Three previously approved reactor vendors have today submitted their bids to Czech utility CEZ for the contract to build two more units at the Temelin nuclear power plant. A new public opinion poll has found strong support for their construction.

A joint venture between Bouygues and Laing O'Rourke has been selected by EDF Energy as the preferred bidder for the contract for civil works to construct the planned new plant at the existing Hinkley Point site in southwest England. A final investment decision on the project has yet to be made.

Rolls-Royce has completed the delivery of the final components of a multimillion dollar technology package for use at AECL's Chalk River site.

Newly finalised plans to transfer US Department of Energy (DoE) depleted uranium into the civil nuclear fuel cycle for re-enrichment will see the Paducah enrichment plant continue to operate for an extra year.

Lithuania's government has approved the draft concession agreement for the planned Visaginas nuclear power plant as part of major legislation on strategic energy projects, while Czech power company CEZ confirms it is looking for a strategic partner for Temelin.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has signed a partnership that will see it work with ARES to offer security simulation software to nuclear and other sites in the country.

Toshiba has secured the right to a "significant portion" of the output from the planned Madaouela uranium mine in Niger under a convertible debt-financing agreement with exploration and development company GoviEx.

The potential extension of the lives of the two operating reactors at Bulgaria's Kozloduy plant by up to 20 years will be examined by a consortium between Russia's Rosenergoatom and France's EDF under a recently signed contract.

A $1.3 billion contract to manage and operate the US Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for up to ten years has been awarded to Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC.

A wholesale electricity supplier in Mississippi is in discussions with Santee Cooper about buying a share of the output from the two reactors under construction at the VC Summer plant in South Carolina. South Mississippi Electric Power Association is also considering buying a portion of Santee Cooper's 45% ownership interest in the new units.

The partners in a joint venture to bring back uranium mining in Spain have entered an arbitration process that could result in the payment of over $200 million in damages from Enusa to Berkeley Resources. The Salamanca 1 project is unaffected and was said to remain on course for construction in 2013.

Responsibility for the decommissioning, demolition and clean-up of the UK's Dounreay nuclear site has passed to the Babcock Dounreay Partnership consortium, which has now taken over ownership of Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd.