The Romanian Senate, the upper house of the country's parliament, has ratified an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation to expand and modernise Romania's nuclear power programme that was signed between Romania and the USA in October 2020. Areas for cooperation could include the completion of units 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant and the refurbishment of unit 1 at the plant.

A major renovation project has been completed at TRIGA International's fuel fabrication facility in Romans-sur-Isère, southeastern France. The facility is the only supplier of uranium-zirconium hydride fuel for use in TRIGA-type research reactors. The upgrades will ensure the continued operation of 36 such reactors around the world.

Zio-Podolsk has started manufacturing modules for PGN-200M steam generators as part of work to upgrade unit 3 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in the Sverdlovsk district of Russia. Zio-Podolsk is a subsidiary of Rosatom, which said the modernisation work was aimed at extending the operating life of the unit to 60 years.

Bruce Power's Major Component Replacement project remains on track despite a two-month delay caused by the pandemic, the company said yesterday as it marked the first anniversary of the start of work at Bruce 6.

Darlington unit 3 is ready to begin the next stage of its refurbishment - disassembly - after successful separation of the reactor and its systems from the three remaining operating units at the station. Installation of the final 5-tonne section of steel bulkhead needed for the isolation was completed 10 days ahead of schedule.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has today approved the independent core cooling systems implemented by the operators of the country's nuclear power plants. The operators were required to introduce such systems following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi. The systems were to be in place by the end of this year in order for the reactors to continue operating.

Kyushu Electric Power Company has restarted unit 1 of its Sendai nuclear power plant in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture having completed construction of a bunkered back-up control centre as required under revised safety regulations. The 890 MWe pressurised water reactor is the first unit to resume operation in the country after building such a facility.

Tohoku Electric Power Company today received approval from Murai Yoshihiro, the governor of Miyagi Prefecture, to restart unit 2 of its Onagawa nuclear plant in the northeastern Japan prefecture. The utility aims to restart the 796 MWe boiling water reactor in fiscal 2022 at the earliest.

The world needs countries, such as Brazil, to step up and lead the way by expanding their nuclear capacity to help contribute to a sustainable energy future, said Agneta Rising, former director general of World Nuclear Association. She was speaking ahead of the World Nuclear University Short Course World Nuclear Industry Today to be held online in Brazil next week.

Safety improvement work to enable Mihama unit 3 and Takahama unit 1 - both in Japan's Fukui Prefecture - to operate for an additional 20 years, to 60 years, has now been completed, Kansai Electric Power Company announced today. Work needed to extend the operation of unit 2 of the Takahama plant continues.

The generating capacity of units 1 and 2 of the Mochovce nuclear power plant in the Slovak Republic will each be increased from 471 MWe to 500 MWe through efficiency projects. Work to modernise the turbines of unit 2 has now begun, with similar work at unit 1 scheduled to begin around the end of the year.

Framatome's digital instrumentation and control (I&C) systems at the Doel nuclear power plant in Belgium have passed the final site acceptance test. The milestone marks the completion of the project to modernise the control and emergency systems at units 1 and 2 of the plant.