"Including nuclear in the investment tax credit for clean energy technologies is a major step forward for the industry and great news for our climate and economy," said John Gorman, President and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA).

In collaboration with Urenco Ltd, Westinghouse will complete a Pre-Front End Engineering Design study for a secure and reliable supply of advanced TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuels to support a range of potential high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technologies in development.

"The Krško nuclear power plant is synonymous with a stable, reliable and safe nuclear power plant. If there were more such power plants in Europe, the energy situation at the European level would be significantly better."

Under a 2017 contract, the reactors are being supplied by Russia's Rosatom, complete with a lifetime of nuclear fuel and facilities for used fuel storage.

In July last year, Westinghouse announced the launch of front-end engineering and design work - based on AP1000 technology - under a grant from the US Trade and Development Agency to progress the nuclear energy programme in Poland.

Poland's Minister of State Assets and Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin and South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang also signed a memorandum of understanding "to support the nuclear energy project in Patnow and tighten cooperation in the scope of necessary information exchange".

Romania has ongoing programmes to upgrade its existing Candu reactors at Cernavoda NPP, as well as to construct two new units and to develop small modular reactors (SMRs).

As a first step toward enhancing cooperation under WECAN, the USA and Japan announced a partnership with Ghana to support Ghana's ambition of being a first mover in SMR deployment in Africa and establishing itself as an advanced nuclear technology hub.

NuScale and Prodigy have been collaborating since 2018 under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at bringing a competitive North American SMR marine facility to market – a product that can generate safe, affordable, and reliable electricity at grid-scale at any coastal location worldwide.

During the consultation the government is seeking opinions and recommendations on three major issues: how energy consumption can be adapted in order for France to reach climate neutral by 2050; how energy demand can be met whilst reducing dependency on fossil fuels; and how to plan, implement and finance the energy transition.