Recent happenings in Europe highlight that nuclear power activities are expanding globally. Here is a roundup of headlines with an international flavor.

Today, there are 34 countries with operational nuclear power plants—but there are dozens more working on building a nuclear plant of their own. While progress on these projects inevitably ebbs and flows, broadly, momentum seems to be building on the international stage.

That growing momentum manifested last week in Kazakhstan’s announcement that it has officially partnered with Russia on a new nuclear power plant project. Prior to these new agreements, Russia, which borders Kazakhstan to the north, was already engaged in extensive preliminary work on the project.

Today, the American Nuclear Society issued a press release joining the International Atomic Energy Agency’s calls for maximum military restraint around nuclear power plants and civilian research reactors.

This press release comes as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East primarily involving Iran, Israel, and the United States continues to rapidly evolve and intensify. As is the case with many armed conflicts, the confirmation of each reported update from multiple—and often contradictory—sources comes with significant difficulties. However, IAEA reporting sheds significant light on the current state of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“Nuclear Spider” sounds like the title of a 1950s-era science-fiction movie, but it’s actually a fairly accurate description of a new robotic system deployed by Atommash, the mechanical engineering division of Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear utility.

Navigation engineer Marina Starovoitova has been named captain of a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker, state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has announced. Starovoitova is the first woman to hold that position, Rosatom said. She was officially appointed on August 20 during a ceremony in Nizhny Novgorod that marked the 80th anniversary of Russia’s nuclear energy industry. The evening event, “Era of Dreamers,” was attended by about 30,000 spectators, including more than 20,000 employees of Rosatom.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced criminal charges this week against two men for allegedly smuggling and conspiring to violate export controls relating to the sale of laser equipment to the Russian nuclear industry.

Turkey may be closer to moving ahead in a partnership with Russia for its second nuclear plant, Sinop, a proposed four-reactor facility on the Black Sea coast.

While commissioning began earlier this year at Turkey’s first nuclear plant, new reports say the project is delayed by sanctions against Russia due to its military invasion of Ukraine.

An official from Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom said this week that there are no current plans to reopen the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

The first unit at Akkuyu, Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, has begun the commissioning process. The goal is that the plant will begin supplying energy to the nation next year, according to Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.

The second of the two VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors at Belarusian, the sole nuclear power plant in Belarus, has entered commercial operation, Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation Rosatom announced last week.

The main construction phase for Unit 3 at Egypt’s El Dabaa nuclear power plant project has begun, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom announced last week.

Canada’s Cameco and U.K.-based Urenco last week jointly announced the signing of agreements to become part of a Westinghouse-led fuel supply chain for Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant. (Also included in the partnership is Uranium Asset Management.)

The naturalist John Muir is widely quoted as saying, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” While he was speaking of ecology, he might as well have been talking about nuclear fuel.

At the moment, by most accounts, nuclear fuel is in crisis for a lot of reasons that weave together like a Gordian knot. Today, despite decades of assertions from nuclear energy supporters that the supply of uranium is secure and will last much longer than fossil fuels, the West is in a blind alley. We find ourselves in conflict with Russia with ominous implications for uranium, for which Russia holds about a 14 percent share of the global market, and for two processes that prepare uranium for fabrication into reactor fuel: conversion (for which Russia has a 27 percent share) and enrichment (a 39 percent share).

Westinghouse Electric and Framatome have signed agreements with Kozloduy NPP—the eponymous operator of Bulgaria’s only nuclear power facility—to fabricate and deliver fuel for the site’s two operating reactors. Westinghouse will provide the fuel for Unit 5 under a 10-year contract inked on December 22, while Framatome will supply Unit 6 under a December 30 preliminary deal. First deliveries of fuel from Westinghouse and Framatome are expected in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

The two agreements, according to the Bulgarian News Agency, “are part of an effort to diversify energy supplies to Bulgaria and do away with the country’s dependence on Russian energy resources.” In November, the Bulgarian National Assembly approved 156–47 a resolution tasking the country’s Council of Ministers with licensing non-Russian nuclear fuel for Kozloduy.

In case anyone forgot, Russia can build nuclear power plants, not just occupy them—as discussed a week ago on Newswire. Last week in Bangladesh, workers completed the installation of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for the second unit at the Rooppur construction site.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors has adopted a resolution calling for an immediate end to the Russian occupation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. According to a report from Reuters, the 35-member board voted 26–2 yesterday in favor of the resolution, with seven abstentions. The two “no” votes were cast, unsurprisingly, by Russia and China, while abstentions came from Burundi, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, and Vietnam.

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) has signed a contract with Atomstroyexport JSC—the engineering division of Russia’s Rosatom—to build the turbine islands for Egypt’s El Dabaa nuclear power plant, construction of which commenced just last month with the pouring of first concrete.

After months of urgent entreaties to both the Ukrainian and Russian governments to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency access to the embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi yesterday set off for the facility, accompanied by a team of nuclear security, safety, and safeguards experts.

Akkuyu Nuclear, the Ankara-based Rosatom subsidiary established to manage Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear plant project, has announced the successful mounting of the Unit 1 polar crane. The operation was carried out using a Liebherr LR 13000 crane and took approximately four hours, according to Akkuyu Nuclear.

Also referred to as a circular bridge crane, the polar crane operates on a circular runway located near the spring line of the containment building. It is used for a wide range of loading and lifting tasks within containment, including reactor-head removal/replacement and fuel loading/unloading.