The UK government has committed GBP220 million (USD270 million) over four years for the conceptual design of the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). The STEP programme aims to construct a fusion power plant based on the design by 2040.

Westinghouse Electric Company is to acquire Rolls-Royce's civil nuclear services businesses in the USA and Canada along with sites at Mondragon, France, and Gateshead, UK, which are currently part of the British engineering company's power systems business unit.

EDF Energy announced today that the projected cost of its Hinkley Point C project has increased by up to GBP2.9 billion (USD3.6 billion) compared to the previous estimate. Both the utility and the UK government stressed that, under the terms of the contract-for-difference, there is no impact from the increase for UK consumers or taxpayers.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory announced today that Rawwater Engineering Company, whose specialist alloy seals for the oil and gas sector are being adapted to support Sellafield decommissioning challenges, has signed a contract that will take the company into the Japanese nuclear sector.

The final used nuclear fuel has been shipped from the Wylfa site on Anglesey, in Wales, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said today. The milestone marks the end of a programme to defuel all of the country's Magnox sites.

The world's largest crane is ready to start work at the site of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant under construction in Somerset, England, EDF Energy has announced. Able to stand up to 250 metres high, 'Big Carl' can reach higher than the tallest tower at London’s Canary Wharf and can carry 5000 tonnes in a single lift, the company said.

The UK has won the bid to host the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26). It will host the main COP summit while Italy will host preparatory events. Up to 30,000 delegates are expected to attend the summit, which will be held at Glasgow's Scottish Events Campus in December next year.

Work has been completed to remove fuel from the world's first commercial nuclear power plant at Calder Hall in west Cumbria, in northwest England. Opened on 17 October 1956, Calder Hall was in operation for 47 years, until 2003, and the defueling operation began in 2011.

The UK government's legally binding target for 'net-zero' emissions by 2050 is "undeliverable" unless clean growth policies are introduced, according to a parliamentary report published today by the cross-party science and technology committee.

Work has started on a five-year GBP1 billion (USD1.21 billion) programme to address an identified degradation risk in a small proportion of plutonium canisters stored at Sellafield in northwest England and dating from about 50 years ago. The start has been announced with the opening and repackaging of one such can for the first time.

UK Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom has set out the scope of the government's investigation into the power cut that affected a million homes and caused travel disruption across England and Wales on 9 August as generators cut off unexpectedly around 5.00pm. The National Grid said disconnections at the Bedfordshire-based Little Barford gas-fired power station and Hornsea offshore wind farm in Yorkshire had caused the blackout.

The UK plans to make it easier for scientists from overseas to work and live in the country following its departure from the European Union. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the "fast-track visa route" during his visit yesterday to the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire, England.