Construction of the centrifuge cascades at the site in Shaanxi Province is reported to be advanced, although the schedule for completing the plant in time for operation by the end of 1996 is 'very tight', according to 'officials'. The IAEA has been notified of China's intention to place the plant under voluntary safeguards. The 14 included two diehards who attended both meetings, but there was reportedly no input from the nuclear industry - although one utility representative did attend one of the meetings. Armenia is reported to be considering the construction of two more reactors at its Metzamor nuclear power station. The residents of the Swedish municipality of Storuman have voted against continuing site investigations for a possible deep repository for spent fuel in the area.
Feasibility studies are in progress in several other Swedish municipalities.
However, residents of the Canadian town of Deep River, Ontario, have voted in favour of a plan to site a final repository for low level waste in their area. The consortium of US utilities planning to construct an interim spent fuel storage facility on tribal land belonging to the Mescalero Apaches hope to begin operations by the middle of 2002. The Pacific Pintail, the ship that carried the first cargo of vitrified HLW from France to Japan earlier this year, has set sail on her return journey to Europe laden with spent fuel from the Tomari nuclear power station. In Russia, Minatom has formally stated that its cooperation with Iran involves only peaceful uses of nuclear energy and that its negotiations and contracts with Iran will not, and have not, been kept secret. The unit is being built by China, and is based on the prototype 300 MWe PWR at Qinshan, for which Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan made the pressure vessel.