Three recent announcements will help secure future supplies of vital medical radioisotopes. Westinghouse Electric Company and Nordion (Canada) Inc are to work together on technology to produce cobalt-60 in pressurised water reactors; Framatome and Kinectrics have launched a new joint venture to produce lutetium-177 in partnership with Bruce Power; and BWXT Technologies' proprietary technetium-99m generators have passed a testing milestone.

Romania must recover around EUR13 million (USD14 million) of rescue funding from uranium company Compania Națională a Uraniului SA after the European Commission found a restructuring plan for the company did not meet European Union rules on state aid.

Industrial engineering firm Bilfinger has been awarded a balance of plant contract - worth about GBP58 million (USD76 million) - by EDF Energy. The contract involves the design, pre-fabrication and supply of around 56km of specialised piping systems that support the operation of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, under construction in Somerset, UK.

AEM Technology, part of Russia's Atomenergomash, has completed the welding together of the two halves of the reactor vessel for the first unit of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant which is under construction in Mersin province, in southern Turkey.

Spanish manufacturer Equipos Nucleares SA (ENSA) has shipped two replacement steam generators to France, completing an order received at the end of 2012 from Framatome for three such components for use in 900 MWe-class pressurised water reactors. It was not disclosed at which plant the steam generators are to be installed.

A foundation stone laying ceremony at the Baroda heavy water plant in India has marked the inauguration of a new facility that will allow the country to produce high purity sodium metal on an industrial scale. India up to now has imported the material, which is used in fast breeder reactors.
 

Canada and the USA have finalised an agreement to collaborate on improving the security of supply chains and ensure the future competitiveness of their critical minerals industries. The announcement follows a June 2019 commitment by the countries' leaders.

The structure of the medical radioisotope supply chain is impeding the provision of technetium-99m, a new report by an OECD Nuclear Energy Agency high-level group has found. Supplies of the world's most widely used medical radioisotope remain fragile.

Russia's Titan-2 - the main contractor for Fennovoima's Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant project in Finland - has awarded a contract to the Framatome-Siemens consortium for the plant's main instrumentation and control (I&C) systems.

In-service steam generators affected by non-compliance in a stress-relieving heat-treatment process are safe to continue in use, French utility EDF said today. Investigations into the deviation at Framatome's Saint-Marcel site are ongoing.

Framatome is carrying out further studies at its Saint-Marcel site in France after discovering temperature ranges in some stress-relieving heat treatments carried out on steam generator welds and pressuriser seals had deviated from technical standards, the company said today.

Rapid growth in uranium demand will lead to a need for additional mined uranium in the period to 2040 in all scenarios given in the latest edition of World Nuclear Association's fuel report. Projections for nuclear generating capacity growth have been revised upwards for the first time in eight years, following the introduction of more favourable policies in a number of countries.