Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj has today submitted its operating licence application for unit 3 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. The first-of-a-kind EPR plant is scheduled to start up in late 2018.

Areva and EDF's program for testing the mechanical properties of Flamanville 3's reactor pressure vessel has been extended. Previously the tests were to be carried out on samples from two forged parts but will now be conducted on three.

The US Nuclear Innovation Alliance has issued a series of recommendations for updating the regulatory process to address an "urgent" need for an advanced reactor licensing process.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has made available the International Atomic Energy Agency's final report on an International Physical Protection Advisory Service mission to Canada last year. The mission concluded that Canada has a mature and well-established nuclear security regime.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation plans to increase its "frontline resources" by 9-10% each year until 2020, according to the Strategic Plan it published last week. This is needed to ensure the ONR can "respond positively" to an increase in regulatory demand from the period of "substantial growth" that the country's nuclear industry is experiencing.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has opened its proposed fees for fiscal 2016 for public comment. The proposals would see licence fees decrease for facilities including operating reactors and fuel facilities, while fees for most uranium recovery licensees would increase.

Unit 3 of the Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime prefecture has moved a step closer to restarting after the country's nuclear regulator approved Shikoku Electric Power Company's 'construction plan' to strengthen the unit.

The Swedish nuclear regulator has said it believes the country's radioactive waste management company can meet all the safety and radiation protection requirements for its planned used nuclear fuel encapsulation plant next to the Clab interim storage facility in Oskarshamn.

The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales have provided an update on their assessment of the two designs currently going through the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process - Hitachi-GE's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR), and the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design. The update is provided in the regulators' quarterly report - covering November 2015 to January 2016 - which was issued yesterday.

Seven international regulators have enhanced a common position on their expectations when licensing safety critical software for nuclear reactors. This is highlighted in the latest revision of a consensus document, originally published in 2000.

Five years after the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi, the scientific community is ready to assess what the real health consequences have been and put them into perspective with other risks in our lives, Gerry Thomas told the BBC in an interview.

The USA's nuclear regulatory structure will not hinder the implementation of new advanced reactor technology, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman Stephen Burns told the regulator's annual public conference this week.