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Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment announced it is launching legislative preparations aimed at a comprehensive reform of the country's Nuclear ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Act. It said the future use of nuclear energy - including new technologies such as small modular reactors - requires "appropriate and up-to-date legislation."

Teollisuuden Voima Oyj has today applied to Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority for permission to bring the Olkiluoto 3 EPR to first criticality and conduct low-power tests. The Finnish utility noted the start up of the unit may be brought forward from the previously announced date of January 2022.

Shikoku Electric Power Company restarted unit 3 of its Ikata nuclear power plant in Japan's Ehime Prefecture yesterday. The reactor - one of the few to have been restarted since the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant - had been offline since December 2019 due to a periodic inspection and a subsequent court injunction.

Nuclear energy offers a "golden opportunity" to create a cleaner and more equitable world, ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León said today at the ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Nuclear Exhibition in Paris. However, she noted there are three major challenges hindering the nuclear industry in making its full potential contribution towards sustainable development and combatting climate change: financing, perception and regulation.

The US Department of ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß is funding an independent review by a technical advisory body to Ukraine's nuclear regulator of the NuScale Power Module Safety Analysis Report. This review will be made available to any utility in Ukraine interested in deploying NuScale Power's small modular reactor technology.

NuScale Power, Prodigy Clean ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß and Kinectrics have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore and inform the development of a regulatory framework to address licensing and deployment of a Prodigy Marine Power Station. The MPS would integrate up to 12 NuScale Power Modules into a marine-based nuclear power plant system.

Rolls-Royce SMR Limited has submitted its 470 MWe small modular reactor design for entry to the UK's Generic Design Assessment regulatory process. The review of the SMR design - based on a small pressurised water reactor - will formally begin once the government has assessed the company's capability and capacity to successfully enter the GDA process.

The Hungarian parliament has adopted changes to the country's Atomic Act which will give the Hungarian Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Authority more control over its structure and staffing. The changes appear to be a response to missed deadlines for decision-making on the Paks II new build project.
 

Switzerland is committed to maintaining and strengthening its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety, an International Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Agency team of experts has concluded. The Integrated Regulatory Review Service mission team said a key challenge for the country is to keep and to build new safety competence for the future by evaluating anticipated gaps in expertise and in identifying actions required to fill them.

Kansai Electric Power Company took unit 3 of its Mihama nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui Prefecture offline on 23 October as it could not meet today's deadline set by regulators to implement antiterrorism measures. The reactor - which was restarted in June - is expected to remain offline for 13 months whilst the measures are completed.

France's nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, has approved EDF's proposed solution for rectifying a design anomaly on three nozzles in the main primary system of the Flamanville EPR reactor. EDF's proposal to install a retaining collar around each of the concerned connections is not expected to delay the planned startup of the unit in late-2022.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has said the studies included in the consultation on Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB's application to build a final repository for used nuclear fuel at Forsmark present no reasons for it to change its previous assessments of the project. The regulator was responding to the government's referral regarding the application.