NuGeneration's project to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity at Moorside in West Cumbria will be the first opportunity for lenders to enter the UK's nuclear power program, CEO Tom Samson told World Nuclear News in an interview.

Global nuclear electricity generation is expected to almost double by 2040, according to the latest projection by the US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA). Most of this growth will be in the developing world, it said.

The UK government has announced details of almost £80 million ($115 million) in funding to support the creation of five new National Colleges that it says will support the delivery of major infrastructure projects, including new nuclear. The centres of high-tech training will "ensure the UK has skilled people in industries crucial to economic growth - high speed rail, nuclear, onshore oil and gas, digital skills and the creative industries", the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said yesterday.

South Australia's Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle has delivered its final report, recommending that the government should pursue the establishment of storage and disposal facilities for multi-national used nuclear fuel and intermediate-level waste. The announcement has been greeted as a fundamental change in the global nuclear waste discourse.

Sweden has made "significant improvements in its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety", an International Atomic Energy Agency peer review mission has concluded. However, it warned of potential new challenges ahead.

Australia is to become the 14th member of the Generation IV International Forum. In addition to accepting Australia's entry, last week the forum's policy group also elected a new chairman.

The commission reviewing the financing of Germany's nuclear phase-out has recommended to the government that the reactor owners pay some EUR23.3 billion ($26.4 billion) into a state-owned fund for decommissioning of the plants and managing radioactive waste.

A crucial project at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant can now proceed to its final stages thanks to additional pledges by the international donor community at a conference in Kiev yesterday. On the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and President of the European Council Donald Tusk held talks by telephone during which Tusk underlined the EU's "comprehensive support" to Ukraine in overcoming the consequences of the disaster.

Age is no barrier to prolonging the operation of nuclear power plants thanks to technological advances that could not have been predicted by reactor designers working decades ago. That was the conclusion of nuclear industry leaders at a conference hosted recently by EDF Energy and the World Association of Nuclear Operators in London.

The overall benefits of keeping New York's upstate nuclear power plants in operation under the state's Clean Energy Standards program would significantly outweigh the costs, a study by economists at the Brattle Group has found.

Unless the deregulated US electricity markets recognize the carbon-free attributes of nuclear plants, there will be a substantial number of nuclear plant closures in the country, writes Bradley Fewell.

The Clinton nuclear power plant is committed to operate until 31 May 2017 after clearing the regional transmission organization's annual capacity auction, but US utility Exelon Corporation warned that the plant is still potentially facing early retirement.