Bangladesh and Russia have reportedly agreed to invest $12.65 billion in a project to build two 1200 MWe nuclear power units at Rooppur. According to Reuters, the agreement was signed on 25 December by Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and Russia's Rosatom.

Tests of the containment vessel of the first AP1000 unit under construction at the Haiyang nuclear power plant in China have been completed, Westinghouse announced yesterday. The tests were completed two days ahead of schedule.

Construction has started on the second Hualong One reactor at the site of the Fuqing nuclear power plant in China's Fujian province.

China's State Council yesterday approved the construction of two more units at each of the Tianwan and Fangchenggang nuclear power plant sites.

French nuclear regulators have approved Areva's proposed program of tests to investigate the mechanical properties of the vessel head and vessel bottom of Flamanville 3's reactor pressure vessel.

The first of three containment vessel rings has been lowered into place at Vogtle unit 4, Georgia Power has announced.

Unit 4 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in the Sverdlovsk district of Russia has been connected to the national grid. The BN-800 fast neutron reactor started providing power to the Urals region at 9.21pm local time yesterday.

The steel of the reactor pressure vessel for the EPR under construction at Finland's Olkiluoto nuclear power plant site does not have any anomalies similar to those found in that for the EPR being built at France's Flamanville site, Finland's radiation and nuclear safety authority has concluded.

Bangladesh plans to "build a nuclear city" in Rooppur using Russian reactors designed with 'post-Fukushima' safety features, Anwar Hossain of the country's Ministry of Science and Technology said this week. Hossain headed a delegation on a technical tour of Russia's Novovoronezh nuclear power plant on 1-3 December.

Tennessee Valley Authority workers began loading the first of 193 nuclear fuel assemblies into Watts Bar unit 2 on 5 December.

ASE Group has outlined opportunities for foreign companies to participate in Russia's nuclear power plant projects. The group consolidates the engineering know-how of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom through the ongoing merger of NIAEP, ASE and Atomenergoproekt.

Rolls-Royce plans to help Rosatom avoid falling foul of regulators by sharing the lessons it has learned from producing instrumentation and control (I&C) systems for the nuclear power industry. Stéphane Lessi, the British engineering group's I&C customer business director, said yesterday that this advice will assist the Russian nuclear corporation in its Hanhikivi 1 and Paks II projects in Finland and Hungary, but will also apply to VVER modernization and construction projects in other Wenra markets.