International engineering group Assystem has been appointed as an alliance partner on the new Hinkley Point C Commissioning Alliance. The company said this new multi-year contract will be key to bringing the UK's first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years into operation.

A community partnership has been formed in Allerdale, Cumbria, UK, to take forward discussions around siting a geological disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste. The Allerdale GDF Community Partnership is the third to form, following Mid Copeland GDF Community Partnership and South Copeland GDF Community Partnership in late-2021.

The UK’s Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the country was "firmly committed to deploying new nuclear" as he toured construction work at Hinkley Point C. It follows House of Commons approval for the Nuclear Financing Bill, which ministers hope will make the financing of new nuclear attractive to British funds and institutional investors.

British engineering group Rolls-Royce has opened new offices at Space Park Leicester to develop its expertise in nuclear power applications for space. Being based there will enable Rolls-Royce employees to better collaborate with researchers from the University of Leicester.

The Heysham 2 and Torness advanced gas-cooled reactor nuclear power stations in the UK are to stop generating electricity in 2028 - two years earlier than previously planned - operator EDF Energy has announced.

Electricity generation has ended at Scotland’s Hunterston B nuclear power plant with the shutting down of Reactor 4, an advanced gas-cooled reactor. Operator EDF says the power station produced enough electricity during its lifetime to power every home in Scotland for nearly 31 years.

The Qatar Investment Authority - the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar - has become the latest shareholder in Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd. The project company commercialising a new reactor design is now fully funded, said the Rolls-Royce Group.

The second of two community partnerships has been formed in Copeland, Cumbria, UK, to take forward discussions around siting a geological disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste. Following the formation of the Mid Copeland GDF Community Partnership last month, neighbouring South Copeland has now put itself forward as a possible host for the facility.

A cleaning technique from the oil and gas industry is being used to decontaminate old pipeline sections from the UK's Harwell research site, saving money and allowing them to be recycled instead of disposed of as radioactive waste.

Work to prepare all foreign-owned high-level waste for return to overseas customers has been completed, the UK's Sellafield Ltd has announced. A total of 1840 containers have been prepared for return to overseas customers since 2008, as part of the closing out of commercial reprocessing contracts from the Thorp reprocessing plant.

The UK's specialist nuclear transport ships and their base in Barrow-in-Furness will be managed by AW Ship Management under a five-year contract announced today. The deal - worth GBP59 million (USD78 million) - concerns three ships owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority through its subsidiary Nuclear Transport Solutions.

Net-zero needs nuclear, UK minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change Greg Hands told the country's industry at the Nuclear Industry Association's Nuclear2021 conference in London last week in a strong message of support. The following is the text of his speech.