Westinghouse Electric Company and France's EDF are to jointly explore the functionalities of Westinghouse's EnCore accident-tolerant fuel technology. Westinghouse will study the use of the fuel in an EDF reactor for potential deployment across the EDF nuclear fleet after 2030.

France's nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, has said it considers EDF's strategy to rectify stress corrosion issues at its nuclear power plants as "appropriate" given the knowledge acquired on the phenomenon and the associated safety issues.

The French nuclear regulator Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire says that "to ensure the security of the electricity network" it will temporarily modify the strict rules regulating the maximum temperature of cooling water released from some nuclear power plants as the country is in the grips of a summer heatwave.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project says that the impact of COVID-19 means that its current schedule, of first plasma in 2025 and the start of deuterium-tritium operation in 2035, will need to be delayed, with the new timetable to be finalised and announced after the appointment of a new director general.

The French prime minister says the state will increase its shareholding in EDF from 84% to 100%, while the search for a successor to Chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy is under way.

Orano has been awarded a contract by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency for the transport and treatment in France of 731 used fuel assemblies from the Fugen experimental Advanced Thermal Reactor in Japan. In 2018, Orano was contracted to conduct preparatory work for the transport operations.

The leaders of the Group of Seven large industrialised nations should incentivise the extension of the operating life of existing nuclear reactors and support the restart of others to help achieve the goal of achieving a low-carbon and secure energy supply, the nuclear industry has said.

Polish state-owned energy company Enea SA has signed an agreement with US small modular reactor developer Last Energy to cooperate on the deployment of SMRs, potentially in Poland. Meanwhile, France's EDF has signed further cooperation agreements with Polish companies to support its offer to supply 4 to 6 EPRs in Poland.

The UK-headquartered developer of small modular lead-cooled fast reactors, Newcleo, says it has successfully raised EUR300 million (USD316 million) and also announced it has contracted France’s Orano for feasibility studies on the establishment of a mixed plutonium-uranium oxides production plant.

Each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced by EDF's reactor fleet in France emits the equivalent of less than 4 grams of carbon dioxide, according to a life cycle analysis published by the company. The analysis shows most of these emissions occur in the upstream phases of the life cycle.

Framatome and Inria, the French national institute for research in digital science and technology, have entered a strategic partnership to accelerate studies for long-term advancements and enhanced safety of operations for the nuclear industry.

France's Nuward small modular reactor design will be the case study for a European early joint regulatory review led by the French nuclear safety regulator with the participation of the Czech and Finnish nuclear regulators, EDF has announced.