A Swiss Senate committee has voted in favour of lifting the existing ban on licences for the construction of new nuclear power plants, parliamentary services said on 20 January.
Following the 10-2 vote by the environment, spatial planning and energy committee, the Senate expected to deal with the topic in the spring.
A technology-neutral energy policy should ensure sufficient domestic production capacities for “a secure and cost-effective power supply at all times”, a press release said. The possibility of building new nuclear power plants will “expand the room for manoeuvre for future energy supply”.

Germany’s decision to shut down all its nuclear power plants was a “huge mistake” and has come at a high cost to the economy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said yesterday, speaking to the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Dessau.

His comments reignited debate over the country’s long-term energy strategy and power generation capacity.

“It was a serious strategic mistake to phase out nuclear energy … we simply don’t have enough energy generation capacity,” Merz said.

US private fusion company Commonwealth Fusion Systems is collaborating with multinational technology companies NVIDIA and Siemens to develop a digital twin of its SPARC prototype fusion machine that will apply artificial intelligence and data and project management tools to accelerate commercial fusion.

First concrete has been poured for the nuclear islands of unit 1 of the Bailong nuclear power plant in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and of unit 2 at the Lufeng plant in Guangdong province, marking the official start of construction of the two CAP1000 reactors.

Restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors approved by regional assembly.
The Niigata Prefectural Assembly has backed Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi’s decision to approve the restart of units 6 and 7 at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.

Europe Approves State Aid For Poland Nuclear Station, First Concrete Planned For 2028
The European Commission has given its approval for Poland to finance its first commercial nuclear power station with public aid estimated at PLN 60 billion (€14.2bn, $16.5bn).

The five initial selections for end user experiments at Idaho National Laboratory’s Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) reactor include projects related to data centres, technology application in commercial and advanced reactors, and applications for nuclear-generated process heat.

Unit 2 of the Doel nuclear power plant in Belgium’s Flanders region has been taken offline for the final time after 50 years of operation and disconnected from the grid. Its closure is in line with Belgium’s nuclear phase-out policy, under which four other reactors have already been shut down.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the country has “unique solutions that can be utilised for powering data processing centres” and the plan is “to transition to the serial production of small floating and land-based nuclear stations”.

UK Chooses Wylfa For First SMRs And Announces Start Of Site Selection For New Large-Scale Nuclear Plants.
The UK has chosen the island of Anglesey off the Welsh coast to host Britain’s first small modular reactors, designed by Rolls-Royce SMR, in a significant step forward for the industry.