Support by the Belgian public for keeping the country's nuclear power plants in operation beyond 2025 has risen to 46% of those surveyed, up from 30% recorded in a 2017 poll. The percentage of respondents who believe the share of nuclear power in Belgium's electricity mix should be reduced has fallen to 59% from 75% in 2017. Trade body Forum Nucléaire says the increase in support shown by the 18-month barometer survey is "remarkable".

Nuclear power can help nations attain energy security, diversity and decarbonisation, and the USA is "ready and willing" to offer its technology to achieve this, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a US-EU High-Level Industrial Forum this week.

The world must learn to value nuclear energy for its energy security and reliability attributes, but most of all for its contribution to reducing carbon emissions before it is too late, the International Energy Agency's Fatih Birol has told a US-EU high-level forum.
 

The Czech Republic will need to build not only one new unit at its Dukovany nuclear power plant, but also more reactors at Temelín if it is to avoid becoming dependent on electricity imports from 2030, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček said yesterday. Havlíček cited the latest Mid-term Adequacy Forecast published on 18 October by high-voltage grid operator operator ČEPS.

India is aiming for "fleet mode construction" for future nuclear power plant projects in order to reduce costs and construction times, according to Kamlesh Vyas, chairman of the country's Department of Atomic Energy. Speaking at the India Energy Forum's 11th Nuclear Energy Conclave in New Delhi on 18 October, he said 17 nuclear power reactors are planned in addition to those already under construction.

The operation of the Koeberg nuclear power plant will be extended by 20 years and a nuclear new build programme will be launched as part of South Africa's energy plans for the next decade. The plans were approved yesterday by the country's government.

A policy and market environment that unlocks the mitigation potential of nuclear power will enable countries to adopt more ambitious targets in their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, a paper prepared by Hal Turton, an energy economist in the Department of Nuclear Energy at the International Atomic Energy Agency shows. The paper, Nuclear Power and Climate Change: Scenario Perspectives to 2050, was presented last week at the Vienna-based agency's first international conference on climate change and the role of nuclear power.

The UK government has today set out how it will go "further and faster" to tackle climate change - four months after the country became the first major economy to legislate for net-zero emissions by 2050. It has also introduced its new Environment Bill to Parliament, which it says signals "a historic step change in the way we protect and enhance our precious natural environment".

Half of the carbon emissions in the world today were produced in the last 30 years and it is up to governments and industry to cooperate as never before to ensure the next three decades lead to a clean energy future. This was the consensus of a debate on multilateral partnerships that took place yesterday at the International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power at the International Atomic Energy Agency's headquarters in Vienna.

As the first-ever International Atomic Energy Agency conference on climate change and the role of nuclear energy draws to a close, Agneta Rising, Director-General of the World Nuclear Association, highlights the importance of this event in an interview with WNN.

Market forces, rather than reports on climate change, will force renewable energy developers to overcome their ideological aversion to sharing a platform with the nuclear power industry, delegates at the IAEA's International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power heard yesterday. 

Energy investments have never been as dependent upon decisions taken by nations as they are now, Cedric Lewandowski, senior executive vice president in charge of the nuclear fleet at EDF Group, said today. Public policies must quickly deliver the "visibility" required for nuclear energy to play its part in protecting the climate and promoting economic and industrial growth, he told delegates at the International Atomic Energy Agency's International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power.