South Africa's power system is severely constrained with a high risk of increased stages of loadshedding as the nation heads into winter, Eskom said this week. Unit 1 at the Koeberg nuclear power plant is expected to return to service in September.

Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a contract with Dominion Energy to design, engineer and manufacture six replacement steam generators for Surry nuclear power station in Virginia in the USA.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj said it had detected and subsequently repaired defects and deficiencies in the seals of the connectors of unit 3 at the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. The EPR entered commercial operation on 1 May.

Bruce Power has awarded a CAD1.3 billion (USD1 billion) contract for fuel channel and feeder replacement for its remaining four Major Component Replacement projects to Shoreline Power Group. The announcement comes as fuel loading begins at Bruce unit 6 ahead of its planned return to service.

The first simulator for the control room of a NuScale VOYGR small modular reactor power plant in Europe has opened at the University Politehnica of Bucharest in Romania. The simulator is the fifth in total, but the first outside the USA.

The second unit of Belarus's first nuclear power plant has been connected to the power grid and delivered its first kilowatt-hours to the country's electricity system.

The company's board has approved a plan to create two independent companies: Critical Mission Solutions will be a pure-play provider of technical consulting, applied science research, training, and other services to federal government agencies; while Jacobs will be a technology-enabled solutions provider focused on critical infrastructure and advanced manufacturing challenges.

The evacuation of people from the town of Energodar, where many of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant's staff and their families live, is being closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, with its director general warning the situation in the area was "increasingly unpredictable".

Bruce Power has reached the major milestone of "substantial completion" of the construction phase of Major Component Replacement portion of refurbishment of Bruce unit 6 and will now begin refuelling work as the focus moves on to returning the plant to service later this year.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi says agency staff stationed at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "were again forced to shelter after missile attack warnings, with the sound of continued shelling in the distance as military activity continues" in the region.

France's nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, has approved EDF's revised programme to rectify stress corrosion issues at its French nuclear power plants. Under EDF's schedule, all welds identified as a priority will be checked within the next year.

Kansai Electric Power has asked Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority for permission to extend the lifespan of units 3 and 4 at its Takahama nuclear power plant by 20 years.