Following the invasion of Ukraine, things couldn’t be more different, with countries looking to nuclear power as a source of low-carbon power that can diversify their mix from intermittent renewable energy and imported fossil fuels.

Sri Lanka's 2020 production of 15.6 TWh of electricity was dominated by fossil fuels, which accounted for some 10 TWh, and hydro (5 TWh) alongside some wind and solar,

Kazakhstan’s National Atomic Company Kazatomprom has signed a contract for the supply of natural uranium concentrate with China National Uranium Corporation Limited (CNUC - a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation).

The Paks II project was launched in 2014 by an inter-governmental agreement between Hungary and Russia for two VVER-1200 reactors (units 5&6) to be supplied by Rosatom.

The agreement was signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Philippine Department of Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla on the sidelines of the 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Summit in San Francisco. The signing was witnessed by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

The agreement also said necessary regulations should be developed to create the conditions for the construction and operation of small modular reactors (SMRs) in Sweden. In addition, the permitting process for nuclear power plants must be shortened.

The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kazakhstan resulted in a raft of agreements covering a wide range of areas.

The energy system for the remote region is a standalone one run by Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company, part of the Norilsk Nickel group. The city of Norilsk is within the Arctic circle in Russia's north, and has a population of more than 170,000 people.

The Commission set up a European SMR pre-Partnership in June with the overall objective of identifying enabling conditions and constraints, including financial ones, towards safe design, construction and operation of SMRs in Europe in the next decade and beyond in compliance with the EU legislative framework in general and to the Euratom legislative framework in particular.

The new partnership builds on a long history of collaborative efforts in fusion energy research and development, supported predominantly in the US through the DOE Office of Science’s Fusion Energy Sciences programme and in the UK through the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).