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British parliamentarians have asked the Secretary of State for Business, ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß and Industrial StrategyÌýto clarify some of the financial aspects of the government's agreement with EDF and its partner China General NuclearÌýto build the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.

The British government has asked nuclear regulators to begin a Generic Design Assessment of the UK HPR1000 reactor. This is the Hualong One design that General Nuclear Services - a subsidiary of EDF and China General NuclearÌý- proposes to use at a prospective new nuclear power plant in Bradwell.

Rolls-Royce has named the companies it is working with to bring a small modular reactor (SMR) to market in the UK. Amec Foster Wheeler, Nuvia and Arup, together with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, are working with Rolls-Royce to develop the latest technology reactors, a spokesman for the British engineering firm told ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Nuclear News today. "Other names will emerge in due course," he added.

The shareholders of Chinese coal miner Wintime ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß have approved its proposed investment in Hinkley Point C - EDF and China General Nuclear's project to build two European Pressurised Water reactorsÌýin Somerset, England. Wintime ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß, known as Wing Tai ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß in Chinese, announced its plan to invest up to three billion yuan ($440 million) in HPC through a wholly owned subsidiary of New ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß, Huayuan New ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß, on 13 December.

Japan and the UK will expand their existing collaboration in civil nuclear activities - including decommissioning, research and development, and nuclear new build - through a memorandum of cooperation signed yesterday in Tokyo.

Radioactive sludge has been transferred out of the world's oldest nuclear fuel pond for the first time, the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd announced yesterday. The project is being delivered ten years ahead of schedule and for half the expected cost, they said in a joint statement.

The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has announced its total planned expenditure for 2017-2018 will remain almost the same as last year at GBP3.24 billion ($4.1 billion). The government will fund GBP2.36 billion of this, while GBP0.88 billion will come from income from commercial operations.

Media coverage of Hinkley Point C has tended to focus on EDF ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß’s financial agreement with the UK government and is only now being recognised for the economic benefits it will bring to the local economy, Nigel Knee, head of the company's nuclear policy, said yesterday. EDF ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß's updated analysis shows that almost £4 billion ($5 billion) will go into the regional economy of the South West of England over the lifetime of the project, Knee told delegates at the Budapest ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Summit.

With the final investment decision to build the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, together with progress in other planned new nuclear projects, 2016 has been a "momentous" year for the UK, delegates at the Nuclear Industry Association's Nuclear2016 conference in London heard yesterday.

The Nuclear Skills Strategy Group (NSSG) today launched its Nuclear Skills Strategic Plan to ensure UK nuclear employers can "recruit skilled people at the required rate to meet the sector's ambitious forward program". The Strategic Plan was launched at Nuclear 2016, the Nuclear Industry Association’s annual conference in London.

"Nothing has changed" regarding the future for the UK's Culham Centre for Fusion ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß (CCFE) and the Joint European Torus (JET), centre head Ian Chapman said today.

UK regulators expect to complete the Generic Design Assessment process for Hitachi-GE's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor as scheduled, in December of 2017, but doubt the GDA for the Westinghouse AP1000 will be done by March as previously stated.