An International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts has concluded a 12-day mission to Uzbekistan to review its development of infrastructure for a nuclear power programme. The Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review was carried out at the invitation of the government of Uzbekistan.

Unit 1 of the first nuclear power plant to be built in Belarus was yesterday issued with an operating licence, the country's Ministry of Emergency Situations has announced. The licence was granted after a safety evaluation conducted by joint energy and nuclear research institute Sosny, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, and a public hearing held in April by nuclear regulator Gosatomnadzor.

Nuclear energy's high load factors and reliability could make achieving net-zero affordable, according to a special report published yesterday by Barclays. Nuclear is "safer than commonly assumed", while new technology and further research could make it even cleaner, safer and cheaper, it says, "paving the way for a greater contribution to the global energy transition".

Unit 6 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province has entered commercial operation, having successfully completed a 100-hour continuous operation test run at full power. Tianwan 6 becomes China National Nuclear Corporation's 24th reactor in commercial operation, increasing the company's installed generating capacity from 21.391 GWe to 22.509 GWe (gross).

Plans to construct a Natrium reactor demonstration project at a retiring coal plant in the US state of Wyoming were announced yesterday by TerraPower, PacifiCorp and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. The companies are evaluating several potential locations in the state for the plant, which will feature a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor combined with a molten salt energy storage system that can boost the system's output to 500 MWe for more than five-and-a-half hours when needed. They expect to announce the selected site by the end of 2021.

The reactor pressure vessel has been installed at unit 1 of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant under construction in Turkey. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which is constructing four VVER-1200 reactors at the site in Mersin province, described the milestone as "one of the key stages in the main equipment assembly".

Swedish state-owned energy company Vattenfall has signed an agreement with the Estonian nuclear energy start-up company Fermi Energia in order to become a minority shareholder of the company with a seed investment of EUR1 million (USD1.2 million). Fermi Energia is studying the deployment of small modular reactors in Estonia.

SHINE Medical Technologies of the USA has selected the municipality of Veendam in the province of Groningen, the Netherlands, as the location of its European medical isotope production facility. The company is currently building its first production facility, using its transformational non-reactor technology, in Janesville, Wisconsin.

The environmental and economic benefits from Pakistan's Karachi nuclear power plant will be "huge" in a country that is particularly vulnerable to climate change, Prime Minister Imran Khan said today as he formally inaugurated the first of two Hualong One units at the site.

Work on Tianwan units 7 and 8 and Xudabao units 3 and 4 was launched today at a ceremony attended via video-link by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The four VVER-1200 reactors are part of a series of strategic agreements Russia and China signed in 2018. According to a Kremlin statement, the two heads of state witnessed the pouring of first concrete for Tianwan unit 7.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj announced yesterday it has reached a consensus with the Areva−Siemens consortium regarding the terms of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR project completion. The OL3 plant, construction of which began in 2005, is scheduled to be connected to the grid in October this year and to begin regular electricity production in February 2022.

Slovak nuclear regulator Úrad jadrového dozoru announced yesterday it had  issued an operating licence for unit 3 of the Mochovce nuclear power plant, as well as related permits for the management of radioactive waste and used nuclear fuel, and "the early use of buildings". Interested parties have until 19 June to comment on the regulator's decision to approve commissioning of the unit, which the government has said it expects to start by the end of this year.