The Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill, which will use the Regulated Asset Base model to fund future nuclear power stations in the UK, has today been set out by the country's Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. The new funding model is expected to attract a wider range of private investment into new nuclear power projects, cutting the cost of financing them and reducing the cost to consumers.

The Brazilian government's plans to privatise its Eletrobras electricity group have been given a key approval. Its subsidiary Eletronuclear will remain under state control and will have more ability to raise funds and make contracts to complete the third reactor at the Angra nuclear power plant.

Kazatomprom has announced it is to participate in a physical uranium fund, ANU Energy OEIC Limited, established on the Astana International Financial Centre. The fund will hold physical uranium as a long-term investment, with its initial USD50 million of purchases financed by its founders and plans to raise USD500 million for additional uranium purchases in a second development stage.

Nuclear energy must be included in the framework of the European taxonomy before the end of this year, energy and economy ministers from ten EU member states said in a joint article published in several European newspapers yesterday. The ministers said nuclear energy is "an affordable, stable and independent energy resource". The Czech Ministry of Energy described the nations as a 'Nuclear Alliance'.

The Czech Republic's support framework for nuclear investment has been approved by the lower house of parliament. The Low Carbon Act should come into effect from 1 January 2022, the energy ministry said. "Currently, there are no market incentives for investment in new nuclear or other emission-free energy sources," noted Tomáš Ehler, the deputy minister of industry and trade, saying, "These market failures have been confirmed by the European Commission itself."

Investment funds are shaping the uranium spot market leading to an unprecedented level of demand. How those funds will affect the availability of secondary supplies of uranium to consumers remains to be seen, and the spot market should not be seen as a reliable source for significant purchases of uranium ore in the long term, according to speakers and panellists at World Nuclear Association Annual Symposium 2021.

The private sector must be prepared to provide the funds needed to take new and innovative reactor technologies from the first deployment stage to wide-scale commercial operation, Jigar Shah, director of the Loans Program Office at the US Department of Energy, said yesterday during World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium. He said the LPO is developing the business models needed to deploy new nuclear.

Nuclear energy, as an asset class, has the potential to report well against a wide range of Environmental, Social and Governance data collection and accounting metrics, according to a new report from the Generation IV International Forum. This should allow nuclear energy to be considered as an investable asset class, thereby allowing nuclear companies and projects to access climate finance.

A new study published yesterday by the New Nuclear Watch Institute finds that the "supposed dependency concerns" associated with the host-vendor relationship in the nuclear energy sector are "historically and practically unfounded". The report - Energy Security in the Age of Net-Zero Ambitions and the System Value of Nuclear Power - focuses on the issue of energy security and the important contributions that nuclear power can make towards maintaining and strengthening it as energy systems decarbonise, both along the various transition pathways that energy systems have started upon and at their eventual low-carbon endpoint.

Eletronuclear has announced the winners of a tender to complete unit 3 of the Angra nuclear power plant in Rio de Janeiro. A Brazilian consortium comprising Ferreira Guedes, Matricial and ADtranz submitted the winning bid of Real 292 million (USD56.1 million), which Eletronuclear said is 16% lower than the reference value for the project. In total, two companies and five consortia participated in the opening session of the proposals, held on 29 June.

Nuclear energy must be included in a delegated act of the European taxonomy, 18 trade unions in the energy sector from 10 European Union countries have told Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. In a joint letter, the unions called for "a dialogue with the purpose of nuclear energy to play its full potential and build an economically efficient and socially just carbon-free Europe by 2050".

The newly created Sprott Physical Uranium Trust has begun trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange after Sprott Asset Management LP, a wholly owned subsidiary of precious metals and real assets investments company Sprott Inc, completed a previously announced transaction with Uranium Participation Corporation.