energy-poor country. Asia.nikkei.com

In Oslo on December 10, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and was accepted on behalf of the Campaign by its executive director, Beatrice Fihn, and by Setsuko Thurlow, an ICAN campaigner and survivor of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing.  Thenation.com

An investment incentive certificate was granted last month for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant project, being built in southern Turkey, with a fixed investment sum of 76 billion Turkish Liras ($20 billion), Turkey’s Official Gazette said on Dec. 22. Hurriyetdailynews.com