A contract has been signed for the civil construction of the nuclear islands of Phase III of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Jiangsu province. Construction of unit 5 has already begun, while that of unit 6 is scheduled to start next year.

Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) is to export its first enriched uranium under a contract signed with Argentine state company Combustibles Nuclear Argentinos SA (Conuar). The agreement will see the export of four tonnes of uranium dioxide powder for use in the first fuel load for the Carem modular reactor.

The International Court of Arbitration has ruled in favour of Russia's Atomstroyexport over its claim for compensation after Bulgaria cancelled the Belene nuclear power plant it had been contracted to build. The Bulgarian Energy Ministry has stressed however that the Court ordered the payment of half of the total sum the Rosatom subsidiary had sought to receive.

The construction of the United Arab Emirates' first nuclear power plant has seen 1400 Emirati companies share contracts worth a total of over $3 billion over the past six years, benefitting the economy and stimulating the growth of heavy industry in the country, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation announced today.

Westinghouse can start building six AP1000s in India following an agreement signed yesterday during talks at the White House between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama. It is the first such opportunity for a US company since the countries signed a civil nuclear deal in 2008.

Rosatom estimates that the "economic potential" of agreements and memoranda signed at AtomExpo 2016 is as much as $10 billion. Its director general, Sergey Kirienko, said yesterday that about 30 documents had been signed during the three-day annual conference and exhibition the Russian state nuclear corporation is hosting in Moscow this week.

Cameco and KazAtomProm have agreed to restructure the Inkai jont venture, extending their cooperation in the Kazakh in-situ leach (ISL) uranium project until 2045. The agreement will see Kazatomprom increase its share of the joint venture to 60% with Cameco becoming a minority owner.

The UK government has not given EDF a deadline for its final investment decision on Hinkley Point C, but the contract for difference (CfD) element of their contract would be cancelled if the project is delivered eight years later than planned, in 2033. This was the conclusion of British lawmakers who yesterday grilled the UK Minister of State for Energy and the lead negotiator in talks between the government and the French-owned utility.

The UK government is confident "there is a deal to be done" with EDF Energy on Hinkley Point C, but notes that it would not and could not influence the speed at which the utility makes a final investment decision on the project. "We recognise that the matter now rests with the equity. That's a commercial matter and we have to allow that to play out," said Jeremy Allen, head of procurement and investor relations at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

NuGeneration's project to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity at Moorside in West Cumbria will be the first opportunity for lenders to enter the UK's nuclear power program, CEO Tom Samson told World Nuclear News in an interview.

Toshiba and CB&I have agreed to terminate a number of agreements originally signed between Shaw Group and Toshiba related to construction of two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) at the South Texas Project (STP). Since the agreements were signed in 2010, Shaw was acquired by CB&I, which later sold the reactor construction business to Westinghouse, itself a Toshiba company.

Research and development framework contracts worth up to £12 million ($17 million) have been awarded to a series of consortia involving over 70 organizations by the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.