The installation of the second tier of the reactor building's internal containment has been completed at unit 1 of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant under construction in Mersin province, southern Turkey. The inner containment is one of the critical components of unit's safety systems, which prevent the release of radioactive materials to the environment, said JSC Akkuyu Nuklear.

Rosenergoatom, the operator subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced today that preparatory work for the construction of four new reactors has commenced. Two VVER-TOI units are to be built at a new plant near the existing Smolensk site, while two VVER-1200 units will be built as units 3 and 4 of the Leningrad II plant.

Construction of the 49,000-tonne concrete basemat for the nuclear island of the second unit at Hinkley Point C has been completed. EDF Energy said the milestone had coincided with its ambition to spend GBP1.5 billion (USD1.9 billion) with regional businesses in South-West England five years ahead of target.

The 1250-tonne steel base of the cryostat - which will insulate the magnetic system at cryogenic temperature from the outside environment - has been installed at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at Cadarache in south-eastern France. The milestone marks the installation of the first and heaviest component of the ITER fusion machine.

The final module - a 750,000 gallon (2.8 million litre) water tank - has been installed at Georgia Power's Vogtle unit 3. The CB-20 module is a major part of the AP1000 reactor's advanced passive safety system.

All construction and installation works at the construction site of the Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine is expected to be completed by the end of September. The country’s nuclear power plant operator, Energoatom, announced the new target date following a meeting at the site by its acting president, Petr Kotin, on 15 May in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Rosatom has applied to delay by two months the commissioning of unit 2 of the Leningrad II nuclear power plant in western Russian owing to the departure from the country of foreign workers installing diesel generators at the site. According to a report by Russian newspaper Kommersant yesterday, Rosatom considers their exit - owing to safety considerations amid the coronavirus pandemic - to be force majeure and has requested to be released from any fine for not being able to meet its obligations to add the unit's generating capacity to the wholesale market.

Cold hydrostatic testing has been completed at Barakah unit 4, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation has announced. The testing incorporated lessons learned from the previous three Barakah units and is a crucial step towards the completion of unit 4.

Russia's Rosatom has completed hydrostatic testing of the catch basin of Leningrad II-2’s evaporative cooling tower. At 167 metres high, it is one of the tallest industrial facilities in the Leningrad region, Rosatom said.

The integrated head package for Vogtle Unit 3 has been set into place on top of the reactor vessel, Georgia Power has announced. This follows the recent completion of open vessel testing for the AP1000 unit, which is one of two under construction at the site near Wayensboro, Georgia.
 

The first unit at the Barakah nuclear power plant will reach first criticality "within a month or so", Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation CEO Mohamed Al Hammadi said yesterday. He was speaking to Fred Kempe, CEO of the US-based Atlantic Council think-tank, in an online discussion of the impacts of COVID-19 on global energy demand.

PreussenElektra has completed the construction of a second interim storage facility for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste at the Unterweser nuclear power plant. The German utility has handed the facility over to Bundes Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagern, the government-owned company responsible for its operation.