Poland will ask the European Commission to approve state aid for the construction of what will be the country's first nuclear power plants, Secretary of State for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Piotr Naimski told reporters in Warsaw yesterday, according to Reuters. "It is impossible these days to build a nuclear power plant without state support," Naimski said.

A new report published today by New Nuclear Watch Institute concludes that new nuclear build is the most efficient way to achieve decarbonisation of the electricity grid, being able to reduce system carbon intensity by up to 34% per megawatt of installed capacity compared to intermittent renewables. It recommends that policymakers look beyond the levelised cost of electricity to assess the overall system impact of power generation technologies.

Unit 5 at the Fuqing nuclear power plant in China's Fujian province attained a sustained chain reaction for the first time yesterday, China National Nuclear Corporation has announced. The unit - the first of two demonstration Hualong One reactors at the site - is scheduled to begin commercial operation by the end of this year, with unit 6 following by the end of next year. Unit 5 will be the world's first Hualong One reactor to be commissioned.

Energoatom has "various options" for attracting investment in the completion of the third and fourth units of the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, Herman Halushchenko, the company's vice president of development, said in an interview on the Energy Freedom talk show hosted by Energy Club on 19 October. Energoatom published a summary of the interview yesterday.

US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette and Poland's Secretary of State for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Piotr Naimski yesterday discussed the signing of the first intergovernmental agreement to cooperate on the development of Poland's civil nuclear power programme. Brouillette signed the agreement yesterday and it will be signed by Naimski once it is received in Warsaw.

China National Nuclear Corporation has announced completion of cold functional tests at the first reactor of the demonstration high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant (HTR-PM) in Shandong province. Cold testing of the second unit at the plant has now begun. A further 18 such HTR-PM units are proposed for the same site in Shidaowan.

Cold functional testing of unit 3 at the Vogtle nuclear power plant near Waynesboro, Georgia, has been completed, Georgia Power announced yesterday. The tests mark the first time the reactor systems have been operated together with the auxiliary systems.

The US Department of Energy has approved a cost-share award of more than USD1 billion for the construction of the first NuScale small modular reactor power plant in the USA. Meanwhile, the US International Development Finance Corporation has signed a Letter of Intent to support NuScale in the development of nuclear generating capacity in South Africa.

A "solid group" of 10-12 countries building nuclear power plants for the first time will emerge in the next decade, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Director General William Magwood in a WebChat last week.

France's EDF has issued an initial progress report on the status of its excell plan, saying commitments made under the plan have now been met or are close to being so. The plan aims to enhance the French nuclear industry's manufacturing quality, boost skills and tighten governance of major nuclear projects.

Teams led by TerraPower and X-energy have been announced as the recipients of USD160 million in initial funding under the US Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. The companies get USD80 million each to build a demonstration plant that can be operational within seven years.

Russian regulator Rostekhnadzor has issued a permit for the next stage of commissioning at unit 2 of the Leningrad II nuclear power plant in Sosnovy Bor, in Western Russia. The VVER-1200 reactor has since started a gradual increase in capacity, from 1% to 35-40%.