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The Paris Climate Change Agreement and the falling costs of renewables have made the transition to clean energy systems unstoppable, keynote speakers told Singapore International ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Week today. The only thing that remains is to implement it, they said.

South Africa is well-equipped to have nuclear power plants and has a nuclear safety culture, with Koeberg having operated safely for over 32 years, utility Eskom said yesterday. The performance of the Koeberg plant has also consistently been one of the strongest within the Eskom fleet, it said, adding that it is also the cheapest energy provider in South Africa's fleet.

Russia's readiness to replace the reactor pressure vessel its workers dropped during installation work in August at unit 1 of Belarus' first nuclear power plant, reflects the fact this is a public acceptanceÌýmatter rather than a technological concern, Rosatom director general Sergey Kirienko said yesterday. Kirienko spoke to reporters during the International Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Agency's 60th General Conference being held this week in Vienna.

Following the Paris climate conference at the end of last year, the energy sector is facing its biggest challenge ever. Countries around the world are searching for pathways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are looking for the right balance to the trilemma of security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness. Nordic countries can offer some useful lessons, writes Lauri Virkkunen.

The municipal government of Lianyungang in China's Jiangsu province has announced the suspension of site selection work for a planned Sino-French nuclear fuel reprocessing project. The move follows public protests against the project.

Imagining a future energy policy in the event of "blackouts that occurred across Europe in 2018", Jonathan Hart and Brett Longstaffe propose a pan-European nuclear fuel cycle that emerged "out of the necessity for secure, low carbon electricity supplies". In their Spark! Contest winning essay*, the two young engineers write that this new system "stood on three pillars" - a coordinated European strategy , technological developments and a new nuclear message.

Rosatom and the ministry of hydrocarbons and energy of Bolivia have signed a memorandum on personnel training and education in nuclear power, and a separate memorandum to cooperate on public acceptance projects. Announcing the agreements today, the Russian state nuclear corporation said the framework for cooperation had thus been set in two key areas of Bolivia's nuclear power program.

EDF ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß, NuGeneration and Horizon Nuclear Power have all stressed their commitment to the UK's nuclear new build program, despite the country's decision to leave the European Union. Nevertheless, the majority vote in favour of 'Brexit' - decided in a national referendum held yesterday - may have implications for investment in new reactors and nuclear research, as well as for the UK's future role in meeting climate change targets, industry participants said.

Nigeria wants to develop nuclear power to diversify its energy mix beyond the current mix dominated by fossil and hydro, Franklin Osaisai, head of the Nigeria Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Commission, told the AtomExpo conference in Moscow today. He wants Nigerian people to share ownership and management responsibility in a future program based on 'safety, security and respect'.

The design of European wholesale electricity markets and the emissions trading system will be improved to help - and no longer hinder - nuclear energy as a low-carbon source of electricity, a European Commission official assured delegates at a nuclear financing conference held in Paris last week. The conference, titled Nuclear energy's role in the 21st century: addressing the challenge of financing, was jointly organised by the OECD Nuclear ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Agency and the International Framework for Nuclear ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Cooperation.

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 ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Nuclear News in an interview.