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.

Utility Xcel Energy has announced plans for its last two remaining coal-fired power plants in the Upper Midwest region of the USA to retire 10 years earlier than previously planned while operation of its Monticello nuclear power plant will be extended by at least a decade.

EDF, the operator of the Golfech nuclear power plant in France, has strengthened operational safety by addressing the findings of an initial International Atomic Energy Agency review in 2016, a follow-up mission has concluded. However, the mission made recommendations to EDF to reinforce some safety measures.

Unit 1 at Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd's Kakrapar plant has restarted after the completion of work to replace all of the pressurised heavy water reactor's coolant channel and feeder tubes.