House defense bill chock-full of energy provisions

The House Armed Services Committee released sections of its fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act Monday, outlining mandates for the Pentagon to further embrace clean energy, address energy security issues and clean up contaminated military installations. The plans illustrate a commitment by committee leaders to tackle some of the myriad environmental and energy-related issues that …

Škoda JS boss hopes Czech firms get big share of new nuclear work

Škoda JS Director General František Krček says he believes Czech industry could handle a majority of the work for new nuclear plants in the country – and says he also hopes for orders relating to small modular reactors within five years. Krček, in an interview with e15, noted that Škoda JS had signed memorandums with the …

US-UK declaration includes nuclear partnership

The Atlantic Declaration for a US-UK Economic Partnership, announced by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden, says the two nations aim to build resilient, diversified, secure supply chains and reduce strategic dependencies – and includes a new high-level US-UK civil nuclear partnership. “Today we have agreed the Atlantic Declaration, a new …

Barakah 4 in final operational readiness tests

Barakah’s operations team has begun the final operational readiness testing needed before the fourth unit at the site near Ruwais in Abu Dhabi can receive an operating licence from the UAE’s nuclear regulator. Construction of the fourth Korean-designed APR-1400 unit at Barakah began in July 2015, three years after work began on the first Barakah …

France Says Nuclear Power Is ‘Non-negotiable’

French nuclear power is “an absolute red line” and non-negotiable, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday, following Franco-German disagreements over the role of nuclear energy in Europe. Nuclear-reliant Paris has already irked Berlin by insisting on giving nuclear energy a starring role in European plans to produce more green technology in Europe. “Nuclear power …

Hungary says Paks II work to start in July

Hungary’s Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjártó said preparatory works would start for the Paks II nuclear power plant project in Hungary next month. It followed talks with Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev. “The modified contractual framework ensures faster progress with full respect for safety rules,” he said, referring to the contract updates agreed between Rosatom …

Fortum, Westinghouse study new build opportunities

Finnish utility Fortum and Westinghouse Electric Company of the USA have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore prerequisites for the development and deployment of new nuclear in Finland and Sweden. The agreement is related to Fortum’s nuclear feasibility study launched in November 2022. At Fortum, our strategic priorities are to deliver reliable clean energy …

DOE begins scoping for HALEU supply

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has formally begun the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) scoping process for its proposed programme to support the commercial production of high-assay low-enriched uranium – or HALEU – fuel. The DOE is also seeking feedback on two draft requests for proposals to acquire HALEU. A Notice of Intent (NOI) published in …