The US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority are to collaborate on the economic feasibility of potentially licensing, building, operating and maintaining one or more advanced nuclear reactors - such as a small modular reactor - at TVA's Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

NuScale Power and Ukraine's State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety have announced the signature of an agreement to start work on the evaluation of national regulatory and design processes related to the implementation of NuScale small modular reactor technology in Ukraine.

The Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning agency has signed cooperation agreements with Finland's AINS Group and France's Orano on building a repository for the disposal of used fuel and waste from the decommissioning of Norway's two shutdown research reactors.

Estonia's Fermi Energia has signed Memoranda of Understanding with Finnish power company Fortum and Belgian engineering firm Tractebel to cooperate on studying the deployment of small modular reactors in the Baltic country.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK have triggered a dispute resolution mechanism over the nuclear deal with Iran - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - following the Middle Eastern country's further step away from its commitments. Josep Borrell, EU foreign affairs chief and coordinator of the JCPOA joint commission, said he had received today a letter from the three ministers for resolution through the mechanism, as set out in paragraph 36 of the agreement.

China Energy Engineering Corporation and China National Nuclear Corporation have entered into a strategic cooperation framework agreement, CEEC has told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The document was signed in Beijing on 7 January by Wu Yun, deputy general manager of CEEC, and Li Qingtang, deputy general manager of CNNC.

A revised pre-project engineering contract has been signed by South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy to establish a joint entity for the commercialisation and construction of the Korean-designed SMART small modular reactor in Saudi Arabia.

An agreement to cooperate on the development of fast neutron reactors has been signed between Framatome and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Mitsubishi FBR Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The partners have previously collaborated on the Astrid project.

The Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan have agreed to collaborate on the development and deployment of small modular reactors in a Memorandum of Understanding signed yesterday in Toronto.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday announced the country had begun the process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change by submitting a formal notification to the United Nations. The withdrawal will take effect one year from delivery of the notification.

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Finnish waste management company Posiva to exchange technology and know-how related to the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has announced an agreement to collaborate on the potential application of its BWRX-300 small modular reactor technology in Poland. The North Carolina, USA-headquartered company said yesterday it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Synthos SA, a Polish manufacturer of synthetic rubber and one of the country's biggest producers of chemical raw materials.