Industry leaders, experts and stakeholders considered the question of Cooperation, Complementarity and the Fleet Effect during an EDF-organised side-event at the 67th IAEA General Conference. Here, Roberto Adinolfi, Chairman of Ansaldo Nucleare, outlines the key insights from the session. 

A Westinghouse-led consortium has been selected by the European Union to develop and deliver a "fully European" nuclear fuel supply for Russian-designed VVER pressurised water reactors.

The UK government says its preference remains reaching agreement with the European Union to participate in the Horizon Europe, Euratom and Copernicus programmes, but has also published a prospectus for its "bold and ambitious alternative" plans.

A new joint venture, known as NUCEAL, has been established by French, Spanish and Slovakian engineering firms Assystem, IDOM and VUJE to support the development of EDF's projects in the European Union and possibly in the UK.

Westinghouse has signed a contract with Ukraine's Energoatom to design, manufacture and deliver long-term containment cooling systems as part of the modernisation of units 1 and 2 of the Rivne nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, Westinghouse is working with 11 European partners to create security of supply of fuel for VVER reactors operating in the EU and Ukraine.

The European Commission says that its approval of the changes to the contracts for the Paks II project in Hungary was "strictly limited to its competence under the Euratom Treaty and is without prejudice to any further assessment based on other legal bases".

The European Commission has approved the amendment of contracts "to speed up the investment" for the new Russian-built Paks 2 nuclear power project, Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto has said.

Nuclear could provide up to 150 GWe of generating capacity by 2050 in the European Union, according to a statement issued by 16 European countries following a meeting in Paris with European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson. The so-called Nuclear Alliance called on the European Commission to recognise nuclear energy in the EU's energy strategy and relevant policies.

The Western European Nuclear Regulators Association has set out the steps that industry must take to ensure the timely, harmonised licensing of small modular reactor and advanced modular reactor designs in Europe.

If existing inventories of used nuclear fuel were recycled and repurposed as fuel for advanced fast reactors, it could generate zero-carbon electricity for Europe for up to 1000 years, according to international environmental campaign group RePlanet.

The European Commission has proposed the Net-Zero Industry Act to scale up manufacturing of clean technologies in the EU and make sure it is well-equipped for the clean-energy transition. However, nuclear trade body Nucleareurope said it fails to recognise the sector's full potential contribution.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's APR1000 reactor design has been formally certified as compliant by the European Utility Requirements organisation - a technical advisory group for European utilities on nuclear power plants.