The ITER Organisation has selected the contractors to carry out assembly and installation activities inside the Tokamak Complex at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter), under construction in Cadarache, France. These contracts are the last major assembly and installation contracts planned for first-phase Iter assembly.

French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that France's energy and ecological future depends on nuclear power. Speaking during a visit to Framatome's Le Creusot facility, Macron said the industry comprises 3000 companies and 220,000 jobs, with 5000 new hires planned for 2021 in spite of the crisis caused by the pandemic. "Few sectors offer as much, in particular to our young people and all across the country," Macron tweeted.

British engineering firm Rolls-Royce announced today that it has signed an agreement to sell its civil nuclear instrumentation and control (I&C) business to France's Framatome. No UK-based employees are impacted as the agreement does not include Rolls-Royce's civil nuclear business, or small modular reactor activities.

The European Commission should include nuclear among the clean energy technologies that will be financed under the Green Deal low-carbon policy, EDF chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy said today in an online chat with International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol. Several European countries, he noted, are relying on nuclear generation to help them meet their energy and climate goals.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has verified that Iran is feeding uranium hexafluoride into a recently installed cascade of 174 IR-2M centrifuges at the Fuel Enrichment Plant in Natanz. France, Germany and the UK - the E3 - warned yesterday that Iran's further violations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action were "hollowing out" core non-proliferation benefits of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Framatome has ramped up production of replacement component parts at its manufacturing plant located at Le Creusot, France. On 28 October, forging operations began on the first shell that will be used for the fabrication of replacement steam generators for the French nuclear fleet.

Fuel elements produced by Framatome using 3D printing technology have completed the first cycle of irradiation at the Gösgen nuclear power plant in Switzerland. These experimental stainless steel and nickel-based alloy components were installed in the 1010 MWe pressurised water reactor in 2019 for a five-cycle programme as part of a qualification project. Framatome said the fuel elements irradiated in the Gösgen plant will be further examined to confirm behaviour in real operating conditions.

France and Romania have signed a declaration of intent on cooperation in the civil nuclear field, which aims, among other things, to work "with strategic partners" to build units 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant and to upgrade unit 1. The document was signed yesterday by French Prime Minister Jean Castex and his Romanian counterpart Ludovic Orban, who led a delegation of his ministers to Paris.

France's EDF has issued an initial progress report on the status of its excell plan, saying commitments made under the plan have now been met or are close to being so. The plan aims to enhance the French nuclear industry's manufacturing quality, boost skills and tighten governance of major nuclear projects.

Digital twins of every unit in France's fleet of nuclear power reactors are to be developed under a four-year project involving partners from academia and industry. These cloned reactors will serve as a training simulator for the new generation of operators and a simulation environment for engineering studies.

The French nuclear safety authority, Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, has published the report of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Pre-Operational Safety Review Team mission conducted last year at the Flamanville 3 EPR. The mission team identified eight good practices and made six recommendations and 15 suggestions.

EDF has said the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a slowdown in construction and maintenance of its nuclear power plant fleet in both France and the UK. It has warned of further delays to the schedules for completing both the Flamanville and Hinkley Point C projects.