Russian and Bulgarian companies have signed a contract to extend the operating life of unit 6 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant to 60 years. The agreement - between Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant plc and a consortium of Russia's Rusatom Services and Bulgaria's Risk Engineering Ltd - was signed during a meeting of the Bulgarian-Russian intergovernmental commission on economic and scientific-technical cooperation in Sofia yesterday, by Evgeny Sal'kov, general director of Rusatom Services, and Dimitar Angelov, executive director of Kozloduy NPP plc.

The UK's Sellafield Ltd has arranged GBP500 million ($715 million) of socioeconomic investment via a Decommissioning Delivery Partnership framework. The package includes jobs, apprenticeships and work for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Thailand's Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding has agreed to take a stake in the two Hualong One reactors being built as Phase II of the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in China's Guangxi province.

A remotely operated system will be supplied by Toshiba for the removal of the remaining debris and fuel assemblies from the used fuel pool of the damaged unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Meanwhile, Nukem Technologies will conduct feasibility studies on the development of further technologies for the plant's decommissioning.

The government of the Canadian province of Ontario has announced that a CAD 12.8 billion ($9 billion) project to refurbish the four Candu units at Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) Darlington nuclear power station will start in October. The province has also approved the continued operation of OPG's Pickering plant to 2024.

Bangladesh and Russia have reportedly agreed to invest $12.65 billion in a project to build two 1200 MWe nuclear power units at Rooppur. According to Reuters, the agreement was signed on 25 December by Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and Russia's Rosatom.

Centrus Energy Corp has reached agreement with Russian uranium enrichment company Techsnabexport (Tenex) to modify the terms of the long-term supply contract they signed in 2011 and to extend their contractual relationship until 2026.

General Electric (GE) has formally started arbitration action against Taiwan Power Company. The US company is seeking to resolve a payment dispute related to work carried out during construction of the Lungmen nuclear power plant.

South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has upheld an appeal from Westinghouse against Eskom's 2014 award of a contract for replacement steam generators for the Koeberg nuclear plant to Areva.

ASE Group has outlined opportunities for foreign companies to participate in Russia's nuclear power plant projects. The group consolidates the engineering know-how of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom through the ongoing merger of NIAEP, ASE and Atomenergoproekt.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has awarded GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) a contract worth more than $70 million to provide outage services for units 1, 2 and 3 of the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant.

The first shipment of uranium from Canada under a five-year contract signed in April has arrived in India. It marks Cameco's first supply of uranium to India.