International

The governments of Canada and India agreed to multiple long-term deals this month, extending a partnership that will impact sectors including energy and critical minerals, technology and AI, talent and culture, and defense.

One of the more significant deals is a long-term agreement that would supply nearly 22 million pounds of Canadian uranium concentrate (U₃O₈) to India’s burgeoning nuclear reactor fleet over the next decade.

The U.S. nuclear industry took a further step to solidify its influence in Central Europe on February 16, when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signed the U.S.-Hungary Civil Nuclear Intergovernmental Agreement, potentially setting the stage for decades of cooperation in civilian nuclear energy between the two countries. This new agreement comes one month after the signing of a similar agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the government of Slovakia.

On February 13 at the African Union (AU) Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the AU, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, and the African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE) signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the support of nuclear science and technology development across Africa.

Westinghouse Electric Company’s plans to deploy its AP1000 reactor in Poland have taken an important step forward with a credit agreement between the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ). The agreement represents the first phase of financing to support the initial engineering and environmental site work needed before construction can begin on Poland’s first nuclear power plant, at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the Choczewo municipality of Pomerania.

Vice President J.D. Vance and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the signing of the 123 Agreement. (Photo: Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia)

During his visit to Armenia on February 9, Vice President J.D. Vance signed an agreement with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector. The “Agreement on Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the United States of America in the Field of Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy” will reportedly open the door to $5 billion in initial U.S. nuclear-related exports to Armenia, in addition to $4 billion worth of longer-term fuel and maintenance contracts.

In a move that could lead to more U.S. nuclear companies gaining a foothold in the United Kingdom, the U.K. Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has published a first-of-its-kind Advanced Nuclear Framework. Key provisions in this framework include the government’s intention to create a pipeline of “credible projects” to help unlock private investment and plans to accelerate the building of new reactors to power AI data centers.

The 45-page document is organized into two parts. Part One describes the application procedure for the new U.K. Advanced Nuclear Pipeline and explains the Project Readiness Assessment process. Part Two outlines enabling conditions, such as those involving regulation, planning, technical skills, supply chains, and fuel, to help ensure that private projects have the foundations to succeed.

Building Poland’s nuclear program from the ground up is progressing with the country's first nuclear power plant project: three AP1000 reactors at the Choczewo site in the voivodeship of Pomerania.

Polish state-owned utility Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe has announced some recent developments over the past few months, including turbine island procurement and strengthened engagement with domestic financial institutions, in addition to new data from the country’s Energy Ministry showing record‑high public acceptance, which demonstrates growing nuclear momentum in the country.

Update: Operation of Unit 6 at Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture was suspended Thursday morning after its initial restart on the evening of Wednesday, January 21. According to TEPCO spokesperson Takashi Kobayashi, an alarm sounded “during reactor start-up procedures.” The cause is currently under investigation, but there is no danger inside or outside the plant. Plant chief Takeyuki Inagaki said at a news conference, “The equipment is essential to safe operation, and we will examine it inside-out.”

On January 16, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico signed an intergovernmental agreement to cooperate on the development of Slovakia’s civil nuclear power program. This agreement spans a variety of civil nuclear activities, but especially notable is the inclusion of a plan to develop an American 1,200-MWe commercial power reactor at Bohunice nuclear power plant.

The United States Embassy and Consulate in Kazakhstan announced in December that the two countries are expanding their partnership in civil nuclear energy with a new educational initiative about small modular reactors.

Six universities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean now offer postgraduate courses in nuclear law with support from the International Atomic Energy Agency, expanding legal education in the nuclear community.

Hash Hashemian president@ans.org

In my August column in Nuclear News, I reflected on the importance of ANS’s annual conferences for bringing together our nuclear community at the national level. In September, after speaking at Tennessee’s Nuclear Opportunities Workshop, I focused my NN column that month on the value of state-level conferences.

Also in September, alongside ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy, I shifted my focus to another key front in nuclear collaboration, the international stage, by attending the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

The timing of the IAEA’s General Conference could not have been better; it took place the same week the U.S. and U.K. kicked off a new wave of transatlantic partnerships in the nuclear sector between both government and industry. This fortuitous overlapping gave us a timely and concrete reminder of international collaboration’s unparalleled benefits.

The General Conference was an expectedly busy event. To cover as much ground as possible, Piercy and I took turns attending either the U.S. delegation meetings with other countries or the General Assembly of the IAEA, where the American Nuclear Society has a seat among other critical nongovernmental organizations.

We listened to presentations by several of the 180 IAEA member states, including, of course, the United States. Aside from ANS, the U.S. presence at the conference included U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, NRC Chair David Wright, and DOE Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish.

U.S. representation was further bolstered by an industry delegation that included 65 participants from 32 companies, many of whom used the opportunity to report progress on their plans for the international expansion of their nuclear fleets. Meetings of that industry delegation were coordinated by the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Aside from the main conference, Piercy and I also attended the embedded meetings of the International Nuclear Society Council. INSC exists to facilitate knowledge-sharing and collaboration between 18 different member nuclear societies from around the world.

The INSC meetings within the General Conference brought together the presidents and senior members of those societies to give presentations and explore new opportunities. I made a presentation on the state of nuclear in North America, covering the latest developments and deployments in the U.S. and Canada.

This presentation emphasized the new nuclear lift in the U.S. that is being heavily supported by the Trump administration. I recapped the four executive orders issued by President Trump in May, the recent momentum at the DOE, and how these changes are capitalizing on a broader groundswell in both industry development and public support.

I also pointed out the success of our neighbor Canada in progressing on the first water-cooled small modular reactor in North America using BWRX-300 technology, which was supplied by an American firm and international partners—a perfect symbol of the value of global nuclear collaboration.

In all, I have now represented ANS at the state, national, and international levels, gaining useful insight into the work that needs to be done at each. From this vantage point, it’s clear to me that the path forward from the country to the globe is to, above all else, keep working together and supporting each other to bring about the next age of nuclear.

With President Trump on a state visit to the U.K., in part to sign a landmark new agreement on U.S.-U.K. nuclear collaboration, a flurry of transatlantic partnerships and deals bridging the countries’ nuclear sectors have been announced.

The American Nuclear Society is taking an active role in this bridge-building by forming a reciprocal membership agreement with the U.K.’s Nuclear Institute.

An International Atomic Energy Agency task force has confirmed that the discharge of treated water from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is proceeding in line with international safety standards. The task force’s findings were published in the agency’s fourth report since Tokyo Electric Power Company began discharging Fukushima’s treated and diluted water in August 2023.

More information can be found on the IAEA’s Fukushima Daiichi ALPS Treated Water Discharge web page.

Flowserve Corporation, headquartered in Irving, Texas, has “received official approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (10 CFR Part 810) to be able to manufacture safety-critical pumps for India’s new reactors at our Coimbatore, India facility,” according to a post on the company’s LinkedIn profile.

Bangladesh Limited, the company that will operate the two-unit Rooppur nuclear power plant once it reaches commercial operation, is committed to enhancing the plant’s operational safety, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Thorcon International has received official approval from BAPETEN, Indonesia’s nuclear regulator, for a site evaluation plan and site evaluation management system plan for the country’s Kelasa location. According to Thorcon, it is the first-ever nuclear power plant–related licensing approval from the Indonesian government, and it marks the completion of the first step of the company’s nuclear power plant licensing campaign in the country.

Less than a week after news broke of the U.S. entering into civil nuclear talks with Malaysia, the U.S. State Department announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bahrain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani have also signed a memorandum of understanding concerning civil nuclear cooperation.

U.S.-based private capital group Apollo Global has committed £4.5 billion ($6.13 billion) in financing to EDF Energy, primarily to support the U.K.’s Hinkley Point C station. The move addresses funding needs left unmet since China General Nuclear Power Corporation—which originally planned to pay for one-third of the project—exited in 2023 amid U.K. government efforts to reduce Chinese involvement.

It’s a move that “brings to an end decades of dithering and delay, with the government backing the builders.” That’s how the U.K. government announced, with alliterative fanfare, its £14.2 billion (about $19.2 billion) investment in Sizewell C, where EDF Energy plans to build two 1,600-MWe EPRs.