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Top-level international forum co-organised by Nuclear Energy Institute and World Nuclear Association, 13-15 April 2021, Virtual
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On 9-11 September 2020, World Nuclear Association held Strategic eForum 2020, a series of high-level panel discussions.
On 2 September, World Nuclear Association held a pre-event to the Strategic eForum entitled Industry Gamechangers.
World Nuclear Association held a launch event on the publication of its report, the World Nuclear Supply Chain: Outlook 2040.
World Nuclear Association staff participate in a number of external conferences.
View the upcoming events that the Association is supporting.
World Nuclear Association
Published: Fri, 05 Mar 2021 14:22:37 GMT
The German government has reached an agreement with EOn, EnBW, RWE and Vattenfall on compensation for the forced premature closure of their nuclear power reactors. The utilities are set to receive a total of almost EUR2.5 billion (USD3.0 billion) in compensation after agreeing to drop all legal actions against the government related to the nuclear phaseout. The final regulation related to the compensation will be made into law by the end of this year.
Published: Fri, 05 Mar 2021 11:19:35 GMT
The final report of an independent inquiry into the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's award of the Magnox decommissioning contract, related litigation and its subsequent termination has been published. Led by Steve Holliday, a former CEO of National Grid, the process to hold the Magnox Inquiry began in March 2017. Holliday was asked to conduct an inquiry by Greg Clark, then secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Published: Fri, 05 Mar 2021 15:10:47 GMT
Decarbonising heat will be essential for global emissions reduction efforts in the coming years, Aiden Peakman of the UK Nuclear Innovation and Research Office told a high-level joint workshop held by the International Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Current generation light-water reactors and next-generation advanced reactors could significantly help in decarbonising the heat sector, he said.
Published: Fri, 05 Mar 2021 12:31:30 GMT
The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group has approved the preliminary report on a peer review of the new Belarusian nuclear power plant in Ostrovets. Adopted by consensus on 3 March, the report follows a mission by Ensreg technical experts to the plant site on 9 and 10 February.
Published: Fri, 05 Mar 2021 10:20:43 GMT
Hungary is now the sixth European country to bring forward its coal phaseout plan, announcing that it will shut its last remaining coal plant in 2025. Meanwhile Poland says its first nuclear power unit will be built in Gdansk and the second one probably at the site of its Belchatów coal plant.
Published: Fri, 05 Mar 2021 15:34:23 GMT
Construction of a new facility for the storage of low-level radioactive waste has begun at the Dessel site in Belgium. Meanwhile, a new storage facility for low and intermediate-level waste is planned at the Netherlands' centralised radioactive waste processing and storage facility.
Published: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 10:48:56 GMT
International Energy Agency Director General Fatih Birol today highlighted the role that nuclear power can play in the global fight against climate change. Birol was speaking to delegates on a webinar for the launch of the IEA report Energy Policies of IEA Countries: Japan 2021.
Published: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 13:19:26 GMT
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, today announced a new agreement with Tehran for a face-to-face meeting between technical experts to take place early next month. At a press conference convened at short notice and live-streamed from the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna, Grossi said the aim of the agreement is for the agency and Iran to stop "talking past each other".
Published: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 15:53:47 GMT
Ten years after the March 2011 earthquake and subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant resulted in significant disruption to its energy supply, Japan has made visible progress towards realising its vision of an efficient, resilient and sustainable energy system, the International Energy Agency said today. However, it warned the country must act quickly if it is to achieve its ambition of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The restart of its idled nuclear power reactors will help it reach that goal, the IEA said.
Published: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 15:44:17 GMT
Decarbonising the power sector will not be enough on its own to reach climate goals, a joint high-level workshop held by the International Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency heard yesterday. Applications of nuclear beyond power generation, including the production of low-carbon heat, hydrogen or other synthetic fuels, could significantly expand market opportunities for nuclear power and are especially relevant to achieving global net-zero emissions.
Published: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 15:10:07 GMT
The Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, in the Ulyanovsk region of Russia, has completed the second cycle of irradiation of the experimental fuel assemblies with VVER and pressurised water reactor fuel rods in the MIR research reactor. This marks the latest milestone in the development of Russian accident tolerant fuel, state nuclear corporation Rosatom announced today.
Published: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 14:16:31 GMT
The UK's Rolls-Royce and Estonia's Fermi Energia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to study the potential for the deployment of small modular reactors in the Baltic country. The study will cover all aspects of deployment, including grid suitability, cooling, emergency planning, human resources, licensing feasibility, economics and the supply chain.
Published: Wed, 03 Mar 2021 15:19:58 GMT
As work to decommission the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and revitalise the surrounding area continues, there are many ways international communities can learn, assist Japan and support each other, according to a new report from OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. Published today, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the disaster, the report summarises the circumstances of the accident, the current status of the site, and lessons learned. It also considers the challenges that lie ahead and makes policy recommendations.
Published: Wed, 03 Mar 2021 12:17:46 GMT
The diplomatic notes Poland and the USA exchanged last year on cooperation in the development of Poland's civil nuclear power programme have officially entered into force, Poland's Secretary of State for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Piotr Naimski told the TOK FM radio station yesterday. This means the USA now has 18 months to prepare both a technology and a financing offer to build nuclear power plants in Poland, he said.
Published: Wed, 03 Mar 2021 11:13:15 GMT
Elemash Machine-building plant has launched a production site for the fabrication of fuel for China's flagship fast neutron reactor, the CFR-600. A subsidiary of Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL, Moscow-based Elemash has modernised an entire shop floor for fast reactors, and says 'dummy' fuel bundles for the CFR-600 are already being manufactured for testing.
Published: Wed, 03 Mar 2021 15:45:32 GMT
China will have the world's largest nuclear power fleet within a decade, while most of the units in longstanding nuclear regions - Japan, the European Union and the USA - are facing the end of their original 40-year design lifetime, Brent Wanner, lead of World Energy Outlook Power Sector Modelling & Analysis at the International Energy Agency, said yesterday. Without policy support for the long-term operation of the existing fleet, this trend is certain to continue, he told delegates at the High-Level Workshop on Nuclear Power in Clean Energy Transitions, which the IEA held jointly with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Published: Tue, 02 Mar 2021 15:22:54 GMT
Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions fell by 5.8% in 2020, primarily due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel and economic activities, according to the International Energy Agency. However, after hitting a low in April, global emissions rebounded strongly and rose above 2019 levels in December.
Published: Tue, 02 Mar 2021 15:11:54 GMT
X-energy has signed the cooperation agreement which officially begins its participation in the US Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, a project the company says will enable it to build a commercial scale advanced nuclear reactor with Energy Northwest in Washington state.
Published: Tue, 02 Mar 2021 12:22:30 GMT
The Bochvar Institute has developed a fuel rod design based on nitride uranium-plutonium fuel for the BREST-OD-300 fast neutron reactor. At the same time, Rosatom’s nuclear fuel division is developing second-generation fuel rods for the BREST-OD-300 with a higher burnout level, which will be used when MNUP fabrication will shift to the re-fabrication stage. This means that irradiated fuel of the first load after irradiation and reprocessing will be used for fresh fuel fabrication. Meanwhile, Rosatom has launched a tender to study the pyrochemical processing of used nuclear fuel from fast neutron reactors.
Published: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 15:51:30 GMT
The nuclear energy industry will continue to innovate and adopt advanced technologies to constantly improve the way nuclear power plants generate efficient, reliable and carbon-free electricity to power an increasingly interconnected world, writes Catherine Cornand, senior executive vice president of the Installed Base Business Unit at Framatome.
Published: Mon, 01 Mar 2021 13:03:37 GMT
The process of removing all 566 fuel assemblies from the storage pool of unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was completed yesterday, Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced. Fuel assemblies have already been removed from the pool at unit 4, but such work has yet to start at units 1 and 2.
Published: Mon, 01 Mar 2021 15:10:22 GMT
Finnish radioactive waste management company Posiva Oy has announced that work to excavate a final disposal tunnel has started at the Onkalo underground characterisation facility near Olkiluoto. The tunnel is for the 'joint functional test', which involves small-scale final disposal under actual conditions, and is part of commissioning the geological repository. The joint functional test can be used to demonstrate that the processes and procedures related to final disposal are in order and, only then, can the disposal facility be granted an operating licence.
Published: Mon, 01 Mar 2021 11:50:26 GMT
Brazil's Eletronuclear published a notice in the country's official journal, Diário Oficial da União, on 25 February inviting bids for a contract to conduct civil work at unit 3 of its Angra nuclear power plant, and to perform part of the electromechanical assembly. Eletronuclear said the aim of the tender is "to advance some construction activities" before hiring a contractor to complete the construction of the unit.
Published: Mon, 01 Mar 2021 11:23:33 GMT
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, says "the time is not ripe" for an unofficial meeting proposed by Josep Borrell, EU foreign affairs chief and coordinator of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. His statement follows Iran's commencement last week of restrictions on some site inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Published: Fri, 26 Feb 2021 16:06:13 GMT
Unit 2 of the Leningrad II nuclear power plant in western Russia has entered the final stage of pilot operation - a 15-day programme of tests at nominal capacity. On successful completion of these tests, the VVER-1200 unit will be stopped for inspection of its equipment and, following regulatory approval, will then be put into industrial operation, which is scheduled for this spring.
Published: Fri, 26 Feb 2021 16:03:27 GMT
A revised mixed oxide fuel utilisation plan, based on the latest operational plan for the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and the MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant, has been released by Japan's Federation of Electric Power Companies. While only four Japanese reactors have so far been restarted using MOX fuel, FEPC envisages at least 12 units running on the fuel by FY2030. FEPC represents the 11 power companies, comprising nine utilities (excluding Okinawa Electric Power), Japan Atomic Power Company and the Electric Power Development Company (J-Power).
Published: Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:48:13 GMT
Electrochemical Plant, a subsidiary of Rosatom's nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL, recorded a 14% increase in revenue from the sale of stable isotopes in 2020, exceeding RUB1.5 billion (USD20.1 million) for the first time. The Zelenogorsk, Krasnoyarsk-based company's global market share of the stable isotope market remains over 40%, TVEL said.
Published: Fri, 26 Feb 2021 13:08:38 GMT
Jennifer Granholm has been sworn as the 16th US secretary of energy. The former governor of Michigan said the US Department of Energy has the solutions to tackle the climate emergency and the tools to put America on an "irreversible path" to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Published: Thu, 25 Feb 2021 16:31:41 GMT
Virginia's nuclear industry will focus on four key areas of advanced generation technologies, economic development, workforce education, and research and development in order to help meet its carbon-free goals, according to a newly released strategic plan which has been drawn up at the direction of the Virginia government.
Published: Thu, 25 Feb 2021 14:40:03 GMT
France's nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, has set the conditions for the continued operation of EDF's 900 MWe reactors beyond 40 years. The regulator said it considers the measures planned by EDF combined with those prescribed by ASN will ensure the safety of the units for a further 10 years of operation.
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