Innovative reactor developer Newcleo has acquired a site in Chusclan in the Gard department in southern France on which it will build an R&D innovation and training centre supporting the development of its future fuel assembly manufacturing facility in France.

France-based Newcleo is to collaborate with Italian designer, manufacturer and installer of machinery and plants for the iron and steel industry Danieli Group on integrating Newcleo's lead-cooled fast reactors with Danieli's steelmaking technology.

The European Investment Bank and Orano have signed a loan agreement for EUR400 million (USD434 million) to partly fund the project to extend the Georges Besse II uranium enrichment plant in Tricastin in southern France. The project will increase the plant's capacity by more than 30%.

France's Orano has signed an agreement to supply enrichment services for Ukraine's Energoatom through to 2040.

France-based innovative reactor developer Newcleo and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation of the UAE have agreed to explore the deployment of Newcleo's lead-cooled fast reactor in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

France's Hexana has formed a strategic partnership with Belgian engineering firm Tractebel to support the development of its sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor energy platform. Meanwhile, Swedish and French lead-cooled fast reactors developers Blykalla and Newcleo are to jointly research and develop materials for such reactors.

Innovative reactor developer Newcleo announced it has started the land acquisition process for its demonstration LFR-AS-30 small modular reactor in Indre-et-Loire in the Chinon Vienne et Loire community of municipalities in western France.

Japan's Federation of Electric Power Companies has announced that a total of 400 tonnes of used nuclear fuel, instead of the originally planned 200 tonnes, will now be transported to Orano in France for research on the reprocessing of used mixed oxide fuel.

French President Emmanuel Macron and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed a Declaration of Intent for establishing a partnership on advanced modular reactors and small modular reactors after talks in France. They also visited the multinational ITER nuclear fusion project.