World Nuclear News

Urenco's chief commercial officer Laurent Odeh joins us and outlines how the leading uranium enrichment company is expanding its operations in the US, the Netherlands and Germany to meet the growing demand for nuclear fuel. Demand which is coming from both existing units and also some of the growing numbers of advanced reactors in development. He talks about the company's history and the...

The UK’s Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria in the North West of England has been operating for nearly seven decades, so probably for longer than any other such facility anywhere. During that time things have changed from a "tip and tumble" typical landfill disposal system, to today's approach with containerised waste and engineered vaults. Nuclear Waste Services' Director o...

A decision is expected later this year by the Spanish government on whether to award a three-year reprieve to Almaraz nuclear power plant's units 1 and 2. They are currently scheduled to be shut down in 2027 as part of the country's 2019 nuclear phase-out policy. In this episode we hear from Marta Ugalde , President of Spanish Nuclear Industry Forum, Foro Nuclear, about the current situa...

China has been racing ahead in terms of new nuclear capacity and new nuclear developments in recent years, and there are big plans ahead, most recently set out in the country's latest five-year plan. In this episode we take an extended look at the nuclear energy sector in China, with François Morin, Country Director for World Nuclear Association. China currently has 62 GW of generating capaci...

How long should it take from signing a contract to first concrete, to completion, for a new nuclear power plant? And what needs to be done to ensure the funding can be unlocked for new units? Those are just two of the topics covered by Assystem's Stéphane Aubarbier. In addition to discussing progress on France's EPR2 new nuclear programme - and the lessons from EPR projects - the deputy...

The World Nuclear News team looks back over the most read articles in 2025 - with topics including Canada's ground-breaking SMR project, the 50th World Nuclear Symposium, the eventual signing of a contract for the Czech new nuclear project, China's SMR completing cold testing, and the drone damage to Chernobyl's New Safe Confinement. Then World Nuclear Association Director General S...

Nuclear energy is now widely seen as one part of the solution to reducing carbon emissions. But how much of a profile did it get at COP30 - the 30th UN Climate Change Conference, held in Belém, Brazil? Jonathan Cobb, Senior Programme Lead, Climate, for World Nuclear Association, was in Brazil for the event and in this edition he outlines what was achieved, and not achieved, at COP30 and what the s...

Johan Svenningsson is Country Chairman and CEO of Uniper Sweden as well as being vice chairman and chairman-elect of World Nuclear Association. In this edition, Svenningsson talks about what has been an eventful few years for the nuclear energy sector in Sweden, and the current positive mood towards nuclear and plans for new nuclear - "it's fantastic, we're basically talking about n...

If global nuclear energy capacity is to at least triple by 2050 it is going to need huge, huge investment - estimates suggest $250billion a year for 25 years. So how will it be financed and what are the opportunities and challenges for financiers wanting to get involved?  To find out more, host Alex Hunt is joined by World Nuclear Association's Lola Infante , Senior Programme Lead Economics a...

More than 1,100 people gathered in London for the 50th World Nuclear Symposium, taking part in a packed programme of discussions, panels and networking. In addition to the usual broad range of topics there were also two special full day programmes - one focused on end energy users and one on finance. The event also saw the publication of 2025's World Nuclear Fuel Report , which warned that ga...

Nuclear reactors worldwide generated 2667 TWh of electricity in 2024, beating the previous record high of 2660 TWh which was set back in 2006, according to World Nuclear Performance Report 2025.  In this edition Jonathan Cobb , author of the report, outlines the key findings of the latest edition of the annual World Nuclear Association publication, which include the dominance of Asia in terms of n...

Andy White , senior vice president of Energy and Environment International for Amentum, talks about his background and the work Amentum is doing in the UK and across Europe in the nuclear sector. Among the topics covered: * The change of attitudes which means that the future decommissioning process is included in the planning stages for new nuclear (and how that should reduce the number of 's...

Nuclear energy lawyer Vince Zabielski , partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, has advised on numerous nuclear energy projects across the world, including the UAE nuclear new-build programme as well as those in Turkey, Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. A mechanical engineer before moving into law, he tells host Alex Hunt about the haircut that launched his career in nuclear, his switch to the...

The World Bank has announced that it is no longer going to be excluding nuclear energy-related projects from its lending criteria. In this episode you can hear how World Bank Group President Ajay Banga and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi outlined the logic behind the policy switch.  It came as they announced their two organisations’ agreement to work toget...

There are big expectations for large-scale growth in nuclear energy capacity over the coming years.  That's good news for established technology providers and their partners. But new capacity in new locations means that there are going to be big opportunities (and challenges) emerging. This was the focus for World Nuclear Association’s first World Nuclear Supply Chain event, held in Poland. ...

US President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders titled Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy and Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the goal of "re-establishing the United States as the global leader in nuclear energy". The aim is to increase US nuclear energy capacity from 10...

In the second of a two-part special report from the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle 2025 conference held in Canada, Claire Maden reports on the opportunities and challenges facing players across the entire fuel sector. There is the aim to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050, shared by many governments, businesses and financial institutions. But will there be the necessary fuel available if that goal i...

In the first of a two-part special report from the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle 2025 conference held this month in Canada, Claire Maden reports on the opportunities and challenges facing players across the entire fuel sector. There is the aim to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050, shared by many governments, businesses and financial institutions. But will there be the necessary fuel available if t...

Bruce Power's Chief Operating Officer James Scongack is Chairman of the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council and, as he explains, the country aims to play a leadership role in nuclear medicine, not just for Canada's benefit, but also to provide health benefits for the rest of the world. He outlines the life-saving diagnostics and treatments that now exist thanks to isotopes produced in Canad...

There have been a raft of announcements from India in February relating to new nuclear energy capacity. Retired diplomat, author and distinguished fellow of the Vivekananda International Foundation, Ambassador D. P. Srivastava , is the coordinator of a foundation task force report on the energy transition in the country and he joins us to discuss the future for nuclear energy in India. The budget...

An agreement has been concluded to renew the Generation IV International Forum , which aims to build on its first 25 years of sharing research and development on innovative nuclear reactor designs. In this episode, William D Magwood IV , Director-General of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, which supports GIF as its Technical Secretariat, explains how the forum came about, how it works, what the key...

The World Nuclear News team looks back over the most read articles in 2024 - with topics including tech giants turning to nuclear energy for data centres, nuclear battery innovations, the uranium market and progress on current and proposed nuclear power capacity projects. Then World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León sits down with host Alex Hunt to pick out key developments o...

The COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, was the latest global gathering aiming to agree measures to tackle climate change. Jonathan Cobb , senior programme lead, climate, at World Nuclear Association, was there. In this episode he explains what COP is, what the aims of COP29 were, what was achieved, and what role nuclear energy played. He also explains why many people's focus was al...

Martin Cheetham is the station director of the EDF-run Heysham 2 nuclear power plant on the Lancashire coast in northwest England. It has two advanced gas-cooled reactors which were first connected to the grid in 1988. They have a combined power of 1.24 GW and had an initial design life to 2023 before being extended to 2028. The second unit at Heysham 2 power plant set a record with 940 days of co...

Global tech giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon have all announced deals which will see them using nuclear energy in the coming years. In this edition we outline what has been announced, why, and also consider the significance for new nuclear energy in the future. There is also a report from Claire Maden on what was a very timely session at last month's World Nuclear Symposium focusing on con...