French diplomats met with Ukrainian parliamentarians last week to discuss increased cooperation between the two countries in nuclear energy. Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom announced on 29 January that a meeting with the parliamentary Committee on the Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety had been held the previous day on the initiative of the French embassy in Kiev. world-nuclear-news.org

Niger has approved GoviEx’s mining permit application for the Madaouela 1 tenement area, the company announced today. The approval means that the project is now fully permitted for construction and production. world-nuclear-news.org

AREVA said that it had completed production validation testing of a new component asset management process known as ultra-high-pressure cavitation peening that is meant to prevent stress corrosion cracking in nuclear reactor components. nuclearstreet.com

Officials from Russia, India and China at a nuclear energy conference here confirmed Monday their countries’ interest in developing nuclear technology including, a fast neutron reactor. nuclearstreet.com