NEWS |
round up
PLANT OPERATION THE GOVERNOR OF Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture, Naomichi Suzuki, has approved the restart of unit 3 at Hokkaido Electric Power’s Tomari NPP. Suzuki made the announcement at a meeting of the Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly after the four municipalities surrounding the nuclear plant previously expressed their approval.
DIGITAL & SOFTWARE US POWER UTILITY NextEra Energy and Google Cloud are expanding their long-standing energy and technology collaboration. They plan to partner to develop multiple, new GW-scale data centre campuses with accompanying generation and capacity. The companies will also collaborate on NextEra Energy’s enterprise-wide digital transformation, using Google Cloud AI and infrastructure.
US AI FIRM ATOMIC Canyon Founder and CEO Trey Lauderdale and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi have signed a Practical Arrangements partnership in Vienna. The agreement creates opportunities for California-based start-up Atomic Canyon to leverage IAEA data to further refine its AI models and to work on AI solutions to navigate international nuclear energy information.
THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) first ever International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Nuclear Energy brought together senior representatives from government, international organisations, the nuclear industry and major tech firms. Representatives of 252 different organisations registered. The symposium looked at how nuclear energy can help meet AI electricity demand and how AI can support nuclear technology development.
POLICY MALAYSIA HAS UPDATED its Atomic Energy Licensing (Amendment) Act 2025 in order to increase oversight of nuclear and radioactive activities in line with international standards. The Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (Mosti) said in a statement that the updated legislation strengthens regulatory controls.
THE US AMBASSADOR to Armenia, Kristina Kvien, announced that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on comprehensive US-Armenia bilateral energy cooperation aims to enhance Armenia’s energy resilience through modernisation and expanded production. Addressing the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia, she emphasised the role of civilian nuclear capabilities in achieving energy security.
Construction licence for Cigéo
The French Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR – L’Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection) has issued a positive opinion on the application for a licence to construct the Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique (Cigéo) deep geological repository for radioactive waste. France’s National Agency for the management
of radioactive waste (Andra – l’Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs) submitted its application for Cigéo to the Ministry for Energy Transition in January 2023, after which, the ministry asked the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN – now ASNR) to lead the technical appraisal of the application. ASNR has concluded: “The safety case
presented in the creation license application for Cigéo, for both the operating phase and the post- closure phase, has reached an overall maturity consistent with expectations for an application to create a geological disposal facility.” ASNR also requested additional information and suggested a public inquiry should be scheduled for the second half of 2026. “We are taking a crucial step forward in the development of the Cigéo project, and we can say today that it has been reached successfully,” said Andra CEO Lydie Evrard. “For 30 years, the Cigéo project has been developed in line with the highest safety standards and, more broadly, with best practices in design, public engagement and dialogue with local communities.” Cigéo, sited on the border between the Meuse and Haute-Marne departments of France, is designed to dispose of the highest levels of radioactive waste at a depth of 500 metres in a geological layer which has been stable for several million years. The project is the outcome of over 30 years of research by Andra with the support of researchers from the national and international scientific community, including
20 years of on-site scientific experiments in Andra’s underground laboratory. Cigeo will hold 83,000 cubic metres of medium and low-level long-lived radioactive waste, half of which has already been produced. The facility, to be managed by Andra, will be financed by radioactive waste generators – EDF, Orano and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA – Commissariat à l’énergie Atomique et aux énergies Alternatives). Andra will launch construction of the repository
in 2027, subject to regulatory approval, leading to a pilot phase with the first cold tests. This will take the form of a “small pilot district” with around 20 cells for high-level waste out of the 900 planned and four cells out of 22 for medium-level waste. For the rest, a new authorisation will be necessary. The first radioactive waste packages are
expected in 2035 or 2040 for a pilot industrial phase planned until 2050 for medium-level, long-lived waste. High level wastes are not expected before 2085 after they cool sufficiently. Cigéo will gradually expand underground until 2150, when it closes, initiating a surveillance period of at least 300 years. In May 2025, Andra submitted revised cost
estimates for onstructing, operating and closing Cigéo at between €26.1bn ($29.1bn) and €37.5bn (at 2012 prices). ASNR said it “considers that Andra has
acquired a sufficient knowledge base regarding the baseline data used for the relative safety assessment. However, “this will need to be supplemented before commissioning, which is limited to the pilot industrial phase”. Issues identified for further examination
relate to the performance of sealing works blocking underground galleries, the rate of corrosion of metal waste containers, the risk of explosion in the cells and fire. ■
India
Bill opens nuclear to private companies The Indian Government has approved a Bill that seeks to open up the civil nuclear power sector for private participation. At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Cabinet approved the Sustainable Harnessing & Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, which has now been submitted to parliament for approval. The SHANTI Bill seeks to repeal the Atomic
Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) of 2010, and to replace them with a single, comprehensive law aligned with India’s present and future energy requirements.
8 | January 2026 |
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It proposes opening areas such as mineral
exploration, fuel fabrication and equipment manufacturing to private and global companies. Although sensitive and strategic operations will remain under government control, officials say wider participation will accelerate expansion, innovation and technology access. A central feature of the Bill is a redesigned
nuclear liability framework, which seeks to address long-standing investor concerns by: clearly defining liability responsibilities; introducing insurance- backed liability caps; and ensuring government support beyond a fixed threshold. The CLNDA has been criticised for placing heavy and ambiguous liability burdens on suppliers,
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