Bulgaria will not go ahead with the completion of a new nuclear power plant at Belene and instead wants the Russian-supplied reactor that was to have been installed there to become the seventh unit at the existing Kozloduy site.

As the deadline for bids to construct two more units at the Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear power plant approaches, local engineering and construction companies continue to sign cooperation agreements with the three shortlisted reactor vendors.

While the deadline for the signing of the project agreement for Bulgaria's planned Belene nuclear power plant approaches, the government continues to seek partners to help finance the project. Russia's AtomStroyExport warned that it will stop work on the project unless the agreement is signed.

Areva has signed a contract with Czech engineering firm TS Plzen for the supply of a new forging press and manipulator for its Le Creusot manufacturing plant.

Nuclear deals potentially worth more than £500 million ($790 million) were signed on the sidelines of the Franco-British Summit in Paris today as a strengthened cooperation agreement on civil nuclear energy was signed between the two countries. Many of these deals relate to EDF Energy's plans to construct two Areva EPR reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

The first of four steam generators for the second phase of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant in Russia has been transported to the construction site by rail.

Two virtual reality systems have been installed at the UK's new Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield to help in the design and manufacture of large components for nuclear power plants.

KW Nuclear Components Co (KWN) has begun production of control element assemblies (CEAs) for nuclear power plants based on Combustion Engineering designs. Combustion Engineering was acquired by Westinghouse Electric Co in 2000 through its purchase of Asea Brown Boveri's nuclear businesses. A CEA is a cluster of control rods which are moved by a single drive mechanism into or out of a fuel element in order to control the nuclear reaction within a reactor core. The first order of 56 CEAs will be delivered to unit 5 of South Korea's Yonggwang plant in February 2012. KWN was formed in 2008 for the fabrication of CEAs, with Westinghouse holding a 55% stake and Kepco Nuclear Fuel Co (KNF) holding 45%. The construction of a CEA production facility at KNF's fuel fabrication plant in Daejeon, South Korea, was completed in April 2011. KNF itself is over 96% owned by Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) and supplies all the fuel for Korea's pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and Candu units. The APR-1400 under construction at Shin Kori unit 4 had earlier been expected to include the first control elements manufactured by KWN.

Areva has won a contract to upgrade monitoring and control systems for EDF's 20 largest reactors across eight power plants.

French utility EDF has placed an order worth €1.5 billion ($2 billion) for the supply of 44 replacement steam generators. They will be supplied by Areva and Westinghouse.

The head of German industrial giant Siemens has said the company will withdraw its remaining nuclear power offerings and leave the industry.

The first polar crane for use at the AP1000 reactors currently under construction at Sanmen, China, has begun its journey from the manufacturing plant in the USA, Westinghouse announced, as it talks to a potential partner in the Czech Republic.