The would-be builders and owners of the first NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) have confirmed they plan to submit a design certification application to US regulators by the end of 2016 and an application for a combined construction and operation licence (COL) in late 2017 or early 2018.

Fennovoima has today submitted its construction licence application to the Finland's Ministry of Employment and the Economy for the planned Hanhikivi nuclear power plant project. However, issues remain regarding the level of Finnish ownership in the project.

JSC Akkuyu NPP, the Russian-owned company responsible for Turkey's first nuclear power plant, has been awarded a preliminary licence, enabling the company to start investment and permitting procedures for the project.

The Swedish nuclear regulator has said it believes the country's radioactive waste management company can meet all the safety and radiation protection requirements for its planned repository for used nuclear fuel.

Unit 1 of South Korea's Wolsong nuclear power plant restarted yesterday after having been offline since November 2012 when its operating licence expired. A new licence was issued in February.

Concerns about reactor chemistry issues related to Hitachi-GE's Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) have been raised by UK regulators in their assessment of the design. The company, however, is confident these concerns can be resolved.

South Korea's oldest operating reactor unit will close in 2017 without a licence extension, said operator Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP).

Energoatom, Ukraine's nuclear power plant operator, has drawn attention to misreporting by some Ukrainian media that have claimed the country's regulator does not intend to renew the operating licence of unit 2 of the South Ukraine nuclear power plant.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued a construction licence for the multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor, or MBIR by its Russian acronym. The reactor complex will be located at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, in Dimitrovgrad.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) does not plan to submit a construction licence application for the fourth unit at its Olkiluoto plant before its 2010 decision-in-principle expires next month. The company had earlier sought an extension to that decision.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is to revise how it assesses foreign ownership of US nuclear facilities, and will develop a graded approach to deal with licence applications from nuclear energy suppliers that include overseas entities in their ownership.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved DTE Energy's combined construction and operation licence (COL) for Fermi 3, the first construction licence to be awarded to GE Hitachi's ESBWR reactor design.