The UK government has identified nuclear power as a way to help the country achieve the four-fold increase in clean electricity generation needed to achieve its net zero target. Its long-awaited Energy White Paper published today notes that renewables now account for over one-third of electricity generation, up from 7% in 2010, but "building on this foundation" the country will "need to go further".

The case for nuclear as a proven source of clean, reliable and sustainable electricity supply should be clear to all, but the business case for nuclear is also becoming better understood, World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León told delegates at the New Nuclear Capital 2020 virtual conference yesterday. The following is an abridged version of her presentation.

The tender for the construction of a new unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic has been postponed from the end of this year to 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced yesterday, following a meeting by the Standing Committee for the Construction of New Nuclear Resources. Four possible options for the parameters of the tender are being considered, which will be addressed by the heads of parliamentary parties by the end of January, when the final decision on the preferred option will be made.

French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that France's energy and ecological future depends on nuclear power. Speaking during a visit to Framatome's Le Creusot facility, Macron said the industry comprises 3000 companies and 220,000 jobs, with 5000 new hires planned for 2021 in spite of the crisis caused by the pandemic. "Few sectors offer as much, in particular to our young people and all across the country," Macron tweeted.

In its sixth carbon budget, the Climate Change Committee puts the share of nuclear in the UK's electricity mix at between 5 GW and 10 GW by 2050. The country currently generates about 20% of its power from nuclear, but nearly half of its current capacity is to be retired by 2025. One new plant is under construction, Hinkley Point C, while the government has yet to comment on its support for a second, Sizewell C. These twin-unit plants would have a combined capacity of 6.4 GW.

The levelised costs of electricity generation of low-carbon generation technologies are falling and are increasingly below the costs of conventional fossil fuel generation, according to a report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Energy Agency. The cost of electricity from new nuclear power plants remains stable, yet electricity from the long-term operation of existing plants constitutes the least cost option for low-carbon generation. Nuclear electricity is expected to have lower costs in the near future, the report says.

The UK government announced this week its invitation to local communities to put forward proposals to host the country's prototype fusion energy power plant. The successful site will be home to the construction of STEP - the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production - that is targeted for completion by 2040. At a media briefing ahead of the government's announcement, Professor Ian Chapman, CEO of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, explained why this is an exciting prospect for the whole world.

EPZ, operator of the Borssele nuclear power plant, has called for an extension to its operation beyond 2033 and/or the construction of two new large reactors at the site in order to help the Netherlands meet its energy and climate goals. The company's director, Carlo Wolters, presented EPZ's vision yesterday at a parliamentary debate on the role of nuclear power in the Dutch energy system.

The experience of the coronavirus crisis has highlighted the crucial role of electricity in our lives but will also spur a transformation, with society being more outspoken in its demands for forceful action against climate change and threats to biodiversity, Jean-Bernard Lévy, chairman and CEO of EDF, said during today's plenary session of the Global Impact Conference - Energy for Impact.

All countries must work together in order to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, speakers agreed during today's plenary session of the Global Impact Conference - Energy for Impact. However, progress on meeting those goals is said to have been put back by up to 15 years by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ontario Power Generation has committed to being a net-zero carbon company by 2040, and to help the markets where it operates to achieve net-zero carbon economies by 2050. These are the two major goals established in its newly released Climate Change Plan that aims to drive efficient, economy-wide decarbonisation and economic renewal, while protecting the environment. Siting a small modular reactor at its Darlington site is one of the actions to achieve its aims.

The UK Treasury said yesterday it is important to consider large-scale nuclear projects in addition to Hinkley Point C if the country is to meet its net-zero by 2050 target. This assessment rejects the advice of the National Infrastructure Commission two years ago that the government should not agree support for more than one nuclear power station beyond HPC, before 2025.