UK-based engineering company Atkins, a member of SNC-Lavalin Group, has been awarded a GBP5.0 million (USD6.2 million) contract for the enabling works basic design at the Sizewell C site. It will be the first programme of construction work to start at the proposed twin-EPR nuclear power plant in Suffolk, England.

Construction of the concrete basemat has been completed for the nuclear island of the first of two EPR units at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, England. The major milestone came as the Confederation of British Industry called for the UK government to support the construction of more new reactors.

Finnish waste management company Posiva today announced the start of construction of the used fuel encapsulation plant at the Olkiluoto site in western Finland. Installation of the necessary systems within the underground disposal chambers is also set to begin soon.

Substantial progress is being made in capital improvement projects including the USD288 million Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant , the USA's only repository for transuranic wastes, according to the US Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management.
 

Nuclear fuel will not be loaded into the core of the first-of-a-kind EPR at Olkiluoto until at least the end of August, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj said today. Under the previous schedule, fuel loading had been due to take place this month.

The outer safety dome has been installed on the containment building of unit 2 at the Karachi nuclear power plant in Pakistan. The unit is the first of two Chinese-supplied Hualong One reactors being built at the site.

Indian company Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has secured an INR440 crore (USD64 million) order from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd to erect the turbine generator islands for Kudankulam units 3 and 4.

Wood plc has been awarded a "multi-million dollar" contract by EDF Energy to provide engineering and technical services to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant under construction in Somerset, UK.

Santee Cooper has filed a federal complaint seeking a formal declaration that it is sole owner of equipment purchased for the abandoned VC Summer nuclear power plant construction project in South Carolina. The company has also asked the court to require Westinghouse provide it with certification documentation related to the equipment.

The third and final steam generator has been installed at unit 6 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province. The ACPR1000 reactor is scheduled to enter commercial operation by the end of 2021.

Shine Medical Isotopes yesterday broke ground on its first medical isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin. Commercial production of isotopes, including molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), is scheduled to begin in 2021.

Rosatom's project to build nuclear power units at Bushehr is unaffected by current tensions surrounding US sanctions against Iran, its director general said yesterday.