All five of Switzerland's commercially operational nuclear power reactors are to be retrofitted to increase hydrogen control capabilities, according to new requirements set by the country's nuclear regulator ENSI.

December saw a key milestone for the Office for Nuclear Regulation with the publication of its first strategy as a statutory public corporation, writes Nick Baldwin, the ONR Chair.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation has granted permission for Heysham I unit 1 to return to service following the discovery last year of a crack in a boiler spine in the reactor. EDF Energy returned the unit to service on 10 January, ONR said.

Westinghouse and Energoatom have agreed "to significantly increase" nuclear fuel deliveries to Ukrainian nuclear power plants until 2020.

Stephen G. Burns on 1 January becomes the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's sixteenth chairman.

The Belgian government has said that two of the country's oldest nuclear power reactors - Doel units 1 and 2 - can operate for a further ten years, reversing an earlier decision that the units must shut down in 2015.

Units 3 and 4 of Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama nuclear power plant meet new safety standards, according to Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority.

Repairs to turbine of unit 4 at Belgium's Doel nuclear power plant are almost complete and the reactor could be restarted ten days earlier than previously planned.

Sweden's nuclear power plant operators have until the end of 2015 to submit plans to the country's regulator on implementing permanent safety improvements by 2020 to ensure independent reactor core cooling.

Developing new nuclear technologies requires overcoming considerable financial and regulatory hurdles, as the promise of clean, efficient electricity remains essential to US energy policy, the Nuclear Energy Institute said, following a meeting on 11 December of a House Science Committee.

The construction and operation of Hitachi-GE's Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) in the UK is justified, the country's Energy and Climate Change secretary Ed Davey has announced.

Exelon has applied to the US regulator for a 20-year licence extension for its two-unit La Salle nuclear power plant in Illinois.