Holtec International, Ukraine's Energoatom and the country's State Scientific and Technology Centre have formally entered into a partnership to advance the US company's SMR-160 small modular reactor for deployment in Ukraine.

Indian company Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has secured an INR440 crore (USD64 million) order from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd to erect the turbine generator islands for Kudankulam units 3 and 4.

Uranium enrichment company Urenco has today held a ceremony to mark the official opening of its Tails Management Facility at Capenhurst in the UK. The TMF will treat depleted uranium tails, a by-product of the enrichment process, by converting them from uranium hexafluoride into more chemically stable uranium oxide.

The general contract for Russian-designed VVER-1200 reactors for units 3 & 4 of the Xudabao nuclear power plant in China's Liaoning province was signed yesterday in Moscow in the presence of the countries' heads of state.

Unit 2 of the Novovoronezh II nuclear power plant in southwest Russia has entered the pilot commercial operation stage, Rosenergoatom, the operator subsidiary of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has announced.

Unit 2 of the Taishan nuclear power plant in China's Guangdong province has attained a sustained chain reaction for the first time, becoming the second EPR reactor to reach the commissioning milestone after Taishan 1.

A ceremony was held on 25 May at the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg to mark the launch of the Ural nuclear-powered icebreaker. The 173 metre-long Ural is one of three vessels of Project 22220 - featuring RITM-200 reactors - that will be able to break through 3-meter-thick ice as they escort vessels across the Arctic Ocean.

The Bulgarian government has invited strategic investment in the Belene nuclear power plant project. The "call for expressions of interest for a strategic investor and/or acquisition of a minority shareholding and/or purchase of electricity" was published in the Official Journal of the European Union yesterday.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj is to employ liquid absorbers featuring bitumen in order to eliminate vibrations in the pressuriser surge line of the first-of-a-kind EPR at Olkiluoto. Suppressing the vibrations is one of the issues TVO must resolve before the regulator will allow fuel loading to proceed.

The batch of fuel assemblies made by Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant for the initial fuel loading of unit 2 of the nuclear power plant under construction in Belarus has passed its final inspection. NCCP is a subsidiary of Russian fuel manufacturer TVEL.

Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear corporation, and UzAtom, Uzbekistan's nuclear development agency, have signed a contract to perform engineering surveys for the Central Asian country's first nuclear power plant.

Poland is preparing to build its first nuclear power units in the Pomerania region in the north of the country, Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchórzewski told Polish Radio on 14 May. The government plans to build a nuclear power plant by 2033.