The UK intends to leave the European Atomic Energy Community, according to explanatory notes to a bill the government published yesterday authorising Brexit. The notes state the bill empowers the prime minister to leave both the European Union and Euratom.

The UK government has highlighted the role of nuclear power among its responses to a report by the Energy and Climate Change Committee. The parliamentary committee published its Third Report of Session 2016–17, The energy revolution and future challenges for UK energy and climate change policy, last October.

A list of large reactor components supplied to US nuclear power plants by Areva's Creusot Forge in France has been released by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, the regulator said it has no immediate safety concerns regarding the parts supplied to 17 US reactors.

No inadequate or counterfeited documentation related to the manufacture of forged steel parts used in Finnish nuclear power plants has so far been identified by the plant operators. However, the country's regulator has requested detailed investigations be completed by the end of April.

South African utility Eskom has released a request for information for the country's nuclear new build program. It stressed the exercise will not create any financial commitments or obligations to Eskom or the government.

The Swiss nuclear safety regulator has requested a review of documentation to check the design and quality of the forgings of the steam generators at the Beznau and Gösgen nuclear power plants. The regulator said it was "reacting to information from France".

Media coverage of Hinkley Point C has tended to focus on EDF Energy’s financial agreement with the UK government and is only now being recognised for the economic benefits it will bring to the local economy, Nigel Knee, head of the company's nuclear policy, said yesterday. EDF Energy's updated analysis shows that almost £4 billion ($5 billion) will go into the regional economy of the South West of England over the lifetime of the project, Knee told delegates at the Budapest Energy Summit.

Developing production capacity to meet the world's uranium needs, rather than the availability of uranium resources, is a likely challenge over coming years according to the latest edition of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency joint report on uranium resources, production and demand.

With the final investment decision to build the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, together with progress in other planned new nuclear projects, 2016 has been a "momentous" year for the UK, delegates at the Nuclear Industry Association's Nuclear2016 conference in London heard yesterday.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has concluded that domestically produced nuclear power plant components are sufficiently strong for their intended purpose.

Canada's Bruce Power and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to ensure the continued long-term supply of cobalt-60 by expanding production to the Darlington and Bruce A plants.

The US Nuclear Energy Institute has launched three new bulletins of efficiency recommendations to nuclear plant operators under its Delivering the Nuclear Promise, an initiative to improve operational effectiveness at plant sites. The bulletins address supply chain issues and streamlined work management.