Bechtel Corp highlighted "significant issues" at the VC Summer project 18 months before construction of two AP1000 reactors at the site in Fairfield County, South Carolina, was scrapped in July. Difficulties, such as flawed construction plans, faulty designs, inadequate management and low worker morale, were outlined in the engineering, construction and project management company's independent analysis of the project dated February 2016.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday that, by the end of this year, it will have held Nuclear Power Human Resources Planning workshops for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Macedonia and Thailand. These events support the development of educational, vocational and training infrastructure among the Vienna-based agency's Member States.

Canadian company L3 MAPPS is to update the simulator it supplied in 2006 to Fermi 2 in Michigan. The update is being carried out under a contract with Swiss industrial technology company ABB.

The UK's nuclear sector will require a workforce of over 100,000 in 2021 - up from 87,560 in 2017 - according to the Nuclear Skills Strategy Group's 2017 Nuclear Workforce Assessment which has been launched today.

More cooperation agreements and contracts have been signed by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and its subsidiaries during the IX AtomExpo International Forum it is hosting this week in Moscow. The latest agreements, with Asian and European companies, cover collaboration in a wide range of nuclear-related areas and beyond.

Jordanian researchers will have access to the research reactors and ancillary facilities of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission following the recent signing of a partnership agreement with the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission.

A roadmap for the effective transfer of knowledge from the existing operators of China's Daya Bay nuclear power plant to future operators has been drawn up with the assistance of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's Technical Cooperation program has made "a valuable contribution to development", the agency's director-general Yukiya Amano yesterday told a conference to mark the program's 60th anniversary.

Despite Germany choosing to phase out its use of nuclear energy, the country must not lose its nuclear expertise, research and industry, writes Ralf Güldner.

NuScale Power has commissioned a second control room simulator to model the operation of its small modular reactor design. The simulator will be used to train operators for the first commercial NuScale power plant.

Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires and the National Skills Academy for Nuclear have announced they will work together to boost "long-standing Franco-British nuclear industry relations". Their cooperation will include development of a "quality standard" for skills provision and training that will enable them to design education programs, organise exchanges between students and lecturers and implement new, innovative teaching tools.

South Africa's only nuclear power station has an important role to play in the country's economy now and in the future, a study by KPMG has found. Through investments and operations, economic activity supported or stimulated by Eskom's Koeberg plant is currently worth an estimated ZAR53.3 billion ($3.9 billion).