Nawah Energy Company - which will operate the UAE's first nuclear power plant at Barakah - has today signed a long-term maintenance services agreement with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, supported by Kepco Plant Service & Engineering. It has also signed a five-year maintenance service agreement with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction.

An International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts yesterday completed a review of long-term operational safety at units 1 and 2 of Sweden's Forsmark nuclear power plant. The team assessed the plant's preparedness, organisation and programmes related to long-term operation against IAEA safety standards.

France's Framatome has launched a range of new protective coatings that it says can reduce maintenance costs and extend the operating life of components and equipment used in nuclear power plants. The first application of this technology has been at Dominion Energy's Surry plant in the US state of Virginia.

Preparations are under way for fuel loading to begin at Ontario Power Generation's Darlington 2 which is currently undergoing a mid-life refurbishment - 30 years after the first fuel bundle was loaded into the unit.

A 'Call to Action' for accelerating innovative solutions to sustain and advance the current operational fleet of nuclear power plants has been issued by the attendees of the Global Forum on Innovation for the Future of Nuclear Energy, held last week in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Nuclear power reactors in Japan that have resumed operation could be forced to temporarily shut down again if back-up safety measures are not in place by specified deadlines under new rules approved by the country's Nuclear Regulation Authority. Operators of restarted units have already said they expect delays in the completion of such facilities.

Wood plc has been awarded a "multi-million dollar" contract by EDF Energy to provide engineering and technical services to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant under construction in Somerset, UK.

Entergy’s Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Massachusetts was shut down permanently on 31 May after 47 years in operation. The company, which is leaving the merchant power business, announced in 2015 that it would close the 680 MWe boiling water reactor early for economic reasons.

Rosenergoatom, the operator of Russia's Leningrad nuclear power plant, has strengthened operational safety in response to the findings of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) review in 2017, a follow-up mission has concluded. The team encouraged the operator to pursue continuous improvement.

UPDATED: Draft legislation that would recognise the clean air attributes of Ohio's nuclear power plants has been passed by the state's House and will now go to forward to the Senate.

Unit 2 of the Taishan nuclear power plant in China's Guangdong province has attained a sustained chain reaction for the first time, becoming the second EPR reactor to reach the commissioning milestone after Taishan 1.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj is to employ liquid absorbers featuring bitumen in order to eliminate vibrations in the pressuriser surge line of the first-of-a-kind EPR at Olkiluoto. Suppressing the vibrations is one of the issues TVO must resolve before the regulator will allow fuel loading to proceed.