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Nuclear electricity generation capacity in the Middle East is expected to increase from 3.6 gigawatts this year to 14.1 GWe by 2028 thanks to new construction start-ups and recent agreements between Middle Eastern countries and nuclear vendors, the US ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Information Administration said yesterday. The United Arab Emirates will lead near-term growth by installing 5.4 GWe of nuclear capacity by 2020, it said.

Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Agency confirmed to his board of governors yesterday. Amano said the plan represents a "significant gain" for nuclear verification.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action has led to a significant reduction in Iran's nuclear activities while enabling the International Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Agency to increase its knowledge of the country's nuclear programme, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a speech at Harvard University.

Excavation work has started at the site of unit 2 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran, Atomproekt, the reactor design subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced today. Construction and installation work formally started on the unit in March.

The European Union is determined to preserve the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of ActionÌýwith Iran, the EU's General Council said today following US President Donald Trump's 13 October announcement that he would not certify Iran's compliance with the deal to the US Congress. International Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß AgencyÌýDirector General Yukiya Amano said Iran's commitments under the agreement are being implemented.

Seventy-six European leaders from 20 countries have called on the US Administration to preserve the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. In a statement issued by the European Leadership Network think tank, they also urge the JCPOA's European signatories to make clear their continued support for the nuclear deal.

Rosatom and its subsidiaries yesterday signed agreements with a number of governments, companies and universities during the IX AtomExpo International Forum it is hosting this week in Moscow.

China and Iran have signed the first commercial contract for the reconstruction of Iran's Arak heavy water reactor. The core of the reactor was removed as part of an international agreement limiting Iran's nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.

The European Commission announced yesterday it has signed the first-ever project for nuclear safety cooperation with Iran, under the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreed between Iran and the E3/EU+3 countries in July 2015. The project is the first of a €5.0 million ($5.4 million) action approved by the European Union in 2016 under the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation. A second project for the stress test at the Bushehr nuclear power plant is to be signed in the coming weeks.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Organization of Iran, and Zsolt Semjén, the Hungarian deputy prime minister, have signed a memorandum of understandingÌýthat includes collaboration between the two countries on designing small nuclear power plants as well as an €85 million investment by Hungarian banks in Iran. Reuters reported that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Mihály Orbán's chief of staff, Janos Lazar, had told a news conference on 6 April the MOU concerned establishment of a small nuclear reactor for scientific-educational purposes.

Construction and installation work formally started yesterday at the site of unit 2 of the BushehrÌýnuclear power plant in Iran, Atomproekt, the reactor design subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced today. The first foundation stone for units 2 and 3 of the plant was laid in a ceremony held at the construction site in southern Iran in September last year.

Iran has for the first time injected uranium hexafluoride gas into its IR-8 uranium enrichment centrifuges. The development of the next-generation centrifuges is being carried out within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Organisation of Iran said.