Some 200,000 job-years of employment are created by each 1000 MWe of nuclear capacity constructed, according to a new study by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

As the start up of the world's first AP1000 unit approaches, Westinghouse is using the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection process to transform itself. The company will come out of the process "leaner, stronger and more competitive", Westinghouse president and CEO Jose Gutierrez told the World Nuclear Association's Symposium.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) announced today it has filed an appeal against the European Commission's approval for the French government to inject €4.5 billion ($5.4 billion) into Areva. TVO claims the plan does not provide sufficient guarantees that the Olkiluoto 3 EPR project will be completed.

The first of three steam generators has been installed at Karachi unit 2. The unit is the first of two Chinese-designed Hualong One nuclear power reactors being constructed at the site in Pakistan.

Rosatom Director-General Alexey Likhachov yesterday visited the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which the Russian state nuclear corporation said has now entered the "full-scale practical implementation phase". Rosatom also announced that it has sent the latest batch of six trailers with high-current busbars for the power supply systems of Iter's superconducting magnet.

The dome has been installed upon the containment building of unit 6 at the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in China's Liaoning province. The milestone marks the end of major civil engineering works at the unit.

Atomenergoprom, the holding company of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has today reported consolidated net profit of RUB40.7 billion ($700 million) for the first half of 2017. This is an 89% increase on the same period of 2016 when it recorded net profit of RUB21.5 billion.

Bechtel Corp highlighted "significant issues" at the VC Summer project 18 months before construction of two AP1000 reactors at the site in Fairfield County, South Carolina, was scrapped in July. Difficulties, such as flawed construction plans, faulty designs, inadequate management and low worker morale, were outlined in the engineering, construction and project management company's independent analysis of the project dated February 2016.

NuScale Power of the USA has today launched an action plan for the near-term deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) in the UK. The plan sets out how the company will partner with UK industry to deliver a "multi-billion pound SMR venture".

Testing of the hermetic enclosure system of the reactor containment building has been completed at unit 4 of the Rostov nuclear power plant in Russia. The VVER-1000/V-320 reactor is scheduled for start-up this year.

Egypt's president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Egypt to witness the signing of contracts enabling the start of construction of a nuclear power plant in Dabaa, northwest of Cairo. The Kremlin's press service said yesterday that the two heads of state had met during the BRICS summit in China's Xiamen province, where they said their countries had completed two years of talks on the project.

The second AP1000 unit under construction at the Sanmen site in China's Zhejiang province has completed cold hydrostatic testing of its primary circuit. The tests are an important step in the commissioning of new units.