The next stage of Georgia Public Service Commission hearings on the Vogtle nuclear power plant construction project will begin on 11 December, in which the PSC will hear from public witnesses. It will also conduct a hearing on the testimony of its public interest advocacy staff who have recommended the project should only proceed if Georgia Power, rather than its customers, bear the risk for costs that the PSC deems to be unreasonable.

The reactor vessel for unit 1 of the Leningrad Phase II nuclear power plant was installed yesterday, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has announced. The installation work at the plant, which is in Sosnovy Bor in western Russia, used 'open top' technology, which "allows equipment to be inserted into the sealed area directly through the open top of the cylindrical part of the reactor building", Rosatom said.

A demonstration test run of the Plasma Melting Facility at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria has been completed. The facility will be used to treat low- and intermediate-level solid radioactive waste, reducing its volume and immobilising it.

Construction of Bangladesh's first nuclear power reactor, Rooppur 1,has officially begun with the pouring of the first concrete for the VVER-1200 reactor's basemat. Work on the Russian-designed and supplied plant was ceremonially started by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Installation of critical systems is progressing within the New Safe Confinement covering the damaged unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The enormous arched structure was put in place one year ago and is expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2018.

GE Steam Power Systems has announced the signing of a contract to deliver the main equipment of the conventional island for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Büyükeceli, Turkey. The contract has been awarded to AAEM Turbine technology LLC, the Saint Petersburg, Russia-headquartered joint venture between Atomenergomash JSC and General Electric.

A memorandum of understanding on cooperation in nuclear energy was signed yesterday between the UK and South Korea. The agreement calls for greater collaboration in the construction of new nuclear power plants and the decommissioning of old ones.

Russia's Rosatom has signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazilian companies Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras (Eletrobras) and Eletrobras Termonuclear SA (Eletronuclear) to promote cooperation in nuclear power. It includes the possible construction of a new nuclear power plant in Brazil, Rosatom said.

The House of Commons public accounts committee has concluded that UK households have been dealt a "bad hand" by the cost of the so-called strike price - the fixed cost for electricity generated - for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project in Somerset, England. The committee of British members of parliament scrutinised the terms of the contract-for-difference agreed between the government and the planned plant's operator EDF.

China National Nuclear Corporation and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission have signed a cooperation agreement on the construction of a HPR1000 Hualong One reactor at the Chashma nuclear power plant.

Toshiba Corporation has decided to "explore alternatives" to selling to a third party its claims against Westinghouse Electric Company. This would allow the Japanese electronics company to "significantly reduce the internal resources that it is required to allocate to WEC’s rehabilitation proceedings, and to focus them on cultivating its new businesses".

Two teams in a 40-hour operation have poured the basemat for the turbine building of China's Fangchenggang 2, the first Hualong One unit.