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The UK government is confident "there is a deal to be done" with EDF Energy on Hinkley Point C, but notes that it would not and could not influence the speed at which the utility makes a final investment decision on the project. "We recognise that the matter now rests with the equity. That's a commercial matter and we have to allow that to play out," said Jeremy Allen, head of procurement and investor relations at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

NuGeneration's project to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity at Moorside in West Cumbria will be the first opportunity for lenders to enter the UK's nuclear power program, CEO Tom Samson told World Nuclear News in an interview.

Paperwork related to the manufacture of components for use in UK nuclear power plants by Areva's Le Creusot forge may contain "inconsistencies, modifications or omissions", the French nuclear regulator has advised its British counterpart. The Sizewell B reactor is the only UK reactor to feature such parts.

Moody's Investors ServiceÌýhas downgraded to A2 from A1 the issuer and senior unsecured ratings of Électricité de France, outlook negative. The rationale for the negative outlook includes "the incremental risks associated with the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station project in the UK, should it go ahead," Moody's said yesterday.

Research and development framework contracts worth up to £12 million ($17 million) have been awarded to a series of consortia involving over 70 organizations by the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

The UK government has announced details of almost £80 million ($115 million) in funding to support the creation of five new National Colleges that it says will support the delivery of major infrastructure projects, including new nuclear. The centres of high-tech training will "ensure the UK has skilled people in industries crucial to economic growth - high speed rail, nuclear, onshore oil and gas, digital skills and the creative industries", the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said yesterday.

Large infrastructure projects require a range of key features and sufficient risk management to attract financing, but a new nuclear project has to go further still to draw in potential backers, delegates at a recent conference in London heard.

A think tank has urged the British government to spend money earmarked for nuclear R&D on ensuring that at least three advanced reactors including at least one small modular reactor (SMR) and a Generation IV design have completed regulatory assessment by the early 2020s.

Age is no barrier to prolonging the operation of nuclear power plants thanks to technological advances that could not have been predicted by reactor designers working decades ago. That was the conclusion of nuclear industry leaders at a conference hosted recently by EDF Energy and the World Association of Nuclear OperatorsÌýin London.

Sweden's Studsvik has agreed to sell its low-level radioactive waste operations in Sweden and the UK to EDF of France. At the same time, the two companies have agreed to collaborate in decommissioning and waste management.

The UK has the capabilities to produce the reactor pressure vessel for Westinghouse's small modular reactor (SMR) design, according to an independent assessment by the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.