Sizewell B, on the Suffolk coast of England, has been granted a 20-year life extension. The nuclear power plant, which began operating in 1995, will now remain in operation until 2055. Sizewell B owner and operator EDF Energy agreed to make extra investments to maintain the facility, with additional investment funds coming from Centrica, which owns a 20 percent share in EDF’s U.K. reactors.

The nuclear industry leaders assembled in Washington, D.C., last week to discuss small modular reactor supply chains agreed that lost generation capacity from the expected retirement of hundreds or thousands of coal power plants over the next decade—a cliff, in one panelist’s words—represents an opportunity that developers of SMRs and advanced reactors are competing to meet.

“I think in total 80 projects are ongoing,” said Boris Schucht, panel moderator and chief executive officer of Urenco Group, as he opened the forum. “Of course not all of them will win, and we will discuss today what is needed so that they can be successful.”

SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Candu Energy recently announced that it is engaged in pre-project design and engineering work at the Qinshan Phase III nuclear power station in China’s Zhejiang Province with Third Qinshan Nuclear Power Company (TQNPC), the plant’s operator.