The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation has the expertise and resources it needs should it receive a request from government to assess China's Hualong One reactor design, its chief nuclear inspector, Richard Savage, said today. ONR's chief executive, Adriènne Kelbie, added that she sees no need for wholesale change at the organisation and that recruitment of inspectors and other staff is on target. They spoke to World Nuclear News during the International Atomic Energy Agency's 60th General Conference being held this week in Vienna.

A consultative body of the European Union has called for the European Commission to adopt a "more comprehensive" nuclear strategy. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) says the commission should highlight nuclear energy's positive attributes.

The restart of Japan's nuclear power reactors is "critical" to the success of the country's energy policy, according to the International Energy Agency. However, it says nuclear power can only be restored provided that the highest safety standards can be met and public trust regained.

Askar Zhumagaliyev, chairman of KazAtomProm, and Igor Nasalik, Ukraine's energy and coal industry minister, have held their second meeting on future cooperation in the nuclear energy sector. The world's biggest uranium producer said in a statement yesterday the meeting focused on production of fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power reactors.

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.

The estimated cost of decommissioning Soviet-designed, first-generation nuclear power reactors in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia will be at least €5.7 billion ($6.4 billion), according to the European Court of Auditors. However, it warns this could double if the cost of disposing of high-level radioactive waste is included.

The European Commission is expected to issue a decision "within weeks" on Hungary's plan to build two additional reactors at Paks, Attila Aszódi, the government commissioner responsible for Paks II, said last week. The submission of the site licence application for the new Russian-built VVER-1200 units to Hungary's regulator is scheduled for the end of October, Aszódi told delegates at the World Nuclear Association's 41st Annual Symposium in London on 16 September.

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.

The nuclear industry can achieve the momentum required to create an additional 1000 GWe of new capacity by 2050, Agneta Rising, director general of the World Nuclear Association, said yesterday. This target is essential, she said, if the world is to ensure the International Energy Agency's 2 Degree Scenario on climate change.

The UK government today announced its approval for the construction of two EPR reactors at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset after reaching a new agreement in principle with EDF. However, it has imposed certain conditions for foreign investment in future British nuclear power plant projects.

More high quality, high skilled jobs are being created by the UK's civil nuclear industry, new statistics from the Nuclear Industry Association show. Some 65,791 people are now working in the sector, an increase of more than 2000 on last year.

Nuclear power plant construction, long-term plant operation and decommissioning all offer potential multi-billion dollar markets over the next two decades, according to a newly released supply chain report from the World Nuclear Association.