A ceremony has been held to mark first concrete being poured on Thursday for the foundation of the reactor building for unit 4 at the Leningrad II nuclear power plant in Russia.

Russia's A.I. Leypunsky Institute of Physics and Power Engineering has begun tests to study the neutron-physical characteristics of the VVER-S reactor with MOX fuel.

Russia's nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor has issued a licence for the locating of a fourth unit at the Kursk II nuclear power plant.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said the country had "asked the Russians, if possible, to build a second power plant", according to the official Belta news agency's report on a speech made to the Federation Council during his official visit to Russia.

The director general of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has said that generating the first kilowatt-hours from the new nuclear power plants in Turkey and Bangladesh - plus pouring first concrete for Leningrad II's fourth unit and putting the first new Kursk unit into commercial operation - are priorities for the current year.

Russia's Rosatom has begun assembling the RITM-200 reactor vessel for the Leningrad nuclear-powered icebreaker, bringing the total number of RITM reactor units currently being produced at its ZIO-Podolsk plant to eight.

The installation of the second tier of the inner containment building for Egypt's El Dabaa nuclear power plant's second unit took just over a fortnight to complete.

Russian nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor has issued a location licence for the proposed third unit at the Kursk II nuclear power plant, allowing preparatory work to begin for construction. 

An intergovernmental agreement signed during a state visit to Russia covers cooperation on the development of a 110 MW small modular reactor project in Myanmar.