“I believe that it was a strategic mistake for Europe to turn its back on a reliable, affordable source of low-emissions power,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told a Paris leadership summit.

Slovenia says that financing conditions for a new reactor unit at the Krško nuclear power station look favourable as the country begins planning for the potential unit before a national referendum on its development no later than early 2028.

The Slovenian government said it will proceed with a national spatial plan (NSP) for the plant, which would provide all the details regarding the location of the new reactor, financing, technology and suppliers.

The US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has awarded more than USD19 million to five US companies to research and develop recycling technologies for used nuclear fuel.

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.