Independent regulators should play a greater role in communicating the risks associated with energy generation and distribution because the government is not considered as an impartial source of information, according to a report from the UK parliament's Science and Technology Committee.

Support for nuclear energy as part of the UK's energy mix has increased over the last year with 63% agreeing that it has a role to play, an opinion poll commissioned by EDF Energy has found.

Advanced Candu reactor technology and GE-Hitachi's Prism concept have been shortlisted for further investigation to test their credibility as possible alternatives for managing the UK's plutonium stocks.

A report for EDF Energy has put some figures on the benefits to the UK economy that could flow from the company's plans for new nuclear power plants.

The appetite of UK business leaders for new nuclear generating capacity has not diminished, despite the Fukushima accident, a poll conducted by the Institute of Directors (IoD) of its members shows. The IoD has published a report calling nuclear energy a "clean, cheap and safe" way of generating electricity.

A joint venture between Bouygues and Laing O'Rourke has been selected by EDF Energy as the preferred bidder for the contract for civil works to construct the planned new plant at the existing Hinkley Point site in southwest England. A final investment decision on the project has yet to be made.

Completing existing reprocessing contracts at the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) at Sellafield remains a "viable and cost-effective strategy," the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has concluded.

Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom is interested in entering the UK nuclear market and is beginning preliminary work to do so, officials said at AtomExpo.

The University of Manchester is to provide expert input to GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy in its promotion of the use of Prism fast reactors to dispose of the UK's plutonium stocks.

Over half the respondents in a public opinion poll in the UK county of Cumbria supported councils in the county participating in the search for a suitable site for the country's high-level waste repository.