Countries embarking on nuclear energy programmes for the first time or expanding their programmes after a long period without construction face integrated challenges, representatives from emerging and expanding nuclear countries have said. These challenges include the development of human resources as well as financial and political considerations.

Nuclear and renewable generation should be used in combination to make the most of their synergies in integrated systems to help the world meet carbon reduction goals and limit temperature rise, leaders from governmental and non-governmental organisations and industry said yesterday. Innovative nuclear technologies will play their part in integrated systems alongside renewables, with combined uses of heat and power, hydrogen production, desalination and industrial decarbonisation.

The European Commission must acknowledge the "critical role" that nuclear energy has to play under its sustainable finance initiative, European nuclear trade body Foratom said yesterday. The Commission, it said, should reconsider its decision to exclude nuclear from economic activities covered by the initiative.

The World Energy Council has developed a set of new global nuclear perspectives that feed into an update to its World Energy Scenarios. Nuclear generating capacity is expected to grow up to 2060 in all three of these scenarios.

Nuclear energy has a proven track record of supplying huge volumes of affordable, reliable and dependable clean electricity, but its positive attributes are largely overlooked, according to a new white paper from World Nuclear Association. "The use of nuclear energy is the fast track to a high-powered and clean energy system," the Association says.

The nuclear industry's future is bright, but a number of issues - including public acceptance - must first be resolved, according to a panel of industry leaders at the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Now is the time for the world's nuclear industry to help make the case for nuclear energy in Australia, Patrick Gibbons from the Minerals Council of Australia told World Nuclear Association Symposium 2019 in London today.

Nuclear must be part of a fossil-free future, but the industry first needs to address the cost of constructing new reactors, Magnus Hall, CEO of Swedish utility Vattenfall AB, told delegates attending World Nuclear Association Symposium 2019 in London.

Rapid growth in uranium demand will lead to a need for additional mined uranium in the period to 2040 in all scenarios given in the latest edition of World Nuclear Association's fuel report. Projections for nuclear generating capacity growth have been revised upwards for the first time in eight years, following the introduction of more favourable policies in a number of countries.

The European Union puts it bluntly: We must reduce the level of CO2 emissions and we need to start doing it right now. While some EU Member States are more advanced in achieving their climate and energy goals, others are lagging behind, writes Yves Desbazeille, director general of Foratom.

Australia should repeal its prohibition on nuclear energy regardless of whether it decides to build nuclear power plants, Ziggy Switkowski, a former chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, told a federal parliamentary committee yesterday. Switkowski, who led the 2006 Review of Uranium Mining Processing and Nuclear Energy in Australia, was the first to address the committee's inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in the country.

The Swiss government has announced it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions to a net-zero level by 2050. According to Swiss government statistics, about 60% of Switzerland's electricity generation comes from renewable sources, most of it from hydro (56.6%). Nuclear contributes about 37.6% and about 2.5% comes from fossil fuels.