A consortium of Airbus Safran Launchers, Nuvia and Cegelec CEM is to develop a remote handling system for the Iter project under the largest fusion energy robotics contract ever awarded, Fusion for Energy has announced.

Work to upgrade unit 5 of the Kozloduy nuclear plant in Bulgaria has been completed, extending its operations by 30 years to 2047, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and Bulgaria's Energy Ministry both announced yesterday. Meanwhile, Bulgaria today committed itself to fast-tracking payment of the debt it incurred to Russian companies for scrapping the Belene nuclear power plant project.

The "active phase" of construction work on a central used fuel storage facility at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is expected to start in March 2017, Oleksandr Rybchuk, general director of Atomprojectengineering said.

Finnish waste management company Posiva will share its experience and know-how of developing a repository for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste with the Czech Republic's Radioactive Waste Repository Authority through a four-year service contract.

A contract has been signed for the civil construction of the nuclear islands for units 1 and 2 of the Xudabao nuclear power plant in China's Liaoning province. The units are the first of six AP1000 reactors planned for the site.

Bruce Power has signed a framework agreement with SNC-Lavalin for work worth up to CAD 400 million ($300 million) as it prepares for a major program of reactor refurbishment.

The final agreements enabling construction of two EPR units at Hinkley Point C to proceed were signed today in London by the UK government, EDF and China General Nuclear.

The full-scope operator training simulator at unit 2 of the Fermi nuclear power plant in Michigan is to be upgraded by Canada-based L-3 MAPPS under contracts signed with operator DTE Energy.

A contract to install the nuclear islands of units 3 and 4 of the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in China has been awarded to China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Company Limited. The units are a demonstration project for China General Nuclear's Hualong One reactor design.

The UK's finance minister, Philip Hammond, has described the terms of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project as a "well-designed transfer of risk". Meanwhile British company Rolls-Royce has for the second time become a 'preferred bidder' for the project in Somerset, and members of EDF Energy's advisory panel have argued it is "strongly in the national interest to press ahead with the plant".

State financial controllers in Belarus and Russia have carried out an audit of the intergovernmental agreement between the countries for construction of Belarus' first nuclear power plant, in Ostrovets, in the Grodno region. According to Nuclear.Ru, the State Control Committee of Belarus and the Accounts Chamber of Russia have looked at the "performance of obligations" laid out in the agreement.

Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission has awarded a contract to a joint venture between Tecna and Siemens to supply the balance of plant for the prototype CAREM-25, a domestically-designed and developed small integral reactor.