Russia's readiness to replace the reactor pressure vessel its workers dropped during installation work in August at unit 1 of Belarus' first nuclear power plant, reflects the fact this is a public acceptance matter rather than a technological concern, Rosatom director general Sergey Kirienko said yesterday. Kirienko spoke to reporters during the International Atomic Energy Agency's 60th General Conference being held this week in Vienna.

Unit 4 of the Yangjiang nuclear power plant in China's Guangdong province has successfully completed pre-operational testing, China General Nuclear announced yesterday.

Extensive geotechnical and geophysical site characterization at the Moorside site in West Cumbria, UK, will be mostly complete by the end of the year, according to geotechnical survey specialists Fugro. The campaign has included onshore and offshore geological investigations.

The economics and financing of nuclear power projects and the markets in which they operate was discussed last week by a high level panel at the World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium. While some countries are investing in new nuclear capacity, some market conditions are forcing the closure of existing reactors, participants said.

Unit 4 of the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in China's Liaoning province has started commercial operation, China General Nuclear announced on 19 September.

Two Westinghouse AP1000s are likely to start up within a year, with hot functional tests at the first-of-a-kind reactor at Sanmen in China on course to finish next month, interim president and CEO José Emeterio Gutiérrez told delegates at the World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium held in London last week. Fuel loading at Sanmen is expected to take place before the end of the year.

The UK government's approval of EDF Energy's Hinkley Point C project has "blazed the trail" for other nuclear new build developers at home and abroad, delegates at the World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium heard last week.

Iran is ready to share its nuclear experience with other nations in the Persian Gulf through a regional nuclear scientific contact group, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran president Ali Akbar Salehi told the World Nuclear Association's Annual Symposium today.

A contract to install the nuclear islands of units 3 and 4 of the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in China has been awarded to China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Company Limited. The units are a demonstration project for China General Nuclear's Hualong One reactor design.

Japan Electric Power Development Corp has announced a further two-year delay in the construction of additional safety measures at unit 1 of the Ohma nuclear power plant, being built in Japan's Aomori prefecture. Construction of the unit is now expected to be completed in late 2023 or early 2024.

The first foundation stone for units 2 and 3 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant has been laid in a ceremony held at the construction site in southern Iran.

The UK's finance minister, Philip Hammond, has described the terms of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project as a "well-designed transfer of risk". Meanwhile British company Rolls-Royce has for the second time become a 'preferred bidder' for the project in Somerset, and members of EDF Energy's advisory panel have argued it is "strongly in the national interest to press ahead with the plant".