The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is unlikely to be improved or replaced before the US president is sworn in early next year, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said yesterday. Raab was responding to questions from the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee in a session held to discuss the work of the newly merged Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

Harworth Group plc has announced the completion of the UK Atomic Energy Authority's new nuclear fusion technology research facility at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. When it opens later this year, the 2500-square-metre facility will develop and test joining technologies for fusion materials and components, including novel metals and ceramics.

A decision on planning consent for the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project on Anglesey that was due to be made yesterday has been delayed until 31 December, as requested by Horizon Nuclear Power, the UK project developer owned by Japan’s Hitachi.

Carolina Schmidt and Alok Sharma - respectively, COP25 president and COP26 president-designate - yesterday issued a joint plea for new and enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions and net-zero targets ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The UK government has launched a COP26 Energy Transition Council to bring together leaders of the global power sector, to accelerate the transition from coal to clean power. Announcing the initiative at a Clean Energy Ministerial side event, Martin Callanan said this new partnership would "speed progress" for the next round of UN climate talks, in November 2020. Callanan, a life peer, delivered a keynote speech on behalf of COP President Designate Alok Sharma, at the CEM11 discussion Passing the Tipping Point: the next decade of clean energy cooperation held on 21 September.

The European Court of Justice has rejected Austria's appeal against the European Commission's 2014 decision to approve the UK's support for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, which is under construction in Somerset, England. The Court of Justice, the supreme court of the European Union in matters of EU law, agreed with the Commission that the project is in line with EU state aid rules.

Hitachi announced today it will end its business operations on the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant construction project, which it had suspended in January 2019 "because it was clear that further time was needed to decide on a financing structure". Horizon Nuclear Power, the UK project developer that Hitachi acquired in November 2012, said it will now take steps for the "orderly closing down" of all its current development activities, but will "keep the lines of communication open" with government and other key stakeholders regarding future options at both its sites, which in addition to Wylfa Newydd on Anglesey, include Oldbury on Severn in South Gloucestershire.

Construction of the second reactor at the Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset, England, passed a major milestone with the lifting of the first part of the massive steel containment liner, EDF Energy announced yesterday. Lifted by the world's largest crane, 'Big Carl', just nine months after the same lift for the first reactor, construction of the 170-tonne liner cup was 30% quicker than the identical part on the first reactor.

The first UK-wide citizens' assembly on climate change said today it has set out “a clear, internally consistent and timely path” for how the UK can reach its legally binding target of net-zero emissions by 2050 in its final report published today. In response, the UK Nuclear Industry Association said that the target of "four times as much clean power as now" will need nuclear power as part of the energy mix if this is to be achieved.

The UK government today announced GBP65 million (USD84 million) of investment in future technologies, including GBP15 million to enable universities, research organisations and businesses to build robots to inspect, maintain and repair nuclear power stations, satellites and wind turbines. The robotics will also be used to address new problems resulting from the pandemic, including ones that can operated remotely and make contact-free deliveries or move hospital beds.

Rolls-Royce, the British engineering firm, has been awarded a "multi-million-euro" contract by China National Nuclear Corporation to provide the Neutron Flux Monitoring System for two nuclear reactors currently under construction in China. The system measures the neutron flux of a reactor, and thus continuously and instantly monitors its power, the fluctuations of that power, as well as its axial and radial distribution within the reactor, Rolls-Royce said.

Civil nuclear has historically had a certain image of the type of people most likely to be employed in the sector, in terms of job function, gender and age. That image is rightly changing, writes Zoe Stollard, partner at national law firm Clarke Willmott.