Luc Oursel, president and CEO of Areva, has died, the company said yesterday.

The used fuel covered by a contract Areva signed last month with Dutch utility EPZ to supply three "next-generation" TN 17 MAX casks contains 96% of valuable energy materials that can be recycled through treatment-recycling operations, Areva spokesperson Caroline Sagne told World Nuclear News today.

Areva has not submitted all the safety justifications required for the installation and commissioning of new steam generators at Blayais unit 3, according to the French nuclear regulator.

The EPR under construction at Flamanville in northern France is now expected to begin operating in 2017, EDF has announced. The company attributed the further delay on the delivery of certain components and on regulatory issues.

A consignment of irradiated experimental fast reactor fuel has returned to the Idaho National Laboratory in the USA from France for the final stages of a study that has been ongoing for over eight years.

France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) has agreed to extend its collaboration with Belgium's Nuclear Research Centre (SCK-CEN) while entering a cooperation agreement with Spanish engineering firm Tecnatom.

French president Francois Hollande has selected Jean-Bernard Lévy to replace Henri Proglio as chairman and CEO of French generator EDF.

South Africa has signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with France, opening the door to the possible deployment of French nuclear technology as South Africa looks to expand its nuclear power program.

The lower house of France's parliament has voted in favour of cutting the country's reliance on nuclear energy to 50% of power generation by 2025 as part of the a long-awaited energy policy.

The concrete basemat has been completed for the Tokamak complex of the Iter fusion reactor project at Cadarache in southern France.

Areva has cited deteriorating nuclear market conditions as a reason behind a net loss for the first half of 2014. Nonetheless, the company's €44.9 billion ($60 billion) order backlog is over €3.5 billion higher than it was at the end of 2013.

Areva has proved that financing nuclear industry projects can be an attractive prospect for the banking sector, Jérôme Guttieres, vice president of the French group's financial operations and treasury department, tells World Nuclear News.