A critical component for the refurbishment of Ontario Power Generation's Darlington unit 3 has arrived at the reactor site. The stator, which will be installed in 2020, is the largest piece of equipment to arrive at Darlington since the plant's initial construction.

In a first for the country, China has uprated its oldest power reactor, Qinshan 1, to 350 MWe (net) from its original 300 MWe. China National Nuclear Corporation said the engineering work "has important reference significance for the power enhancement of subsequent power stations, and plays an exemplary role in the life management of domestic nuclear power plants".

Rosatom has announced completion of life-extending  modernisation work at unit 3 of the Smolensk nuclear power plant, the last of three RBMK-1000 reactors at the site in western Russia. The other two units are already set for an extended period of operation of 15 years.

The 13-year Major Component Replacement project being undertaken as part of Bruce Power's life-extension programme will inject billions of dollars into Ontario's economy, a new report has found. Meanwhile, the major project to refurbish Darlington unit 2 remains on track for completion in 2020, Ontario Power Generation has announced.

Belgium's regulatory body, the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, has approved the restart of unit 2 of the Doel plant following repairs to a corroded pipeline in a safety cooling water circuit. Repairs to the same pipeline in Doel 1 continue.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power has signed an agreement with USA-based engineering firm Sargent & Lundy to collaborate on a planned modernisation project at Romania's Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power has contracted L3 MAPPS to repurpose the full-scope simulator for unit 1 of its Wolsong nuclear power plant for training operators at Wolsong unit 3. Wolsong 1 is scheduled to be shut down by 2022.

The Embalse nuclear power plant in Argentina has returned to service for another 30 years of operation following completion of upgrade work, Nucleoeléctrica Argentina announced on 4 January.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj has signed a ten-year EUR65 million (USD74 million) loan agreement with the Nordic Investment Bank to finance safety system upgrades at units 1 and 2 of its Olkiluoto nuclear power plant.

France's Framatome has completed a project to upgrade the safety instrumentation and control (I&C) system of unit 3 at the Forsmark nuclear power plant in Sweden.

Loading of nuclear fuel into unit 4 of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant in Russia has been completed. The procedure is part of large-scale modernisation work on the VVER-440 reactor.

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts has completed a review of long-term operational safety at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant at Metsamor.