Russia is ready to build "effective and full-scale" cooperation with Japan in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy to harness the innovations of Russian scientists, Alexey Likhachov, director-general of state nuclear corporation Rosatom said this week. Likhachov began a working visit to Japan on 4 April, where he said in an interview with the Japan Times that cooperation between the two countries was "becoming an urgent necessity".

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation has closed the second and remaining Regulatory Issue for Hitachi-GE's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor design. A spokesman for Horizon Nuclear Power - which Hitachi acquired in 2012 - said today the company "remains on track" to complete the Generic Design Assessment process by the end of this year.

Horizon Nuclear Power announced today it has applied for a nuclear site licence for the proposed development of Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant in North Wales. Established in 2009 and acquired by Hitachi in November 2012, Horizon plans to deploy the UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor at two sites - Wylfa Newydd, which is on the Isle of Anglesey, and Oldbury-on-Severn, in South Gloucestershire.

Regulators have concluded that Westinghouse's AP1000 nuclear reactor design is suitable for construction in the UK. The Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales - which undertake the Generic Design Assessment of new reactor designs - are "satisfied that the reactor meets expectations on safety, security and environmental protection at this stage of the regulatory process".

Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors today to enable strategic restructuring amid "financial and construction challenges" in its US AP1000 power plant projects. For its Japanese majority owner, Toshiba Corp, the move helps stem further liabilities from guarantees it provided its USA-based unit, which were $9.8 billion as of December.

AEM-Technology has started the manufacture of the reactor pressure vessel for MBIR – the multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor that is under construction at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors at Dmitrovgrad, which is in Russia's Ulyanovsk region. Based in Volgodonsk, AEM-Technology is part of Atomenergomash, itself a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

UK regulators expect to complete the Generic Design Assessment of the AP1000 and the UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR) in March and December this year, respectively. They have also reported the start of the GDA of the UK HPR1000, which they expect to complete in 2021.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation has published its assessment of the Periodic Safety Review for Hunterston B in Ayrshire and Hinkley Point B in Somerset, alongside an update of EDF Energy Nuclear Generation's revised graphite core safety case. Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B are Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors that both started up in 1976 and are scheduled to close in 2023.

A consortium of small modular reactor developers and customers has issued a policy statement setting out the benefits of public-private partnerships to facilitate the commercialisation and export of US-designed SMRs.

Australian and Chinese researchers have made progress in understanding the mechanical properties of a new class of materials for use in molten salt reactors. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation said yesterday that NiMo-SiC alloys - prepared from nickel molybdenum metal powders with added silicon carbide particles - have superior corrosion resistance and radiation damage resistance.

LeadCold, the lead-cooled small nuclear reactor technology company, has said licensing and construction of a demonstration SEALER (Swedish Advanced Lead Fast Reactor) in Canada has moved a step closer thanks to $200 million in funding from Essel Group Middle East.

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.