Spanish manufacturer Equipos Nucleares SA has completed the installation of three heat exchangers for the primary circuit of the Jules Horowitz Reactor, under construction at Cadarache in southern France. Once in operation, the reactor will be used for testing of materials and fuels for current and future nuclear reactor designs.

Ministers from the UK's Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy visited Hinkley Point C on 23 January to see progress at the new nuclear power plant. HPC, under construction in Somerset, England, will be the first new nuclear power station to be built in the UK in almost 20 years and will provide about 7% of the country's electricity.

China Energy Engineering Corporation and China National Nuclear Corporation have entered into a strategic cooperation framework agreement, CEEC has told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The document was signed in Beijing on 7 January by Wu Yun, deputy general manager of CEEC, and Li Qingtang, deputy general manager of CNNC.

China General Nuclear has announced that units 5 and 6 of the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in Liaoning province are now expected to start operating in the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022, which is, respectively, one year and six months later than previously scheduled.

The loading of fuel into the core of the Olkiluoto 3 has been delayed until June next year because of the slow progress of system tests and shortcomings in spare part deliveries, the Areva-Siemens consortium has informed Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj. Grid connection of the EPR is now scheduled for November, with the start of regular electricity production expected in March 2021.

Bulgaria has shortlisted five companies to participate in the Belene nuclear power plant project. The applicants included three to be a strategic investor and two to be an equipment supplier.

The roof of the Vogtle unit 3 shield building - a unique feature of the AP1000 reactor design for Vogtle 3 and 4 - has been set into place at the nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Georgia. Georgia Power has also held the first emergency preparedness drill for the new nuclear units.

A new-generation core catcher has been installed at Kudankulam unit 3 which is currently under construction in India, Russia's AtomStroyExport has announced.

China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has announced the completion of cold functional tests at Karachi unit 2 in Pakistan. The two units under construction at the site are the first exports of the Hualong One reactor design.

A ceremony was held today to mark the installation of the reactor pressure vessel of the APR-1400 under construction as unit 5 of South Korea's Shin Kori nuclear power plant. The 1340 MWe pressurised water reactor is scheduled to begin commercial operation in March 2023.

Iran has started construction of unit 2 of its nuclear power plant at Bushehr. A ceremony to mark the pouring of first concrete was held yesterday and was attended by the president of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, government officials and executives from Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Civil engineering works have been completed on the building that will house the fusion machine of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor at Cadarache in south-eastern France. The final concrete was poured yesterday for the upper part of the Tokamak Complex, meaning the metal frame of its roof can now be installed.