Industrial production fell in December by 1.6% compared with the previous month. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.4% fall.

Volatility has become a dominant feature of Europe’s market as it transforms into an international hub for gas trading.

The US was the supplier of 56% of the total, with some 14% coming from Russia and 10% from Algeria. Notably, around 7% was also originating from Qatar and 4% from Nigeria.

Russian gas continues to flow to the European Union through Ukraine under the current deal. Some nations still rely on this fuel, while most of northwest Europe has replaced flows from Moscow with cargoes of liquefied natural gas.

Nuclear advocates have pushed for SMRs for more than a decade, but so far Russia is the only country to put them into commercial use.

Europe is benefiting from record renewables power installations last year, together with massive gas stockpiling and a relatively mild winter — some cold snaps aside.

Currently, about 15% of Britain's energy needs are met by nuclear power, a drop from 27% in the 1990s as older plants have been decommissioned and new ones are taking time to build.

For the ITER project, which is under construction in Cadarache in southern France, Russia's responsibilities include manufacturing 179 of the most energy intensive (up to 5 MW per square metre) panels of the first wall, which is 40% of the total area of ​​the reactor wall.

Nuclear's share of energy in the UK is currently about 16%, however all but one of its existing reactors are due to retire by 2030.

France and Sweden will "promote a regulatory, industrial and financial framework favourable to the realisation of nuclear installation projects with a high level of safety and ensuring institutional support for nuclear energy in compliance with the principle of technological neutrality and with the objective of strengthening Europe's sovereignty and energy security".

South Korea’s industry ministry said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Dutch Economic Affairs ministry to support the new plant order. KHNP signed a memorandum of understanding with the Netherlands’ Economic Affairs & Climate Policy Ministry on the feasibility study.

The Hungarian government plans to extend the service of the Paks NPP. Four of its reactors, build by Soviet specialists some 40 years ago, are to go out of operation between 2032 and 2037, but their life span may be extended by 20 years, to 2052-2057. At the same time, the plant’s units Five and Six are now being built in accordance with Rosatom’s designs.

Europe will need to invest 584 billion euros ($637 billion)to upgrade its power grids this decade, according to European Union estimates.

Nuclear had only partially been included in the commission's proposal for NZIA. Among the 10 technologies it proposed was "advanced technologies to produce energy from nuclear processes with minimal waste from the fuel cycle, small modular reactors, and related best-in-class fuels".

France aims to reduce its final energy consumption by 30% in 2030 to 104 Mtoe (from around 143 Mtoe in 2022, according to first estimates), compared to 2012, and to reach a primary energy consumption of 157 Mtoe in 2030 (from 212 Mtoe in 2022).