China General Nuclear has announced that units 5 and 6 of the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in Liaoning province are now expected to start operating in the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022, which is, respectively, one year and six months later than previously scheduled.

A ceremony was held on 15 December at the Xiangshan uranium deposit near Fuzhou city in China's Jiangxi province to mark the start of the country's deepest drilling project related to the exploration of uranium resources. China National Nuclear Corporation said a 3000-metre-deep bore hole will be drilled.

Candu Energy Inc - a subsidiary of Canada's SNC-Lavalin - has been awarded a contract by China National Nuclear Power Co Ltd for pre-project work for a proposed two-unit Advanced Heavy Water Reactor plant in China. The work relates to planning and licensing in preparation for the project, construction of which is expected to start in or around 2021.

China has approved the decommissioning plan for its first nuclear reactor - the Heavy Water Research Reactor, which will be undertaken by the China Institute of Atomic Energy. CIAE received government approval of the plan on 4 November.

China's first commercial nuclear heating project has begun operating at the Haiyang nuclear power plant in Shandong province. The plant's two AP1000 units will initially provide heating to 700,000 square metres of housing.

TVEL, the nuclear fuel manufacturer subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has signed a contract for nuclear fuel supply to the planned units 3 and 4 of the Xudabao nuclear power plant in China's Liaoning province.

China and France today reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris Agreement and called for worldwide action on combating climate change and halting the loss of biodiversity.

Construction of the first unit at the Zhangzhou nuclear power plant in China's Fujian province has started, one week after the issuance of a construction licence for the Hualong One reactor, China National Nuclear Corporation has announced.

China's first lead-bismuth alloy zero-power reactor - Qixing (Venus) III - achieved first criticality on 9 October, the China Institute of Atomic Energy has announced. The milestone marks the start of China's core physics experiments into liquid metal cooled fast reactors.

Nuclear power is "irreplaceable" and international cooperation in the technology "indispensible" in reducing global CO2 emissions, China National Nuclear Corporation President Jun Gu told delegates at the International Atomic Energy Agency's International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power yesterday in Vienna. Climate change may in fact be an "opportunity to create a new era for nuclear energy", he said, and CNNC is "willing to work with all countries" to bring about a clean energy transition and mitigate climate change.

A contract for Tokamak machine assembly for the ITER International Fusion Energy Organisation signed by a consortium led by China Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation is the biggest nuclear energy project contract that Chinese companies have ever bid for in the European market.

China National Nuclear Corporation has started mass production of China Fuel 3 (CF3) fuel assemblies for the domestically-designed HPR1000 (Hualong One) pressurised water reactor design.