The restart of unit 2 of the Tokai nuclear power plant will be delayed by almost two years as construction of improved safety measures is taking longer than originally planned, Japan Atomic Power Company announced yesterday. Kansai Electric Power Company has also said Takahama units 3 and 4 will be taken offline later this year for extended period inspections while construction of back-up control centres is completed.

A team from the World Association of Nuclear Operators has concluded that unit 1 of the Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi is ready to start up. The Pre-Start Up Review - a globally recognised nuclear industry assessment conducted in line with international industry standards set by WANO - took place in November.

Bruce Power has formally begun the execution phase of its first Major Component Replacement project by taking Bruce 6 offline. Six Candu units at the Bruce site are to be upgraded between now and 2033, extending their operation to 2064.

The Hiroshima High Court today imposed a temporary injunction on the operation of unit 3 of the Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime Prefecture, currently in a maintenance outage. Operator Shikoku Electric Power Company said it will appeal the decision, the second injunction to be imposed on the unit since it was restarted in 2016.

Greater efficiency in Russian nuclear power plant maintenance outages saved nearly 180 days last year and enabled 2.9 terawatt hours more electricity to be produced than would otherwise have been possible, Rosenergoatom said yesterday. This amount of electricity is enough to meet the energy demand of, for example, the Smolensk or Tver regions for six months, the company said.

The Solicitor General of Ontario has apologised for the public alert issued in error by Ontario's Provincial Emergency Operations Centre during a routine training exercise yesterday. An investigation will be held to find the cause of the error, which meant residents were notified that an incident had taken place at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station when none had. The false alert was sent about 7:25am local time and PEOC retracted it at about 9:11 am.

Global nuclear generating capacity stood at 392.4 GWe net at the end of 2019, down slightly on 2018, according to data from World Nuclear Association. Six power reactors were added to the grid last year and construction of three large reactor projects started, while nine units were permanently shut down.

Unit 2 of Germany's Philippsburg nuclear power plant was disconnected from the grid at 6.55pm on 31 December, as planned, marking the end of 35 years of operation. Operator EnBW said it will begin dismantling the unit in the second half of this year.

Unit 2 of the Ringhals nuclear power plant in Sweden was yesterday permanently shut down, ending 44 years of operation and 215 TWh of generation. Ringhals 1 is scheduled to shut down next year.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued operating licence extensions to two more nuclear power units, bringing the total number to 27 since 2001. Unit 2 of Bilibino NPP and unit 4 of Novovoronezh NPP are now licensed to operate until the end of 2025 and 2032, respectively, which is six and 13 years longer than their previous licences.

Ukraine has this week held public hearings on plans to extend by 15 years the operation of unit 3 of the South Ukraine nuclear power plant, which entered commercial operation in 1989. Another topic for discussion is the fact the unit's reactor core is fully loaded with Westinghouse fuel, and the country's nuclear regulator, SNRC, told participants in the hearings it expected to approve commercial operation using this fuel by the turn of the year.

The loading of fuel into the core of the Olkiluoto 3 has been delayed until June next year because of the slow progress of system tests and shortcomings in spare part deliveries, the Areva-Siemens consortium has informed Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj. Grid connection of the EPR is now scheduled for November, with the start of regular electricity production expected in March 2021.