The European Union has expressed its "resolute commitment to and continued support for" the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in a statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors. It expressed concern about Iran's continued accumulation of low enriched uranium in excess of JCPoA thresholds.

China General Nuclear's Hualong One (HPR1000) reactor design has been formally certified as compliant by the European Utility Requirements organisation - a technical advisory group for European utilities on nuclear power plants. CGN said EUR's assessment shows the design has a high degree of compliance with its criteria and meets the latest European nuclear power requirements.

A new EU-funded project aims to improve confidence in nuclear safety by advancing the approach to seismic safety assessments for nuclear power plants. The 'methods and tools innovations for seismic risk assessment' (METIS) Horizon 2020 project is being led by France's EDF Group.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, today reiterated that all clean technologies, including nuclear, will be needed for a low-carbon economic recovery, while Frans Timmermans, executive vice-president of the European Commission, stressed that the Commission “would not stand in the way” of EU Member States that support nuclear power. Timmermans was speaking as Birol's guest in the latest edition of the IEA's Big Ideas speaker series

The lifting of economic sanctions against Iran remains an essential part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) and its signatories are committed to expanding the special purpose vehicle that enables European businesses to maintain trade with the country, according to the European Commission's foreign affairs spokesperson Peter Stano.

Poland will ask the European Commission to approve state aid for the construction of what will be the country's first nuclear power plants, Secretary of State for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Piotr Naimski told reporters in Warsaw yesterday, according to Reuters. "It is impossible these days to build a nuclear power plant without state support," Naimski said.

Energoatom has "various options" for attracting investment in the completion of the third and fourth units of the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, Herman Halushchenko, the company's vice president of development, said in an interview on the Energy Freedom talk show hosted by Energy Club on 19 October. Energoatom published a summary of the interview yesterday.

A new EU-funded Horizon 2020 project has been launched that aims to propose innovative enhancements in the way combustible gases are managed in event of a severe accident at an operational nuclear power plant. The four-year AMHYCO project is being led by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is unlikely to be improved or replaced before the US president is sworn in early next year, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said yesterday. Raab was responding to questions from the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee in a session held to discuss the work of the newly merged Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

Brussels' wish for ​​a relatively rapid decommissioning of the coal-fired power plants of European Union Member States has the potential to create huge imbalances in Bulgaria's electricity system, writes Borislav Boev, a PhD student at D A Tsenov Academy of Economics.

Education and training policy in the European Union must do more to ensure there is a sufficient number of people with the right skills in the nuclear field, according to a new position paper issued by Foratom. The European nuclear trade body suggests a number of actions that the industry and policymakers can take to avoid a skills shortage in the nuclear sector.

An extensive EU-funded research project has been launched to investigate the effects of chronic exposure to low doses of radon and other naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) on humans and the environment. The EUR22 million (USD26 million), five-year RadoNorm project involves 56 partners from 22 European countries.