Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj has today submitted its operating licence application for unit 3 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. The first-of-a-kind EPR plant is scheduled to start up in late 2018.

The US Nuclear Innovation Alliance has issued a series of recommendations for updating the regulatory process to address an "urgent" need for an advanced reactor licensing process.

The Swedish nuclear regulator has said it believes the country's radioactive waste management company can meet all the safety and radiation protection requirements for its planned used nuclear fuel encapsulation plant next to the Clab interim storage facility in Oskarshamn.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales have provided an update on their assessment of the two designs currently going through the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process - Hitachi-GE's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR), and the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design. The update is provided in the regulators' quarterly report - covering November 2015 to January 2016 - which was issued yesterday.

South African utility Eskom has submitted site applications for nuclear installations at Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape and Duynefontein in the Western Cape to the country's National Nuclear Regulator (NNR).

All but three of the USA's 99 operating nuclear power reactors were placed in the top two of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's categories for performance in 2015, the regulator has announced.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized its staff to issue a construction permit for Shine Medical Technologies' first-of-a-kind medical radioisotope production facility to be built in Janesville, Wisconsin.

The US Department of Energy has agreed to grant a permit to support a small modular reactor project within the boundary of its Idaho National Laboratory site. In a statement yesterday, the DOE said its newly signed agreement with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems builds on President Barack Obama's plan "to advance America's leadership in clean energy innovation".

Entergy has asked a US federal court to reject New York State's objection to coastal certification of Indian Point, which it says was intended to block a renewal of the nuclear power plant's operating licence.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is preparing guidance documents on licence renewal applications to extend reactor operating lives beyond 60 years. The regulator has also approved its sixth licence renewal for a dry cask storage facility for used fuel, at the Prairie Island plant.

The application for construction of a used nuclear fuel encapsulation plant and repository in Sweden is now complete, the Land and Environment Court in Stockholm has decided. It will now publish the application and proceed with the review process.

Although units 1 and 2 of the Sendai nuclear power plant in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture have passed new safety standards and are the only reactors in the country so far to have restarted, operator Kyushu Electric Power Company has applied to the regulator to make additional modifications to increase safety further.