With August in the rearview mirror, here is a roundup of some international news out of Europe and Africa you may have missed toward the end of last month.

Romania has taken its last operating reactor off line due to the record-low water levels of the Danube River, in what is the latest example of how the historic heat wave gripping Europe has impacted the river levels and water temperatures needed to operate nuclear power plants across the continent. The situation is not isolated to Romania, however, as power plants in Hungary and France are also facing challenges.

Several countries, including Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, recently have taken steps to accelerate the cleanup of nuclear waste. In a new report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said that these actions should serve as lessons for the United States.

According to the GAO, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should “strategically engage with other countries to identify and evaluate alternatives that could help reduce risks and costs or accelerate its cleanup activities.” The report noted that DOE-EM agreed with the recommendation.

Ten of the 27 member countries of the European Union recently sent a letter to the European Commission calling for nuclear power to be labeled as sustainable in a new rulemaking that pertains to powering data centers and artificial intelligence.

While the EC’s decision could have significant impact on the future deployment of nuclear across the continent, this call to action also represents a broader positive reconsideration of nuclear power in Europe in recent years.

In 1990, 30 percent of Europe’s electricity came from nuclear power plants. In 2026, it is closer to 15 percent.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lamented the decline of nuclear energy, calling it a “strategic mistake” when Europe turned its back on a “reliable, affordable source of low-emissions power.”

French advanced reactor developer Stellaria has formally submitted an application with the French government for authorization to build a prototype of its fast breeder molten salt reactor concept, known as Stellarium.

The company, which spun out of the country’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Schneider Electric, filed an application for authorization to create (DAC) for the reactor with the government minister in charge of nuclear safety, making it the first French start-up to submit an application with the authorities for a fast-neutron reactor.

France’s state-owned electric utility EDF has announced that Flamanville-3—the country’s first EPR—reached full nuclear thermal power for the first time, generating 1,669 megawatts of gross electrical power. This major milestone is significant in terms of both this project and France’s broader nuclear sector.

France’s Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR) completed its technical review and issued a satisfactory opinion on Andra’s license application to construct the Cigéo deep geological disposal facility. Andra is the French national agency responsible for the safe management of all radioactive waste in the country.

Editor's note: This article has was originally published in November 2023. It has been updated with new information as of June 2025.

Outside my office, there is a display case filled with rock samples from all over the world. It contains a disk of translucent, orange salt from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.; a core of white-and-bronze gneiss from the site of the future deep geologic repository in Eurajoki, Finland; several angular chunks of fine-grained, gray claystone from the underground research laboratory at Bure, France; and a piece of coarse-grained granite from the underground research tunnel in Daejeon, South Korea.

As the U.K. government looks to finalize investment decisions for the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power plant this summer, France’s state-owned EDF has announced plans to take a 12.5 percent stake in the project and commit up to £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) in funding.

Patrick Fragman, Westinghouse’s chief executive, said in a recent interview with Politico that the U.S. and Europe are still ideal partners on nuclear power.

Even though President Trump’s latest policy moves are straining some U.S. relations with nations, “Westinghouse stresses it’s a private company that is now Canadian-owned—and that nuclear projects function on a time scale that extends beyond politicians,” Fragman told Politico.

For the full Politico article, click here.

A framework agreement to continue the work of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) will enter into force on March 1.

Orano completed the 13th and final rail shipment of vitrified high-level nuclear waste from France to Germany. The company announced that the four casks of vitrified HLW arrived at Germany’s intermediate storage facility at Philippsburg in the early evening of November 20.

Électricité de France reduced power production by 1 gigawatt on Friday at its Golfech nuclear plant, citing high water temperatures on the Garonne River.

A statistical analysis of the factors behind the 2021–22 energy crisis in Europe is the subject of the article “Patterns and correlations in European electricity prices,” published in the journal Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science. The study—conducted by researchers at the Institute for Energy and Climate Research at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the University of Cologne, both in Germany, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences—describes reasons for the surge in energy prices that go beyond the commonly cited cause of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

French nuclear developer Framatome is slated to deliver key equipment for Sizewell C Ltd.’s two large reactors planned for the United Kingdom’s Suffolk coast.

The agreement, reportedly worth multiple billions of euros, was announced this week and will involve Framatome from the design phase until commissioning. The company also agreed to a long-term fuel supply deal. Framatome is 80.5 percent owned by France’s EDF and 19.5 percent owned by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

According to a new report by the European energy analysis firm Montel EnAppSys, France was “comfortably” the biggest net exporter of energy in Europe throughout 2023, with its export totals being 48.7 TWh more than its import totals. In second place in Europe was Sweden, with 28.6 TWh more in exports than imports.

A fire this past weekend at Chinon nuclear power plant in France forced two reactors to be shut down. According to initial reports, a transformer in a nonnuclear sector of Unit 3 caught fire.

The incident occurred February 10 in the early morning hours, local time, and the fire was quickly extinguished.

A proposed energy bill that the French government is scheduled to consider in early February is generating a great deal of controversy. If approved by the cabinet, the bill will go next to lawmakers in parliament for their consideration. However, the wording of the draft bill has been going through changes due to a controversy over nuclear energy versus renewables.

Early draft: A draft of the bill released on January 8 seemed to prioritize nuclear energy over renewable energy sources, including solar and wind. According to a January 9 report by France 24, the bill asserted “the sustainable choice of using nuclear energy as a competitive and carbon-free” source of electricity, and it set specific goals for nuclear energy, such as the construction of between six and 14 new nuclear reactors as a crucial step toward meeting climate change goals.

As Spain prepares to shutter its fleet of seven nuclear power plants, France considers adding more than 14 new ones.