Foratom says it "remains concerned" that the European Commission is paying "insufficient attention" to low-carbon, non-fossil fuel sources of hydrogen, such as nuclear. The EU nuclear trade association was responding to two strategies the Commission released on 8 July for energy sector integration and hydrogen. Foratom said it welcomed the addition of a 'low-carbon hydrogen' category but said its usage should not be limited to the short and medium term.

High-level speakers from government, industry and international organisations at an International Energy Agency summit today underlined the need for nuclear energy to play a role in the post-COVID economic recovery at the same time as meeting the climate challenge.

JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom has today announced it is extending for one month its reduction in operations due to COVID-19. Kazakhstan's government last week announced a second two-week lockdown after a national surge in coronavirus cases followed the lifting of an earlier lockdown.

EDF is revising upwards its nuclear output estimate in France for 2020, to around 315-325 terawatt-hours. In April, the French state-owned utility said it expected generation this year to be about 300 TWh, down from an initial expectation of 375-390 TWh before the coronavirus outbreak.

The European Union cannot afford to reduce its energy diversity and will need stronger policies than those currently in place to help it meet its 2030 targets for greenhouse gas emissions, renewables and energy efficiency as well as its long-term climate goals, according to a new review of EU energy policy from the International Energy Agency.

Ukraine's electricity market discriminates against nuclear power and recent reforms do little to help Energoatom's mounting debts, Petro Kotin, acting president of the state-owned nuclear power plant operator has said. Recent amendments to electricity market regulations enable Energoatom to sell just 5% of its generation through bilateral contracts, but the company wants this to be increased to 50%.

If the European Commission is serious about its efforts to support the post-virus economic recovery and to achieving a clean energy transition, then it will correct the omission of nuclear energy in its Green Deal package and in the EU Taxonomy, Czech and Polish ministers have written in letters to Frans Timmermans and Kadri Simons, respectively the first vice president of the European Commission and the European commissioner for energy.

Nuclear energy should be part of post COVID-19 recovery plans, participants agreed during a webinar held today by the OECD/Nuclear Energy Agency to launch a series of policy briefs. Nuclear energy can not only provide economic and employment benefits, but can also help the world attain a low-carbon energy system and increase energy resilience, they said.

The OECD/Nuclear Energy Agency has today launched a series of policy briefs that examine nuclear energy's role in the post-COVID economic recovery. The policy briefs, to which World Nuclear Association contributed, have four themes: building resilience; job creation; cost-effective decarbonisation; and unlocking finance.

Investing in existing nuclear power plants, new nuclear build and supporting innovation in small modular reactors are among measures set out to support a broad range of clean energy technologies in an energy-focused COVID-19 economic recovery plan released today by the International Energy Agency. Its emphasis for nuclear investment, however, is on existing plants rather than new power units.

Weaker economic activity amid the COVID-19 pandemic means that S&P Global Ratings' base-case assumptions for power prices in some of Europe's main markets in 2020-2021 are now up to 20% lower than its previous assumptions in November 2019. This, it says, is despite a drastic cut in French nuclear power production rates over the coming three years.