The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) has formally approved a Clean Energy Standard (CES) that explicitly recognises the zero-carbon contribution of nuclear power plants and will help ensure their continued operation as it strives to reach ambitious clean energy goals.

State regulators have approved a proposal by Georgia Power to spend up to $99 million on site investigation and licensing costs for a nuclear power plant at a new site at Stewart County in the south-west of the state.

US and Canadian nuclear supply chain organisations have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation. The US Nuclear Infrastructure Council and the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries will investigate projects in which their members can collaborate.

A two-stage auction process is to be used to complete the sale of the Bellefonte nuclear power plant site, the company appointed by the Tennessee Valley Authority to manage the sale has announced. The sale is expected to be completed by October.

Entergy is discussing a potential sale of the James A Fitzpatrick nuclear power plant to Exelon, offering the possibility of keeping the single-unit plant in operation beyond 2017. Exelon has confirmed that it will invest millions of dollars to keep Fitzpatrick and its other nuclear power plants in upstate New York in operation if a support mechanism proposed by the New York State Department of Public Service last week is approved.

The New York Department of Public Service has put forward a proposal to help preserve New York's upstate nuclear power plants by valuing their zero-emissions attributes based on the social cost of carbon. The department estimates that the state will realize $5 billion in benefits in the first two years alone if the proposal is implemented.

Preserving existing nuclear capacity and preparing to build large amounts of new nuclear capacity in the next decade are strategic imperatives for the USA, the Nuclear Energy Institute has told the US Department of Energy.

Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd and NuScale have announced they will work together to develop the manufacturing techniques required for the future deployment of small modular reactors in the UK.

Japan's Toshiba Corporation has withdrawn its application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the design certification for its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, saying it does not expect any new opportunities to build the reactor in the USA.

Areva has announced a number of contracts in the nuclear fuel cycle. The contracts relate to used fuel management at a Belgian research reactor, a Romanian waste repository and the supply of used fuel storage canisters in the USA.

The leaders of Canada, Mexico and the USA pledged yesterday to generate 50% of their energy using clean power sources by 2025, using sources including nuclear, renewable and carbon capture and storage technologies.

Georgia Power's Vogtle construction project has reached a new milestone with the placement of unit 4's CA05 module into the reactor's containment building.