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.

Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak yesterday highlighted the contribution of the country's nuclear power sector, which this year celebrates its 75th anniversary, to the transition to low-carbon energy. During his address to the 11th Clean Energy Ministerial, Novak said the climate agenda was becoming an increasingly significant factor in changes to the wider energy industry.

The fight against the coronavirus pandemic has underscored the important role the International Atomic Energy Agency plays in the major crises the world faces, its director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said today in his opening address to the 64th regular session of the IAEA General Conference. These remarks were in addition to his formal statement published by the agency while he was speaking to the conference's participants, both those present at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna and those watching via livestreaming of the event.

The nuclear industry has merely scratched the surface of the flexible benefits of nuclear power, according to panellists in a conference held this week ahead of the 11th Clean Energy Ministerial. The CEM11 side-event, Flexibility in Clean Energy Systems: The Enabling Roles of Nuclear Energy, included high-level speakers from the International Energy Agency, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as government officials from Canada, the UK and the USA. Hosted by Saudi Arabia, CEM11 will take place on 22 September.

A high-level panel of senior political figures and experts from leading international energy organisations yesterday discussed how nuclear energy can address some of the most pressing issues the world is facing. The discussion took place during the first session of World Nuclear Association's Strategic eForum 2020.

A newly announced CAD55 million (USD42 million) contract for fuel channel maintenance to extend operations at Bruce 3 is one of several joint projects between Bruce Power and BWXT the companies say will advance Ontario's post-COVID economic recovery programme. The companies also announced the shipment of the first "made-in-Ontario" steam generator for Major Component Replacement project at Bruce unit 6.

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.

Kazatomprom CEO Galymzhan Pirmatov highlighted changing sentiment in the uranium market when announcing the Kazakh uranium producer's half-yearly financial results yesterday. The impact of reductions in Kazatomprom's operations due to COVID-19 measures will not be seen until the second-half of this year, he said, and the company expects its inventory levels to fall below its target of six to seven months of annual attributable production in 2020 and 2021.

Rosatom has not revised its portfolio of construction projects abroad but anticipates the coronavirus pandemic may affect some of its contracts, Alexey Likhachov, the Russian state nuclear corporation's director general, said during the Army-2020 conference in Moscow on 23 August, according to Tass. Separately, local Egyptian media said today that Egypt would issue a construction licence for the planned El Dabaa nuclear power plant in the second-half of 2021.

Bruce Power and Cameco yesterday announced the launch of a centre for next generation nuclear technologies as one of a series of initiatives to leverage their existing partnership to help rebuild the Canadian economy post-COVID, protect the environment and fight disease. They also announced that Cameco will supply an additional 1600 specialised fuel bundles for the 2024 restart of Bruce unit 6, which is currently undergoing refurbishment.

Kazakhstan's JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom says it will continue to "flex down" production by 20% through 2022. The company is also maintaining its 20% reduction in 2021, with no additional production planned to replace volumes lost in 2020 due to the measures taken to combat COVID-19.

Kazakhstan's JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom plans to return staffing levels at its uranium mines to normal by around the end of this month. The number of employees at the mine sites was reduced between April and July in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.