The World Bank has announced that it is no longer going to be excluding nuclear energy-related projects from its lending criteria. In this episode you can hear how World Bank Group President Ajay Banga and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi outlined the logic behind the policy switch.

It came as they announced their two organisations’ agreement to work together to support countries which choose new nuclear as part of their development strategies.

Both are clear this was an important moment, and World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León, joins us to explain the significance of the change from the global industry’s standpoint.

Key links to find out more:
World Nuclear News

World Bank and IAEA backing new nuclear for development

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Contact info:
alex.hunt@world-nuclear.org

Episode credit: Presenter Alex Hunt. Co-produced and mixed by Pixelkisser Production

There are big expectations for large-scale growth in nuclear energy capacity over the coming years. That's good news for established technology providers and their partners. But new capacity in new locations means that there are going to be big opportunities (and challenges) emerging. This was the focus for World Nuclear Association’s first World Nuclear Supply Chain event, held in Poland.

There were more than 300 attendees from 27 countries, including government and industry delegations from Canada, China, Japan, Poland, South Korea and Sweden. As well as extensive networking opportunities there was a succession of high profile speakers taking part in panel sessions.

World Nuclear News's Warwick Pipe was there and reports on the event.

This episode features, in order of appearance,

• Sama Bilbao y León, World Nuclear Association
• Vakis Ramany, EDF
• Greg Thede, Aecon
• Gary Rose, AtkinsRéalis
• Jon Franke, Ontario Power Generation
• Janne Mokka, Fortum
• Hiroyuki Goto, Kansai Electric Power Co
• Gareth Vaughan, Amentum
• Pawel Gajda, Polish Ministry of Industry
• Rafal Kasprów, Orlen Synthos Green Energy
• Carl Berglof, Swedish government's National Nuclear New Build Coordinator
• Andy Fry, GE Vernova Hitachi
• Cosmin Ghita, Nuclearelectrica
• Ruth Todd, Rolls-Royce SMR
• Marc Tannenbaum, EPRI
• Shuo Kan, China Nuclear Power Engineering
• Vivek Sharma, Adani
• Nora Signor, EDF
• Gary Wolski, Curtiss-Wright
• Jeremy Harrison, Government of Saskatchewan

Key links to find out more:
World Nuclear News

World Nuclear Supply Chain conference

Polish supply chain gears up for country's first nuclear project

Email newsletter:
Sign up to the World Nuclear News daily or weekly news round-ups

Contact info:
alex.hunt@world-nuclear.org

Episode credit: Presenter Alex Hunt. Co-produced and mixed by Pixelkisser Production

US President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders titled Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy and Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the goal of "re-establishing the United States as the global leader in nuclear energy".

The aim is to increase US nuclear energy capacity from 100GW to 400GW by 2050, including the Department of Energy (DOE) prioritising work "with the nuclear energy industry to facilitate 5 gigawatt of power uprates to existing nuclear reactors and have 10 new large reactors with complete designs under construction by 2030".

Explanations of each of the executive orders was given as they were presented to the president to add his signature in the Oval Office. In this episode we play pretty much the whole of that event. As well as the US President, you’ll hear from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who is also Chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Joe Dominguez, CEO of Constellation Energy, Maria Korsnick, CEO of the Nuclear energy Institute, Jacob DeWitte, founder and CEO of Oklo and Scott Nolan of uranium enrichment company General Matter.

World Nuclear News’s Claire Maden drills into more of the detail of the announcements, and Jonathan Cobb, senior programme lead, climate, at World Nuclear Association then assesses the broader implications of the US adopting the goal of quadrupling its nuclear energy capacity.

Key links to find out more:
World Nuclear News

Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base

Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy

Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Email newsletter:
Sign up to the World Nuclear News daily or weekly news round-ups

Contact info:
alex.hunt@world-nuclear.org

Episode credit: Presenter Alex Hunt. Co-produced and mixed by Pixelkisser Production