Belgium should reconsider its nuclear energy phase-out policy, the International Energy Agency has suggested following a review of the country's overall energy policy. Belgium should adopt a national long-term energy strategy "without delay" in order to decarbonize the economy while ensuring security of supply and affordability of energy, it said.

The design of European wholesale electricity markets and the emissions trading system will be improved to help - and no longer hinder - nuclear energy as a low-carbon source of electricity, a European Commission official assured delegates at a nuclear financing conference held in Paris last week. The conference, titled Nuclear energy's role in the 21st century: addressing the challenge of financing, was jointly organised by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation.

The pattern of future carbon dioxide emissions from the USA's power sector will depend significantly on whether the US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Clean Power Plan is implemented, according to the two new scenarios issued by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The UK government is confident "there is a deal to be done" with EDF Energy on Hinkley Point C, but notes that it would not and could not influence the speed at which the utility makes a final investment decision on the project. "We recognise that the matter now rests with the equity. That's a commercial matter and we have to allow that to play out," said Jeremy Allen, head of procurement and investor relations at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

NuGeneration's project to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity at Moorside in West Cumbria will be the first opportunity for lenders to enter the UK's nuclear power program, CEO Tom Samson told World Nuclear News in an interview.

Global nuclear electricity generation is expected to almost double by 2040, according to the latest projection by the US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA). Most of this growth will be in the developing world, it said.

The UK government has announced details of almost £80 million ($115 million) in funding to support the creation of five new National Colleges that it says will support the delivery of major infrastructure projects, including new nuclear. The centres of high-tech training will "ensure the UK has skilled people in industries crucial to economic growth - high speed rail, nuclear, onshore oil and gas, digital skills and the creative industries", the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said yesterday.

South Australia's Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle has delivered its final report, recommending that the government should pursue the establishment of storage and disposal facilities for multi-national used nuclear fuel and intermediate-level waste. The announcement has been greeted as a fundamental change in the global nuclear waste discourse.

Sweden has made "significant improvements in its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety", an International Atomic Energy Agency peer review mission has concluded. However, it warned of potential new challenges ahead.

Australia is to become the 14th member of the Generation IV International Forum. In addition to accepting Australia's entry, last week the forum's policy group also elected a new chairman.

The commission reviewing the financing of Germany's nuclear phase-out has recommended to the government that the reactor owners pay some EUR23.3 billion ($26.4 billion) into a state-owned fund for decommissioning of the plants and managing radioactive waste.

A crucial project at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant can now proceed to its final stages thanks to additional pledges by the international donor community at a conference in Kiev yesterday. On the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and President of the European Council Donald Tusk held talks by telephone during which Tusk underlined the EU's "comprehensive support" to Ukraine in overcoming the consequences of the disaster.