Actions being taken by various countries to meet the target of tripling global nuclear power generating capacity by 2050 were discussed by panellists during a session at World Nuclear Symposium 2024. Cooperation will be key to meeting the target, they agreed.

Global nuclear electricity generation increased in 2023, despite a 1 GWe drop in overall capacity, to 392 GWe, of operable nuclear power plants, according to a new report from World Nuclear Association. Average capacity factors also rose during the year.

Mukhtar Babayev, president-designate of the UN's COP29 summit taking place in Azerbaijan in November, says the top negotiating priority is agreeing a "fair and ambitious" goal on climate finance "adequate to the urgency and scale of the problem, taking into account the needs and priorities" of developing countries.

A study by researchers at the University of Michigan ranks the feasibility of converting 245 operational coal power plants in the USA into advanced nuclear reactors, providing valuable insights for policymakers and utilities to meet decarbonisation goals.

Italy's Minister for Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, has set out the possible scale of capacity if the country decides to resume a nuclear power programme.

Past experience suggests the idea of energy transitions is not all it seems, argues Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. Plus the latest from JET, the USA's Russian uranium ban and China's small modular reactor project.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's NUTEC Plastics initiative uses nuclear and isotopic techniques to produce data on marine microplastics distribution and fight plastic pollution - it is one of the areas covered by Chile's new cooperation agreements with the agency.

The Group of Seven (G7) nations have committed to support the use of nuclear energy in those countries that opt to use it, a communique released at the end of the G7 Ministerial Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment in Turin, Italy, says.

Representatives of the nuclear industry have issued a statement calling for Group of Seven (G7) governments to embrace nuclear deployment as a strategic priority, by maximising use of existing nuclear power plants and setting clear plans for further deployment that would fulfil the targets they set at COP28, to triple global nuclear capacity.

Massive growth is expected in the global demand for electricity, which will require an expansion of both generation and the transmission system, speakers at a side event at the World Energy Congress 2024 agreed. Nuclear power will play an important role, they said, in ensuring the resilience of the future electricity system.

The industry must seize the opportunities arising from a global change in the perception of nuclear energy, a panel session agreed during a side event at the World Energy Congress 2024. However, wide-scale collaboration is needed to ensure the industry can meet the expected growth in demand for nuclear power technology.

Better access to financing mechanisms and other policy shifts required for the large-scale expansion of nuclear energy were outlined when the International Atomic Energy Agency made its first-of-a-kind contribution to the G20 policy-making process.