ROSATOM - Cairo, Egypt - On December 11, 2017, Director General of ROSATOM Alexey Likhachev and Egypt’s Minister of Electricity And Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker signed the Notices to proceed the contracts for the construction of the El Dabaa nuclear power plant.

WNN - Construction of the Iter fusion reactor, being built at Cadarache in the south of France, is now 50% complete, the Iter Organisation has announced. The reactor - construction of which began in 2010 - is scheduled to achieve first plasma in 2025.

ROSATOM - On the 6th of December 2017, at 19:53, the operating personnel of Rostov NPP (Volgodonsk, a branch of Rosenergoatom which is part of ROSATOM’s Power Division, the largest of all divisions) successfully loaded first fuel assemblies into the reactor of Unit 4.

WNN - The UK's Nuclear Industry Council (NIC) has today published its proposals for a nuclear Sector Deal. The document follows the government's publication last month of its Industrial Strategy white paper, which states the nuclear sector is "integral to increasing productivity and driving growth" in the UK.

РОСАТОМ - АЭС России (филиалы Концерна «Росэнергоатом») за период с января по ноябрь 2017 года увеличили совокупную выработку электроэнергии на 4,1% по сравнению с тем же периодом 2016 года.

FT - The UK’s nuclear “new build” programme is intended to help replace large amounts of dirty coal-fired power generating capacity and old nuclear plants due to be decommissioned in coming years.

EIA projects that global nuclear capacity will grow at an average annual rate of 1.6% from 2016 through 2040, led predominantly by countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). EIA expects China to continue leading world nuclear growth, followed by India. This growth is expected to offset declines in nuclear capacity in the United States, Japan, and countries in Europe.

ROSATOM - On the 31st of October 2017, in the Bushehr Province (Iran) the work commissioning ceremony at the main building of power unit No. 2 of Bushehr NPP (Bushehr-2 project) was held.

WNN - Asian countries continue to dominate the market for new nuclear build, according to a newly-released report from the World Nuclear Association. Of the 10 new nuclear power reactors that started up worldwide in 2016, eight were located in Asia.

REUTERS - “If we lose our supply chain, if we lose our intellectual chain of supply of bright scientists because we basically pushed the nuclear industry back, then we’re going to lose our role as a leader when it comes to nuclear energy in the world,” Perry said.

WNN - Rosatom and the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE) signed a 'program of cooperation' in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in Moscow yesterday as part of Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's state visit to Russia. The program aims to develop the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy the two countries signed in June 2015.

WNA - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Nuclear Association have reached agreement on cooperation in nuclear energy, nuclear power plant life cycle and the fuel cycle. The document formalises practical arrangements for cooperation between them, which has already existed for many years, and sets out areas for further collaboration.

CARNEGIE - The United States generates one-fifth of its electricity using one hundred nuclear power reactors. That’s more reactors than in any other country, but until 2013 the last construction start in the United States was in 1977.

Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive, said: “Global energy markets are in transition. The longer-term trends we can see in this data are changing the patterns of demand and the mix of supply as the world works to meet the challenge of supplying the energy it needs while also reducing carbon emissions. At the same time markets are responding to shorter-run run factors, most notably the oversupply that has weighed on oil prices for the past three years."

On 19 June 2017, ATOMEXPO-2017 IX International Forum in Moscow saw a contract signed between TVEL Rosatom Fuel Company and the Atomic Energy Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran on delivering a reserve batch of Russian nuclear fuel of Advanced Fuel Assemblies (AFA) type for the first unit of the Bushehr NPP in 2017.