Construction of General Fusion's Fusion Demonstration Plant at the UK Atomic Energy Authority's Culham Campus near Oxford, England, is expected to start later this year following the granting of planning permission by the South Oxfordshire District Council Planning Committee.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor fusion project has given a progress update on tackling the defects discovered last year in the thermal shields and vacuum vessel sector. It hopes to tender for the thermal shield work, and have a contractor in place, by the end of March.

Georgia Power has said the unit is now expected to reach initial criticality during February and to be in service in April, a slight delay from the company's previous projections that the AP1000 unit would be in service during the first quarter of this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russia's Vladimir Putin discussed progress on building Turkey's first nuclear power plant as the latest landmark saw the inner containment dome installed in the design position at Akkuyu unit 1.

The dome of the outer containment shell has been hoisted into place at the first reactor under construction at the Kursk II nuclear power plant, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom announced.

Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited has announced that it now expects the reprocessing plant under construction at Rokkasho in Japan's Aomori Prefecture to begin commercial operation in 2024 instead of 2022, as had been previously scheduled.

Unit 3 of the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in China's Guangxi Autonomous Region will now not begin operation until the first half of 2023, China General Nuclear announced in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The unit - the first of two demonstration Hualong One (HPR1000) reactors under construction at the site - had been due to start up in the second half of 2022.

Rolls-Royce SMR has shortlisted three sites in the UK to host its first factory for producing components for a fleet of small modular reactors. The factory - the location of which is expected to be announced early next year - will manufacture the heavy pressure vessels.

The loading of fuel into the Flamanville 3 EPR reactor in France has been put back again by at least six more months, with the estimated cost at completion increasing by a further EUR500 million (USD530 million), EDF has announced.

The manufacture of the reactor pressure vessel for the first of two EPR units at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant under construction in Somerset, UK, has been completed in France and the large component is ready for delivery to the construction site.

Minister of State Jitendra Singh confirmed the government's plans for 21 new reactors - including those already under construction - and gave an update on the progress of the various projects in a written answer to the Lok Sabha.

The structure weighing 256 tonnes has a diameter of 36 metres and has been installed in the design position on the reactor building of Kursk II's second unit.