The UK Government has approved a £2bn ($3.1bn) financial guarantee for the £24.5bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, which will be the first new atomic power centre in the country for more than two decades.

The project, to be developed in Somerset, has received the government guarantee under Infrastructure UK, according to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

Financial support will help French power project developer EDF to accelerate the final investment decision for the nuclear plant.

Hinkley Point C is supported by China General Nuclear and China National Nuclear, who are expected to give their approval later in the year.

Osborne said: “Nuclear power is cost-competitive with other low-carbon technology and is a crucial part of our energy mix, along with new sources of power such as shale gas.

“It is another move forward for the golden relationship between Britain and China, the world’s oldest civil nuclear power and the world’s fastest growing civil nuclear power.”

Once operational, the power plant is anticipated to supply about 7% of the country’s total power mix.

The project will create more than 25,000 jobs and boost energy security in the UK through reliable, affordable, low-carbon power.

Additionally, it is in-line with the UK’s strategy to replace and upgrade around 25% of its power generation capacity over the next ten years, as it is currently based on ageing nuclear facilities and coal power plants.

In 2014, the European Commission (EC) approved a £17.6bn subsidy deal for the project between the UK Government and EDF; however, green energy supporters have opposed the subsidy grant, voicing concerns that it would mar power pricing and competition in the market.

According to a series of guidelines issued by the country, which aims at renewal of the French nuclear industry, Areva and its governing authorities will work in co-ordination with EDF under a global strategic partnership.

Office of the France President Francois Hollande has announced broad outlines of the deal, for which final details are yet to be negotiated by the two firms within a month.

France controls more than 80% in both the entities and intends to invest new capital ‘of the necessary amount’ in Areva as part of the deal, reports Associated Press.

This reshuffling of the atomic energy industry after Areva reported loss of almost €5bn, after it suffered losses in new reactor projects in France and Finland.

The firm had received a $2.2bn preliminary offer from the power utility EDF for its nuclear reactor business unit at the end of May.

The deal is expected to allow Areva’s reactor and maintenance unit, Areva NP, to enter into partnerships with other domestic or overseas firms.

This transaction is likely to help Areva to meet nearly one third of its financing requirements.

The European Union’s agency Fusion For Energy (F4E) has selected Amec Foster Wheeler to provide neutral beam cell remote handling system for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) fusion reactor in Cadarache, France.

The scope of work under the €70m contract includes design, manufacture, delivery, on-site integration, commissioning and final acceptance tests of the remote handling system, which is said to play a key role in the ITER project.

As a prime contractor, Amec Foster Wheeler will provide services for the next seven years.

Amec Foster Wheeler clean energy business president Clive White said: “This contract reinforces our company’s strong expertise in remote handling and robotics, and more generally in taking a key role in the design and development of future fusion energy reactors.”

For the contracts, the company will be supported by a group of laboratories and companies with their robotics expertise, including the Culham Centre for Fusion, Reel, Wallischmiller Engineering, Hyde, Capula, ‘KU Leuven-MaGyICs,’ VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and the Technical University of Tampere (TUT).

VTT and TUT will work together at the divertor test platform (DTP2) facility in Finland, to design and test devices and control systems for ITER’s remote handling system.

VTT smart industry and energy systems executive vice-president Jouko Suokas said: “The mechanical designs and viewing, control and virtual technologies related to ITER can also be applied across a wide range of different industries worldwide.”

Using powerful injectors and heating systems, ITER’s superhot plasma will be raised to 150 million degrees Celsius, which makes it difficult for maintenance personnel to perform the tasks.

ITER’s remote handling system will comprise an advanced repair hub with transfer trolleys, beam line transporters and various supporting beams on a 90m monorail spread over the neutral beam cell.

Key tasks, including maintenance of neutral beam injectors, cutting and welding of myriads of pipes, and transporting heavy components coils to the storage area for refurbishment and disposal, will be performed by the system.

Russia’s state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom will set-up two reactors in Hungary at the Paks nuclear power plant (NPP).

The Hungarian Government has confirmed the contract, which will involve units 5 and 6 being constructed at the NPP.

The units will house Rosatom’s VVER-1200 reactors, and are expected to each have a generation capacity of 1,200MW.

Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko said: “We got a confirmation from the government of Hungary that everything has been agreed, everything remains unchanged.

“Everything has been confirmed, the contract has entered force.”

The confirmation comes after a series of signed deals in late-2014.

The reactors are expected to start operations by 2023.

Russia has supported the project with a loan of up to $11bn, which Hungary intends to repay after the nuclear reactors are operational.

Located around 62 miles to the south of Budapest and 5km distance from the Paks town in central Hungary, the nuclear facility is the only one in the country.

Paks NPP presently meets more than one-third of Hungary’s power requirements with its four installed VVER-440 reactors.

More than 11,000 separate pieces of work will be carried out during the statutory three-yearly maintenance shutdown, including inspections inside the advanced gas-cooled reactor as well as the installation of new equipment at the plant.

Inspections will be carried out by Babcock International-owned Cavendish Nuclear, which earlier this year signed a £40 million per year deal to provide all eight of EDF’s operational nuclear plants with services including the inspections of graphite in the reactors and maintaining gas circulators.

EDF is also investing an additional £4.5 million this year in key projects at Dungeness B to improve plant performance through to the end of its life.

The company expects the 1050MW plant to remain open for an additional 10 years to 2028, following confirmation in January that EDF will invest £150 million in upgrading the Kent site.

Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom has started construction of the Akkuyu power plant in Turkey, the first nuclear project in the country.

The power station is being developed at the Akkuyu site in Mersin province along the Mediterranean shores and is expected to involve an investment of $20bn. It will house four power-generating units, each having a capacity to produce 1,200MW of nuclear energy.

The project, however, had been facing controversies from environmentalists over security concerns and its placement in an area rich in wildlife, reports Agence France-Presse.

Construction of the plant is expected to be completed by 2020.

Apart from the Akkuyu plant, Turkey has planned two more nuclear projects in the country.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted by the news agency as saying: “Development cannot happen in a country without nuclear energy.”

While the second nuclear facility is likely to be developed by a French-Japanese consortium in the Black Sea city of Sinop, location for the third one has not yet been finalised.

The nuclear development is in line with the government’s plan to reduce dependence on energy imports from Russia and Iran.

Yildiz said: “If we had built this power station ten years ago, we would have saved $14 billion in natural gas purchases.”

Research at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland has led to an innovative system that uses sound waves to detect potentially dangerous cracks in pipes, aircraft engines, and nuclear power plants.

The University of Strathclyde department of mathematics and statistics research associate Katherine Tant was the chief academic researcher behind the study.

Transmission of varying sound waves can help to spot the structural defects easily.

Changing the duration and frequency of the sound waves can be used to recreate an image of the component’s interior, according to the report, which was published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society A’.

Katherine Tant said: “Welds are vitally important in ‘safety critical’ structures, like nuclear power plants, aeroplane engines and pipelines, where flaws can put lives at risk. However, as with any type of bond, they constitute the weak part of the structure.

“One particular type of weld, made of austenitic steel, is notoriously difficult to inspect.

“We were able to devise solutions involving the use of ‘chirps’; coded signals with multiple frequencies which vary in time.

“The type of flaw identified depends on the method used. An analogy would be the type of echoes produced by clapping loudly in a cave; a single clap may allow you to judge the depth of the cave while a round of applause will give rise to a range of echoes, perhaps allowing you to locate boulders.”

The study was a part of the UK Research Centre in NDE Targeted Programme, and was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, AMEC, the National Nuclear Laboratory, Rolls-Royce, Shell, and Weidlinger.

Hungary has approved a new legislation vowing to keep secret the key details of a nuclear power contract with Russia for 30 years.

According to the legislation, Hungary will not disclose the business and technical details of the agreement signed with Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom for the Paks nuclear facility, reports Associated Press.

The agreement entails provision for construction of two new reactors at the nuclear facility, which is presently equipped with four VVER 440 reactor units, each having a capacity of 500MW.

The Soviet-built facility currently accounts for up to 50% of Hungary’s power requirements.

Secrecy is being maintained for national security reasons, according to the Hungarian Government.

The newly-formulated legislation is in line with similar protective guidelines maintained by other European countries.

Russia has provided €10bn as loan for the expansion project, which covers almost 80% of the construction costs.

Forty per cent of the set up at the facility is likely to be carried out by domestic firms.

Opposition parties in the country and civic groups have, however, termed the initiative to be unconstitutional as it conceals information contrary to public interest.

The Belgian Federal Agency for Nuclear Control has called for thorough inspections of nuclear plants worldwide following detection of multiple cracks in critical components of two reactors in Belgium.

Belgian Federal Agency for Nuclear Control director-general Jans Bens has urged for careful inspection of all the 430 nuclear facilities globally.

Steel nuclear reactor pressure vessels in Doel 3 and Tihange 2 plants were found to be affected in 2012, which had been dismissed as manufacturing defects by the operator of the reactors, Electrabel.

Further tests in 2014 at the facilities indicated advanced embrittlement of the sample steel vessels.

Operations at both the facilities stopped in March 2014.

Unexpected cracking in the vessels can be caused due to corrosion from normal operation.

The presence of highly radioactive nuclear fuel cores in the vessels raises the risk of accidents during malfunction, and it is assumed that this could be an issue with all nuclear power generation facilities worldwide.

Greenpeace Belgium energy campaigner Eloi Glorieux said: “What we are seeing in Belgium is potentially devastating for nuclear reactors globally due to the increased risk of a catastrophic failure.

“Nuclear regulators worldwide must require reactor inspections as soon as possible, and no later than the next scheduled maintenance shutdown. If damage is discovered, the reactors must remain shut down until and unless safety and pressure vessel integrity can be guaranteed. The nuclear industry, already in crisis, is faced with an ageing nuclear reactor fleet at increasing risk of severe disaster.”

The 435 commercial nuclear reactors operational across the world had an average age of around 29 years old.

Out of the operational nuclear reactors, nearly 170 reactors have been functioning for 30 years or more, and 39 reactors are aged above 40 years.

Turkey plans to invest $50bn in power generation projects in the country between 2015 and 2018.

The investment proposals are part of the country’s 10th Development Plan, according to the energy commission.

While $16bn investment will be made for increasing hydropower generation in the country, another $11bn will be aimed at boosting its nuclear power capacity.

Anadolu Agency cited the energy commission as saying that the major guidelines of the investment plan include energy sources diversification.

Turkey also intends to spend nearly $10bn for developing national coal plants, which is expected to raise the share of coal reserves in the country’s economy.

In addition, the Development Plan has allowed another $5bn for setting up natural gas plants.

Hydropower presently accounts for up to 25% of the energy requirements in Turkey.

The country’s planned investments for nuclear power developments are intended to cut down its dependency on hydrocarbons for the next few years, reports Anadolu Agency.

Turkey plans to start construction of the Akkuyu nuclear plant, which is equipped with four reactors. Situated in the Mersin province on the Mediterranean coast, the plant is likely to replace 10% of Turkey’s hydrocarbon-generated energy, once operational.