The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the issuance of combined construction and operating licences for the two proposed AP1000 reactors at Florida Power and Light's Turkey Point plant in Florida. The utility has yet to make a final decision on whether to proceed with building the units.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan today attended via videolink from Ankara a ceremony to mark the pouring of first safety-related concrete for unit 1 of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. Putin arrived today for a two-day working visit to the Turkish capital.

Orano USA and Waste Control Specialists plan to form a joint venture to license a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for used nuclear fuel at the WCS site in Andrews County, Texas. The joint venture will request that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission resume its review of the CISF licence application WCS originally submitted two years ago.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued a licence for the final stage of the start-up procedure - pilot operation - at unit 4 of the Rostov nuclear power plant, which is near the city of Volgodonsk.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is to conduct pre-licensing vendor design reviews (VDR) of small modular reactor designs from NuScale Power and Westinghouse Electric Company. The reviews of the NuScale SMR and Westinghouse's eVinci micro reactor will incorporate the first two phases of the VDR process.

German utility PreussenElektra has announced that the decommissioning and dismantling of the Unterweser nuclear power plant can now start, following approval from the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection. The approval is pursuant to Section 7 (3) of Germany's Atomic Energy Act.

Sweden's Radiation Safety Authority today submitted a positive opinion to the government on Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB's (SKB's) application to build a repository for used nuclear fuel, together with a plant to encapsulate the fuel prior to disposal. However, the Land and Environment Court in Stockholm has called for further documentation on the copper capsules in which the fuel will be stored within the repository.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has started its inspection of unit 4 of the Rostov nuclear power plant ahead of its launch this year. The regulator is checking documentation on the tests carried out when the unit reached criticality and minimum controlled power last month, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said today.

The French regulator, Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, has issued a positive opinion on the safety options for country's planned deep geological repository for the disposal of high- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. However, it has reservations about the storage of bituminous waste within the facility.

Russian State Expert Examination Board (Glavgosexpertiza) has announced that the floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov meets construction standards. The authority said on 9 December it had approved the project in Russia's northernmost city of Pevek that is being funded by Rosenergoatom, the nuclear power plant operator subsidiary of Rosatom.

Scana Corporation announced yesterday that its principal subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, had filed a formal request with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw the combined operating licences for units 2 and 3 of the VC Summer nuclear power plant.

Successful completion of the Generic Design Assessment process for Hitachi-GE's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor is a "huge step forward" for Hitachi's UK subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power, two senior executives said this week.