Austria has launched a lawsuit against the European Commission for its approval of Hungarian state subsidies for the construction of two new reactors at the Paks nuclear power plant.

The US House of Representatives - the lower chamber of Congress - has approved two bills related to nuclear energy research and development. The bills - one for a versatile reactor-based fast neutron source and the other for research into the effects of low-dose radiation - will now pass to the Senate before they can be signed into law by the President.

EDF expects its profit to bounce back this year thanks to higher power prices and increased availability of its French nuclear units following prolonged stoppages for safety inspections in 2017.

Richard Harrington, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has given notice of the department's intention to seek an advance from the Contingencies Fund to provide financial cover to the Office for Nuclear Regulation.

The nuclear power industry presents "particular challenges" in the context of Brexit, the House of Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee says in a report published today.

The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has today launched two consultations on the management of radioactive waste. The consultations are on a draft national policy statement for geological disposal infrastructure and on Working with Communities as part of the search for a host for the GDF. Both consultations started today and run until 19 April.

Bulgaria should accelerate new nuclear build to meet the growing need for reliable, low-carbon electricity, Agneta Rising, director general of the World Nuclear Association, told Energy Commission Members at the Bulgarian Parliament today.

Austria plans to sue the European Commission for allowing Hungary to expand its Paks nuclear power plant, Austrian Sustainability Minister Elisabeth Köstinger said yesterday. In a statement by the Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism, Köstinger said: "It is a wrong signal if the European Commission classifies subsidies for the construction of nuclear power plants as harmless to energy policy."

The UK government must take urgent action to "flesh out" plans and proposals set out in its Clean Growth Strategy if the country is to meet its emission targets to 2032, according to the Committee on Climate Change. Reliance on nuclear energy to decarbonise power generation calls for the timely completion of Hinkley Point C and the construction of additional nuclear power plants, it said.

The UK government aims to maintain as many of the benefits the country has enjoyed from its membership of the European Atomic Energy Community since joining the EU and Euratom in 1973 through a "close and effective association" in the future, Greg Clark, secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy told Parliament yesterday. The UK will exit Euratom at the same time as withdrawing from the EU, on 29 March 2019.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation has clarified two points in the impact assessment of the Nuclear Safeguards Bill published last month by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The clarifications are "part of our ongoing constructive engagement" with BEIS to develop a domestic safeguards regime as part of the UK's exit from the European Atomic Energy Community, the ONR said.

An anti-nuclear activist in the 1970s was afraid of tyranny. An anti-nuclear activist now is afraid of radiation. But tyranny didn't happen and the effects of radiation are misunderstood. The threat of climate change IS real and, to fight it, we need nuclear power, writes Scott L. Montgomery.