The UK intends to leave the European Atomic Energy Community, according to explanatory notes to a bill the government published yesterday authorising Brexit. The notes state the bill empowers the prime minister to leave both the European Union and Euratom.

The UK government has highlighted the role of nuclear power among its responses to a report by the Energy and Climate Change Committee. The parliamentary committee published its Third Report of Session 2016–17, The energy revolution and future challenges for UK energy and climate change policy, last October.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has confirmed that Kyushu Electric's Genkai units 3 and 4 in Saga Prefecture meet new regulatory standards. The Japan Atomic Industry Forum said today that the decision, which Kyushu announced on 18 January, was based on the NRA's approval of a revised review of reactor upgrade plans at the two 1180 MWe pressurized water reactors.

Horizon Nuclear Power - the UK subsidiary of Japan's Hitachi - and NuGeneration - the UK joint venture between Japan's Toshiba and France's Engie - have joined government officials, trade associations, and wider stakeholders during a trade mission to Tokyo this week.

Stakeholder support and involvement are "essential to achieving accepted and sustainable decisions for nearly all aspects of nuclear energy", an OECD Nuclear Energy Agency workshop has concluded. More than 130 experts from 26 countries came together to discuss international best practices at the workshop on 'stakeholder involvement in nuclear decision making', held at the NEA's headquarters in Paris this week.

South Africa's nuclear industry initially reacted with some concerns about the suggested delays to the country's nuclear new build program in draft updated energy plans released in late November, writes Knox Msebenzi.

With the final investment decision to build the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, together with progress in other planned new nuclear projects, 2016 has been a "momentous" year for the UK, delegates at the Nuclear Industry Association's Nuclear2016 conference in London heard yesterday.

The Nuclear Skills Strategy Group (NSSG) today launched its Nuclear Skills Strategic Plan to ensure UK nuclear employers can "recruit skilled people at the required rate to meet the sector's ambitious forward program". The Strategic Plan was launched at Nuclear 2016, the Nuclear Industry Association’s annual conference in London.

The head of Energoatom has described the World Association of Nuclear Operators' first cross-regional review, which is taking place at the Rovno nuclear power plant in Ukraine, as a "very useful" exercise that reflects changes to WANO's approach following the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan.

There will be "major transformations in the global energy system over the next decades" as government policies to combat climate change and energy efficiency measures take effect, according to the International Energy Agency. Nuclear generating capacity, it says, could more than double by 2040.

Institutional and cultural changes are needed if advanced nuclear reactor designs are to progress from development to deployment by 2030, the Global Nexus Initiative has said in a report to policymakers. The GNI has put forward ten policy recommendations to enable these changes.

The US Nuclear Energy Institute has launched three new bulletins of efficiency recommendations to nuclear plant operators under its Delivering the Nuclear Promise, an initiative to improve operational effectiveness at plant sites. The bulletins address supply chain issues and streamlined work management.