UPDATED The Areva-Siemens consortium supplying the first-of-a-kind Olkiluoto 3 EPR has updated its arbitration claim against Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to €3.4 billion ($4.3 billion).

Work to deactivate the former Paducah gaseous diffusion enrichment plant can begin in earnest after Centrus Energy subsidiary United States Enrichment Corporation formally handed back full control of the Kentucky complex to the US Department of Energy (DoE).

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) has revised its estimated costs and losses relating to the continued delay in completion of the first-of-a-kind EPR at Olkiluoto.

South Africa is moving towards signing framework agreements with China and Japan and is inviting would-be reactor vendor countries to participate in workshops to showcase their offerings as it moves through the pre-procurement phase of its nuclear new-build plans.

US-based Lightbridge Corp has extended its nuclear cooperation with Vietnam by agreeing to offer consultancy services for setting up a nuclear research centre, including a research reactor, in the country.

Having said that construction of two AP1000 units at the VC Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina faces a delay of at least one year, the consortium building the reactors now expects the units to cost an additional $1.2 billion.

South Africa intends to sign agreements with French and Chinese reactor vendors, following on from its recent intergovernmental nuclear partnership agreement with Russia. Meanwhile President Jacob Zuma has publicly refuted media allegations over his involvement the Russian agreement.

Westinghouse has booked nearly $500 million worth of additional nuclear fuel contracts with eight utility customers in its Americas region within the past year. The contracts encompass the fabrication and delivery of nuclear fuel and associated engineering to 13 nuclear power plants, the Toshiba majority-owned company said yesterday.

A joint venture of Jacobs, Amec and Balfour Beatty has won an engineering, procurement and construction framework contract to provide a new facility to treat and immobilize hazardous wastes from the decommissioning of the UK's nuclear legacy facilities.

Russia expects that within two years it will receive a contract to construct Jordan's first nuclear power plant following the signing of a project development agreement.

The simulator of the Sizewell B plant in the UK is being upgraded and additional training devices installed under a contract awarded to L-3 MAPPS by EDF Energy.

China General Nuclear (CGN) has submitted the sole non-binding bid for the project to build two new reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant in Romania.