French utility EDF has awarded a contract worth almost EUR100 million (USD111 million) to Orano to provide services to its Paluel, Civaux and Gravelines nuclear power plants. The contract runs until 2024, with an option for two additional years.

China's first lead-bismuth alloy zero-power reactor - Qixing (Venus) III - achieved first criticality on 9 October, the China Institute of Atomic Energy has announced. The milestone marks the start of China's core physics experiments into liquid metal cooled fast reactors.

Framatome and Lockheed Martin have completed the installation and site acceptance testing of its Engineered Safety Features Actuation System instrumentation and control system at Exelon Generation’s Calvert Cliffs unit 2.

EDF, the operator of the Bugey nuclear power plant in France, has strengthened operational safety by addressing the findings of an initial International Atomic Energy Agency review in 2017, a follow-up mission has concluded. The team also encouraged EDF to continuously improve safety performance.

Bulgaria’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency has granted a 10-year extension to the operating licence of unit 6 at the Kozloduy nuclear power unit. The Russian design VVER-1000 in northern Bulgaria started operation in 1991 and can now continue generating electricity until October 2029.

French utility EDF has applied to shut down Fessenheim unit 1 on 22 February and unit 2 on 30 June next year. The announcement confirms last week's statement from Secretary of State for Ecological and Solidarity Transition Emmanuelle Wargon that France's oldest nuclear power plant would close by mid-2020.

Units 1 and 2 of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in eastern France will permanently shut down in February and June 2020, respectively, Secretary of State for Ecological and Solidarity Transition Emmanuelle Wargon said yesterday. Their closure had previously been set to coincide with the start-up of the Flamanville EPR, which has now been delayed until possibly the end of 2022.

Framatome has completed the first of 12 low-pressure feedwater heater replacements at Arizona Public Service's Palo Verde nuclear power plant as part of a seven-year campaign to replace all the feedwater heaters at the three-unit plant.

Three Mile Island unit 1 has been shut down for economic reasons after over 45 years of generation. As the Pennsylvania plant closed, hundreds of people attended a rally to demand action by the state legislature and governor to prevent the premature retirement of the Beaver Valley nuclear plant in 2021.

Duke Energy has announced it will seek second 20-year renewals of the operating licences for all of its nuclear reactors, starting with the three-unit Oconee plant for which it expects to submit a renewal application in 2021. The company says the units are key to it achieving its carbon emissions goals.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts yesterday completed a review of the long-term operational safety of South Africa's two-unit Koeberg nuclear power plant. The team assessed the plant's preparedness, organisation and programmes related to long-term operation against IAEA safety standards.

China's State Council Information Office has today issued a white paper outlining its approach to nuclear safety. The country, it says, has an effective nuclear safety system in place and is cooperating internationally to improve global nuclear safety.