Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy has reached a regulatory milestone in its progress towards deployment of the UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, following confirmation that British regulators will move to the final step of the Generic Design Assessment. The GDA process for the UK ABWR is on schedule for completion by the end of 2017.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a 40-year operating licence to the Tennessee Valley Authority for Watts Bar unit 2. The unit is the first to receive NRC authorization since Watts Bar 1 in 1996.

Two Belgian reactors will be able to operate until 2025 after the country's Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) ruled that the units could safely operate beyond their original 40-year design life.

A Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission study has concluded that there would be no detectable increase in cancer risk for most of the population from radiation released in a hypothetical severe nuclear accident.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has requested that regulators issue an operating licence for unit 2 of the Watts Bar nuclear power plant.

Finnish ownership of Fennovoima, which plans to build the Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant, now exceeds 65% following new financial commitments from three domestic companies. The processing of Fennovoima's construction licence application can now proceed.

Spain's nuclear regulator has concluded that Villar de Cañas is a suitable site for a national high-level waste storage facility. However, it has requested additional technical studies and reports.

Kyushu Electric Power Company plans to apply to regulators for the final 'applied safety inspection' of Sendai 1 on 3 August. This check is expected to take one week, making 10 August a potential start-up date.

Unistar Nuclear Energy's withdrawal of its combined construction and operation licence (COL) application for Calvert Cliffs unit 3 has been formally accepted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Finland's Ministry of Employment and the Economy announced today that it has been unable to confirm whether Migrit Energija, the Croatian company intending to take a stake in the Hanhikivi nuclear power plant project, is in fact European-controlled.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board announced that construction of unit 2 of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu has been completed. It also issued a licence for the regular operation of unit 1 and a siting permit for a project to build four reactors in Gorakhpur in Haryana.

Nuclear fuel will be loaded at Sendai 1 tomorrow, marking a significant step on its road to becoming the first Japanese reactor to restart, later this year.