Framatome has officially opened a new engineering research and operations centre at Cadarache in south-eastern France. It has also announced an expansion of its Intercontrôle automated non-destructive testing subsidiary, which is based at the same site.

EDF has disconnected France's longest serving nuclear power unit - Fessenheim 1 - from the electricity grid, thus ending the reactor's 42 years of low-carbon electricity production. The unit was removed from the network at 2am on 22 February, as scheduled. The utility said the primary circuit cooling operations had been initiated to open the reactor vessel and unload its fuel. Unit 2 is scheduled for closure on 30 June.

Framatome has signed service contracts with Teollisuuden Voima Oyj to support the long-term operation of unit 3 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant on Finland's west coast. Grid connection of the European pressurised reactor is scheduled for November, with the start of regular electricity production expected in March 2021.

Fortum, the operator of the Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland, has strengthened operational safety in many areas, an expert team from the International Atomic Energy Agency has concluded. The team evaluated the plant's progress in addressing the findings of an IAEA review in 2018.

Nawah Energy Company has started loading fuel assemblies into unit 1 of the Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi. Once all four units at the plant begin operating, the plant will meet up to 25% of the country’s electricity needs and help to avoid around 20 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

Workers yesterday completed hot tests at the EPR under construction as unit 3 of the Flamanville nuclear power plant in France. The tests - which began on 21 September last year - aim to simulate the temperatures and pressures which the reactor's systems will be subjected to during normal operation.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has awarded Framatome several multimillion dollar contracts for work across the company's reactor fleet. The contracts include fuel for the Browns Ferry nuclear plant, fuel handling equipment upgrades across the fleet and steam generator replacements at the Watts Bar plant.

Bruce Power has completed a training simulator at its Bruce nuclear power plant in Ontario, Canada, that will be used to train and test certified operators to extend the operation of the plant to 2064. The simulator complements the existing simulators at the site and uses state-of-the-art software modelling and analytical-based computer codes.

The restart of unit 2 of the Tokai nuclear power plant will be delayed by almost two years as construction of improved safety measures is taking longer than originally planned, Japan Atomic Power Company announced yesterday. Kansai Electric Power Company has also said Takahama units 3 and 4 will be taken offline later this year for extended period inspections while construction of back-up control centres is completed.

A team from the World Association of Nuclear Operators has concluded that unit 1 of the Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi is ready to start up. The Pre-Start Up Review - a globally recognised nuclear industry assessment conducted in line with international industry standards set by WANO - took place in November.

Bruce Power has formally begun the execution phase of its first Major Component Replacement project by taking Bruce 6 offline. Six Candu units at the Bruce site are to be upgraded between now and 2033, extending their operation to 2064.

The Hiroshima High Court today imposed a temporary injunction on the operation of unit 3 of the Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime Prefecture, currently in a maintenance outage. Operator Shikoku Electric Power Company said it will appeal the decision, the second injunction to be imposed on the unit since it was restarted in 2016.