The Romanian Senate, the upper house of the country's parliament, has ratified an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation to expand and modernise Romania's nuclear power programme that was signed between Romania and the USA in October 2020. Areas for cooperation could include the completion of units 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant and the refurbishment of unit 1 at the plant.

Diverse, scalable and low-cost applications for nuclear technologies have for the first time been fully represented across the whole energy system in a new modelling report published last week by the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory. The work, which was completed through the Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme, reveals potential routes to de-risk and lower the cost of achieving net zero. AFCP is led by NNL in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as part of the GBP505 million (USD702 million) Energy Innovation Programme.

British engineering firm Rolls-Royce will ensure its new products are compatible with net zero by 2030 and its whole business by 2050. Small modular reactors will play a role in meeting these targets. In June 2020, Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East joined the UN High Level Climate Champions to launch the Race to Zero, the United Nation's campaign to mobilise leadership of businesses, cities and investors to commit to net-zero emissions by the middle of the century at the latest.

Preserving the existing fleet of nuclear plants, driving the development of advanced reactors and investing in nuclear R&D are all essential to the USA's clean energy transition, Jennifer Granholm, secretary of the US Department of Energy, stressed this week. Speaking at the annual general meeting of the American Nuclear Society, Granholm told nuclear industry workers and students watching the webinar: "We need you".

Nuclear experts at The University of Manchester have identified the eight actions required to assess objectively the role of nuclear in the UK's net-zero future. Their position paper Nuclear energy for net zero: a strategy for action determines what policymakers and industry need to explore in order to take an informed decision based on a 'best economics' basis. This includes the development of advisory bodies, non-partisan modelling of the economic path, and the optimisation of R&D programmes.

The possible roles of advanced nuclear energy in meeting the UK’s legally binding net zero by 2050 target are not well understood and need to be clarified urgently, write Francis Livens, Gregg Butler, Juan Matthews and William Bodel of The University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute.

The Group of Seven countries will lead a technology-driven transition to net zero, according to a joint statement at the end of their three-day summit in Cornwall, England. The G7 is an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA. As host of the first in-person G7 Summit in almost two years, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked the other leaders "to seize the opportunity to fight and build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous".

Canada's largest oil sands producers have formed an alliance that aims to work with federal and provincial government to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from their operations by 2050. The Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero initiative will, amongst other things, evaluate and accelerate the application of emerging emissions-reducing technologies including small modular nuclear reactors.

Solar and wind power have the same share of low-carbon electricity globally that they did 20 years ago, proving that they need to work together with nuclear energy for net zero to be achievable, John Gorman, president & CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association, told delegates at the Nuclear Energy Assembly yesterday. Gorman was speaking in the panel discussion Nuclear Energy: A Tool for Meeting Global Goals at the US Nuclear Energy Institute event. The panel was moderated by Carol Berrigan, NEI's executive director for Federal Programs and Supplier Relationships.

Annual investment in clean energy in emerging and developing economies will need to increase sevenfold by 2030 if the world is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. Financing Clean Energy Transitions in Emerging and Developing Economies is a collaboration between the IEA, the World Bank and World Economic Forum.
 

The pace of the clean energy transition was debated last week during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Panellists in the session Energy Sector Transformations discussed how the rapid growth in energy consumption, together with increasingly pressing requirements to protect the environment, are creating new development scenarios at a time of transformation for the global fuel and energy sector.

New nuclear technologies will be needed alongside existing nuclear plants and renewables as the USA transitions to a carbon-free future, but they will continue to need legislative support at the federal and state level, utility leaders said during the opening session of the Nuclear Energy Institute's Nuclear Energy Assembly this week.