Japanese utilities Tokyo Electric Power Company and Chubu Electric Power Company have today signed a basic agreement with Hitachi and Toshiba to discuss potential collaboration on boiling water reactors (BWRs).

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified the Korean-designed Advanced Power Reactor 1400. The certificate states that the NRC finds the APR-1400 design fully meets US safety requirements.

The Russian-designed VVER-TOI nuclear power reactor design - developed from the VVER-1200 - has been formally certified as compliant by the European Utility Requirements organisation.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has initiated a vendor design review by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for its BWRX-300 small modular reactor.

CORRECTED - The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has said it will issue a direct final rule certifying the Korean-designed Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR-1400). The certification, valid for 15 years, will state that the NRC finds the design fully acceptable for deployment in the USA.

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power has started up its new Shin Kori 4 reactor and plans to connect it to the electricity grid at the end of this month. It is the second APR-1400 design unit to start up of a planned global fleet of at least 10.

Rosatom has announced completion of life-extending  modernisation work at unit 3 of the Smolensk nuclear power plant, the last of three RBMK-1000 reactors at the site in western Russia. The other two units are already set for an extended period of operation of 15 years.

Unit 2 of the Novovoronezh II nuclear power plant in southwest Russia has been brought to minimum controlled power level, Rosenergoatom, the operator subsidiary of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced today.

EDF Energy has amended the return-to-service dates for both units at its Hunterston B nuclear power plant in Scotland to allow for the assessment of new seismic analysis and also further modelling work.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency have completed "initial high-level scrutiny" of the UK HPR1000 reactor design. The design now moves onto the third of four stages in the Generic Design Assessment process.

Zio-Podolsk, a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has dispatched the second reactor for the Ural nuclear-powered icebreaker under construction at the Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg.

Terrestrial Energy's Integral Molten Salt Reactor has entered the second phase of a vendor design review by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The design was the first advanced reactor to complete the first phase of the CNSC's regulatory pre-licensing review.