With the return of nuclear new build in the UK, the potential to be liable for nuclear damage will be of vital importance to all parties in the nuclear supply chain as well as investors and funders of new nuclear projects, writes Darren Walsh.

The UK's nuclear industry will need more than two years of Brexit negotiations to prepare for a departure from the European Atomic Energy Community, experts told members of parliament last week. The country's numerous arrangements with European Union member states would each need to be replicated and this could take a decade, they said.

China General Nuclear and Ultra Electronics of the UK have agreed to enhance their cooperation in the development of high-integrity instrumentation and control systems and sensors for nuclear power plants worldwide.

The UK could realise long-term strategic benefits from taking a leading role in the development of small modular reactors, delegates were told at a Nuclear Industry Association conference in London this week. The country could harness SMRs to help it meet its own energy needs, but could also compete in the global market for the technology, they said.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation has published its assessment of the Periodic Safety Review for Hunterston B in Ayrshire and Hinkley Point B in Somerset, alongside an update of EDF Energy Nuclear Generation's revised graphite core safety case. Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B are Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors that both started up in 1976 and are scheduled to close in 2023.

UK trade minister Liam Fox today reassured the country's international partners that it remains committed to its nuclear power program as it leaves the Euratom Treaty. The government announced last month the UK intends to leave the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in explanatory notes to a bill it published authorising Brexit.

NuGeneration has congratulated Copeland by-election winner Trudy Harrison following last night's result in Whitehaven, as the company moves forward with plans to build a new nuclear power plant at Moorside. NuGen, which is the UK joint venture between Japan's Toshiba Corp and France's Engie, said it would work closely with the newly-elected British member of parliament as it "continues to build a robust business case" for the project.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory cannot fulfil the role its name describes while it relies on commercial work for part of its funding. That was the consensus of three expert witnesses to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee's inquiry into priorities for nuclear research and technologies.

Drums of radioactive sludge from Sellafield's Pile Fuel Storage Pond - the world's oldest nuclear storage pond - have been processed in the site's encapsulation plant for the first time. The waste is now ready for long-term disposal.

NuGeneration has welcomed the British prime minister's comments yesterday about the importance of building a new nuclear power plant in West Cumbria, while the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has said the UK's plan to leave the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) as part of Brexit could threaten new nuclear reactor projects.

A national archive of records related to the history and development of the UK's civil nuclear industry opened to the public for the first time yesterday. The archive, located in Caithness, Scotland, is funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Horizon Nuclear Power, the UK subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, said today it was joining forces with Exelon Generation as Horizon develops its "expertise and capability" to operate a new nuclear power plant at Wylfa Newydd on the Isle of Anglesey. Exelon Generation operates the biggest fleet of nuclear power plants in the USA, with 19,460 megawatts of capacity from 22 units, eight of which are boiling water reactors. The Wylfa Newydd project will deploy two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors.