The UK's Nuclear Industry Association has welcomed new official data from the Office for National Statistics which it said shows the "vital contribution nuclear power generation makes to the economy". The statistics, released for the first time and part of the low-carbon and renewable energy data series, show nuclear generation and new build activities contributed £3.5 billion to the economy in 2014, with 15,500 people employed full time.

EnBW has had its claim for damages arising from Germany's moratorium on nuclear power thrown out by a regional court in Bonn. The court announced today that Germany's fourth biggest utility had not used immediately "all legal means available” to avert the consequences of the forced shut down of its nuclear power units.

World leaders attending the last in the current series of Nuclear Security Summits on 1 April pledged to establish a high-level group to sustain and take forward work to build a strengthened and comprehensive global nuclear security architecture.

Vincent de Rivaz, the CEO of EDF Energy, said today that the Hinkley Point C (HPC) project will "clearly and categorically" go ahead. Giving evidence to the UK parliament's Energy and Climate Change Committee, de Rivaz confirmed that, according to the French economy minister, the repeatedly postponed final investment decision on the project to build two EPR units at the site in Somerset, England would finally be made "by early May". He would not himself give a specific date and said the decision would be made "very soon".

China's operating nuclear generating capacity will double over the next five years under the country's latest Five-Year Plan. The plan also calls for the preparation for construction of inland nuclear power plants and work on a reprocessing plant to start by 2020.

The USA and South Korea have formally launched the High Level Bilateral Commission to facilitate strategic dialogue and technical exchanges on peaceful nuclear cooperation between the two countries as required under their bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement.

India has allocated an extra 30 billion rupees ($442 million) to boost nuclear power generation projects over the next 15-20 years in its 2016 budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced on 29 February.

The Japanese cabinet has approved a bill aimed at "taking measures necessary for the steady implementation of the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel". The bill creates a new entity responsible for reprocessing and introduces a new system for funding it.

The governments of Denmark and Greenland have confirmed the signing of a series of agreements last month setting the framework for future cooperation on foreign, defence and security policy issues related to the mining and commercial export of uranium.

A deal between France and India for the construction of six EPR nuclear power reactors at Jaitapur in India's Maharashtra state is now set to be finalized by the end of this year, the countries' leaders have said.

The State of New York Public Service Commission yesterday ruled that non-carbon-emitting generation resources including nuclear power plants must be included in the state's Clean Energy Standard portfolio. The CES is to include a support mechanism for upstate nuclear power plants at risk of closure for economic reasons.

An agreement has been reached between Denmark and Greenland on how they will cooperate on foreign, defence and security policy issues related to the mining and commercial export of uranium from Greenland.