Cop30

Amazon summit seals climate deal without fossil fuel plan

Belém (Brazil) (AFP) – Nations clinched a deal at the UN's COP30 climate summit in the Amazon Saturday without a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels as demanded by the European Union and other countries.


Issued on: 22/11/2025 - RFI

Nearly 200 nations had been holding talks for two weeks in the Brazilian Amazon city of Belem © Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP/File

Nearly 200 countries approved the deal by consensus after two weeks of fraught negotiations in the Brazilian city of Belem, with the notable absence of the United States as President Donald Trump shunned the event.

Applause rang out in the plenary session after COP30 president and Brazilian diplomat Andre Correa do Lago slammed a gavel signalling its approval.

The EU and other nations had pushed for a deal that would call for a "roadmap" to phase out fossil fuels, but the words do not appear in the text.

Instead, the agreement calls on countries to "voluntarily" accelerate their climate action and recalls the consensus reached at COP28 in Dubai. That 2023 deal called for the world to transition away from fossil fuels.

Going in the 'right direction'

The EU, which had warned that the summit could end without a deal if fossil fuels were not addressed, accepted the watered-down language.

"We're not going to hide the fact that we would have preferred to have more, to have more ambition on everything," EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters.

"We should support it because it is at least going in the right direction," said Hoekstra.

More than 30 countries including European nations, emerging economies and small island states had signed a letter warning Brazil they would reject any deal without a plan to move away from oil, gas and coal.

But a member of an EU delegation told AFP that the 27-nation bloc was "isolated" and cast as the "villains" at the talks.

The push to phase out oil, coal and gas – the main drivers of global warming – grew out of frustration over a lack of follow-through on the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.

French ecological transition minister Monique Barbut had accused oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Russia, along with coal producer India and "many" other emerging countries, of refusing language on a fossil-fuel phaseout.

She said Saturday the text was bland but that there was "nothing extraordinarily bad in it."

The deal caps a chaotic two weeks in Belem, with Indigenous protesters breaching the venue and blocking its entrance last week and a fire erupting inside the compound on Thursday, forcing a mass evacuation.

Money and trade

Finishing without a deal would have been a black eye for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had staked political capital in the success of what he called the "COP of truth".

It was also a major test for international cooperation when Trump decided to skip COP30.

"We also have to weigh the backdrop of geopolitics, and in the end there is no other process we have," German environment state secretary Jochen Flasbarth told AFP.

Developing nations, for their part, had pushed the EU and other developed economies to pledge more money to help them adapt to the impact of climate change, such as floods and droughts, and move toward a low-carbon future.

The EU had resisted such appeals but the deal calls for efforts to "at least triple" adaptation finance by 2035.

"Intergovernmental negotiations work on a minimum common denominator, but our fight will continue," a negotiator from Bangladesh told AFP in a muted reception of the terms.

The EU had also rejected language on trade in the text, as demanded by China and other emerging countries. The final deal calls for "dialogue" on trade issues.

The head of China's delegation at COP30, Li Gao, told AFP that the summit will go down as a success.

"I'm happy with the outcome," Li said. "We achieved this success in a very difficult situation, so it shows that the international community would like to show solidarity and make joint efforts to address climate change."

COP30: Key reactions to climate deal

ByAFP
November 22, 2025


Belem in northern Brazil is known as the gateway to the Amazon rainforest - Copyright AFP Carlos Fabal

Nearly 200 nations on Saturday pushed through a modest deal at the UN’s COP30 climate summit in the Amazon region of host country Brazil.

It was welcomed by some as a decent outcome amid fraught negotiations — and the absence of the United States — but dismissed as falling short by others.

Here’s a round-up of key reactions:

– Lula –

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — who had staked political capital in the success of what he dubbed “the COP of truth” — applauded that “science prevailed” and “multilateralism won” during the talks.

“We mobilized civil society, academia, the private sector, indigenous peoples, and social movements, making COP30 the COP with the second-highest participation in history.”

– Europe –

“We’re not going to hide the fact that we would have preferred to have more, to have more ambition on everything,” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters, while saying the deal was still “the right direction.”

French ecological transition minister Monique Barbut was more frank: “I couldn’t call this COP a success,” she said.

But while “this deal won’t raise our overall level of ambition,” she said “it doesn’t disrupt any of the previous momentum” either.

British energy secretary Ed Miliband told AFP “that’s what this COP process is like. You look over the long sweep of history — it had delivered change.”

“Every COP has frustrations.”

– Colombia –

The president of Colombia Gustavo Petro slammed the deal’s lack of plan to phase out fossil fuels, saying Colombia “does not accept” that the declaration “doesn’t say with clarity, as science does, that the cause of the climate crisis is fossil fuels.”

– India, South Africa, Brazil, China –

But India praised the deal as “meaningful.”

“We fully support the (COP30) presidency and recognize the outstanding efforts of the presidency team, including spending many sleepless nights working to ensure that we leave with something meaningful from Belem,” said a representative from India, speaking on behalf of the BASIC coalition of Brazil, South Africa, India, and China.

China meanwhile was “happy with the outcome.”

China’s Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment, Li Gao, told AFP that COP 30 would go down as “success in a very difficult situation.”

– Less-developed countries –

Evans Njewa, who represented a group of 44 less-developed countries, said “we didn’t win on all fronts, but we got tripling adaptation finance by 2035.”

“Thanks for siding with 1.6 billion vulnerable people,” Njewa said of the inhabitants of the African, Asian and island countries he reps. “This was our priority, and we made it a red line.”

And the Alliance of Small Island States called the deal “imperfect” but still a step towards “progress.”

– Guterres –

The head of the United Nations commended the weeks of efforts but said he understood that “many may feel disappointed” with the results, including Indigenous people, youth, and those now feeling the worst impacts of climate change.

“I cannot pretend that COP30 has delivered everything that is needed,” read a statement from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said “the gap between where we are and what science demands remains dangerously wide.”

“I will continue pushing for higher ambition and greater solidarity.”

– NGOs –

The talks also were closely watched by non-governmental organizations working in the climate sector.

The head of the World Resources Institute, Ani Dasgupta, heralded COP30 for delivering “breakthroughs to triple adaptation finance, protect the world’s forests and elevate the voices of Indigenous people like never before.”

But the formal negotiations fell short in many respects, he said, notably on the lack of a fossil fuel phaseout plan, leading to a “weakened” deal.

Ilan Zugman, Latin American and Caribbean director for the organization 350.org, said that “the lack of concrete commitments in the final text of COP30 shows us who is still benefiting from the delay: the fossil fuel industry and the ultrarich, not those living the climate crisis every day.”

Why the Suits Are Skipping Climate Summits

By City A.M - Nov 21, 2025

• Corporate representation at COP30 has sharply declined since the 2021 Glasgow summit, replacing high-profile marketing stunts with caution and minimalism.
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• This shift is primarily driven by the political climate, specifically the new US administration's anti-green energy rhetoric which has weaponized climate as a culture war issue, increasing the risk for corporate visibility.
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• The post-pandemic economic environment and a return to shareholder primacy have made the expense and "green grandstanding" of large COP delegations harder for blue-chip firms to justify amid cost-cutting drives.
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Reclining on stage at the 26th COP summit in his native Glasgow, Alan Jope was at home both literally and spiritually.

The Unilever chief executive had spent three years establishing himself as one of the corporate world’s most passionate climate and diversity advocates, vowing to accelerate his predecessor, Paul Polman’s, environmental, social and governance leadership. And with his company a principal partner at the biggest climate summit in history, the Scotsman’s efforts had reached their natural apogee.

“We think there are three existential challenges in the world: climate change, the loss and destruction of nature, and growing inequality,” he told a Bloomberg Green event. “None of these issues are good for our business… so I’ve been delighted to see the representation of business here in Glasgow.”

Corporate presence was – as the ‘Uni-lifer’ observed – hard to miss at the environmental jamboree of the year; one which the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson had billed as the “world’s moment of truth”. Outside the main hangar, pharma giant GSK had installed an inflatable air purifier. Utilities giant SSE had commissioned an entire Imax screening event – called Hydro – devoted to hydroelectric power. And in the world of haute couture, Stella McCartney’s Future of Fashion exhibition showcased her label’s efforts to leverage “the limitless possibilities of material innovation”.

Where have all the suits gone?

Four years on, with the 30th iteration of the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) in Brazil now in its second week, the agenda items that range from youth-led climate forums and fraught political negotiations look similar to those at Scotland’s edition in 2021. Environment ministers, official delegations and third-sector titans are, as they were in Glasgow, also out in force. What is missing, however, are the clean-cut executives and no-cost-spared marketing stunts from the blue-chip firms – and their consultants – that viewed the 2021 summit as the consummate platform for burnishing their green credentials.

“Before, if you weren’t doing something around COP, then questions would be asked,” said one senior corporate affairs executive. “Now it’s totally different.”

“My clients have definitely sent fewer people to this year’s summit,” added a director at a UK-based PR agency. “Expense is a massive reason, but so is the political environment.”

What is COP30?

Organised under the auspices of the United Nations, COP has, for decades, been the world’s best-attended, and most consequential environmental gathering. Since its establishment at a 1992 treaty signed in Rio de Janeiro, an assortment of presidents, prime ministers, chief executives and campaigners have descended on a different city each year to agree how best to limit the effects and extent of what’s become known as the climate crisis.

Over three decades it became a temple to the political consensus which held that the changing climate posed an existential threat to humanity, and that the world – largely via a series of agreements at COP – needed to do everything it could to stop it. Heads of state would use the jamboree as a platform to commit their nations to ambitious transition targets. Campaigners would make hay from the eyes of the world’s science and environmental media being trained on one place at the same time. And executives would trumpet the painstaking but important lengths to which their companies were going to reduce their own contribution to the crisis at hand.

But as the world exited from the pandemic and entered the energy price shock of 2022, that consensus was punctured. Aided by the outbreak of a hot war in Europe – and an aggressive rate-hiking cycle from the western world’s central banks – lawmakers’ priorities evolved from energy sustainability to energy security.

Drill, baby, drill

Initially, that shift happened quietly – and even sheepisly. Or at least it did until, last year, the man vying to be the 47th President of the United States turned climate into one of the most salient topics of the primary and presidential campaigns.

Efforts to boost green energy were, Donald Trump said during the primaries, a “scam”. Instead the US needed to “drill, baby, drill” if it wanted to improve living standards, maintain its position as the world’s largest natural gas exporter and keep energy prices down.

Since taking office in January, the president as followed through on his unstinting rhetoric. He quickly sought to block all offshore wind projects – even those that were very close to completion – and launched a legislative tirade against companies that set ESG targets and strategies.

Political climate keeps firms away from COP

According to Charlie Tarr, chief executive of corporate affairs consultancy Woodrow, the direction in which Trump has taken his second term is the primary reason for firms’ low-key turnout this year.

“The glossy pavilions, the huge delegations, the climate grandstanding that we’ve seen in previous years is just over,” he says. “Now, we’ve got caution, we’ve got minimalism, we’ve got private conversations. US politics has weaponised climate as a culture war issue. That has fundamentally changed the calculus for corporate visibility.”

Where once firms would once dispatch six or seven senior staff, this year they are sending two, Tarr adds. And where chief executives used to block their calendar months in advance to be seen on a panel with a former presidential candidate or feted naturalist, now they are more likely to delegate that job to their senior sustainability officer.

One senior PR executive, who worked with several blue-chip firms in the run-up to Glasgow’s COP, said the judgement call Western firms made in 2021 was, if your business wasn’t doing something big around it, consumers and shareholders would demand to know why.

“We had entire COP strategies that fleshed out how we were going to engage with stakeholders, working out the business opportunities on the ground, etc,” she said. “Association with it was almost universally positive.”

Another PR agency director added: “It has dropped off the agenda of, for example, the big asset managers, and big banks who will have occasionally dipped their toe into COPs in the past.”

Logistical and political difficulties

But according to some, the lack of corporate representation is not just down to the fresh political scrutiny emanating from the White House.

Michael Hartt, who leads international affairs at Fleishmanhillard and is advising several firms on their COP 30 communications strategies, said the logistical issues around this year’s summit, which is being held in the heart of the Amazon, are just as important as politics.

“A mix of practical factors…. and wider forces, including political pressure in some countries… means some companies have adjusted their presence,” he told City AM.

And according to others, a patchy track record, and several missteps including controversial locations, meant firms were beginning to lose faith in the value the summit brings to the climate debate, and its track record for delivery amid a testing macroeconomic backdrop.

“There’s no doubt that we’re seeing [clients] row back on COP engagement,” said Imogen Sackey, senior associate director at the Romans. “But I think it reflects a bigger question about COP’s role in global climate leadership.

“[It] feels increasingly abstract… and we’re seeing businesses afraid to break the binary between ‘good for business’ and ‘good for the planet,” she added.

Firms finding COP outlay harder to justify

That binary trade-off may – as Sackey claims – be myopic, but it is a core component of executives’ decision-making. As the era of cheap money that characterised the post-financial crisis global economy shuddered to a halt in 2022, corporates across the world tighten their belts.

Shareholder primacy returned to the ascendancy. And shareholders, for their part, relearned the importance of a robust bottom line. All of which meant blue-chip firms, many of whom had recruited rapidly over the pandemic, felt forced to cut back on staff levels, employee benefits and marketing spend to sate increasingly scrupulous investors.

“Looking at large-cap companies – and including  S&P500 businesses – they are just scaling back,” said Woodrow’s Tarr. “They’re wary of optics on cost-grounds because some have been been laying people off.”

One company keeping a markedly lower profile at this year’s instalment – and which has, itself, been engaged in a major cost-cutting drive – is Alan Jope’s erstwhile employer, Unilever.

The consumer giant has – like many in its category – been on a striking financial and rhetorical journey since the Glaswegian stepped down at the end of 2023. After years of underperformance, Jope’s replacement, Hein Schumacher, scaled back the firm’s ambitious climate targets just four months into the job, saying the group needed “to be more focused in its allocation of resources”.

His successor, Fernando Fernandez, has doubled down on that direction. In his first set of public remarks in September, the new chief executive conceded that Unilever had “lost its focus on volume growth”, blasting the “many pockets of mediocrity” that existed in the company’s ranks.

Despite having led the firm’s Brazilian division for nearly 10 years, Fernandez will not be showing his face at COP 30. Instead, his focus for the firm was made abundantly clear in a Linkedin post published just a fortnight before COP got underway.

“We know what we need to do to make Unilever a marketing and sales machine, and we are doing it at speed,” he wrote in late October. “Let’s go!”

By City AM 

COP30 Drops Draft on Transition Away from Fossil Fuels

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Nov 21, 2025

The COP30 climate summit is ditching an earlier draft of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, according to the latest draft of negotiating texts at the global gathering in Belem, Brazil. 

Many countries at COP30 have mobilized and supported a so-called “roadmap” to transition away from fossil fuels. But the latest draft document of the summit has removed reference to transitioning away from fossil fuels entirely, Reuters reports. 

While more than 80 countries joined the call for a roadmap to move away from fossil fuels, others have resisted any deal on phasing out of oil, gas, and coal.  

The delegates at COP30 are still discussing language for the final communique that will be published and agreed on unanimously by the countries attending the summit, so Friday’s version of the draft may not be final. 

Yet, signs point that there won’t be an explicit reference to transitioning away from fossil fuels. 

Even the European Union has backed off supporting the roadmap. 

As many as 82 countries earlier this week called for a clear roadmap toward the phase-out of fossil fuels—but the European Union, which aims to lead by example in the global push to net zero, was not among these.  

Many EU countries backed the 82-nation-strong push to ditch fossil fuels, but the EU-27 did not formally support the initiative as such backing needs the unanimous approval of all 27 member states, Politico reports. 

The joint effort to abandon the use of fossil fuels globally was supported by the EU’s biggest economy, Germany, as well as Colombia, the United Kingdom, and Kenya.  

The pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was made two years ago at COP28 in Dubai in 2023 in what was for the first time in decades that the end of fossil fuels was mentioned in a negotiating text. However, the topic did not evolve at the following COP29 in Azerbaijan last year.   

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com 

Climate activists dye Venice’s Grand Canal green


By AFP
November 22, 2025


Climate activists poured dye into waters in 10 Italian cities -

 Copyright POOL/AFP HENRY NICHOLLS

Climate activists dyed Venice’s Grand Canal green Saturday, as countries at a UN climate conference in Brazil struggled to agree on the crucial issue of phasing out of fossil fuels.

Extinction Rebellion said its activists released an environmentally harmless dye into canals, rivers, lakes and fountains in a total of 10 Italian cities to highlight “the massive effects of climate collapse”.

Greta Thunberg was present at the “Stop Ecocide” protest in Venice, where demonstrators dressed entirely in red with veils over their faces walked slowly through curious crowds of tourists, images showed.

The green dye was also poured into the Po river in Turin, the Reno river in Bologna, the Tara river in Taranto, as well as fountains in Padova and Genoa, the activist group said.

Negotiations at key UN climate talks in Brazil ran into overtime on Saturday with no agreement struck and delegates still locked in a bitter fight over whether to mention fossil fuels in the final text.

At stake at the Belem talks is securing a deal that paves the way for faster cuts to planet-warming emissions that are driving ever more extreme weather.

“The most important global summit to define international political agreements aimed at countering climate and social collapse is drawing to a close, and once again this year, Italy has been among the countries blocking the most ambitious proposals,” said activist Paola as quoted by Extinction Rebellion, whose surname was not provided.

 

Turkmenistan Emerges as Global Methane Super-Emitter in 2025

By Eurasianet - Nov 21, 2025

• A UCLA project using Carbon Mapper data identified more than 3,100 methane plumes worldwide, with Turkmenistan dominating the highest-emitting sites.
• 
  
• The country hosts 17 of the top 25 methane leaks, including the world’s two largest, both located in the Esenguly District on the Caspian Sea.
• 
  
• Researchers excluded single-observation sites to ensure accuracy, noting that even more massive leaks may exist but were detected only once.

• 
  

Turkmenistan is home to over two-thirds of the 25 largest methane emissions sites identified worldwide so far in 2025, according to an academic monitoring initiative.

Researchers at UCLA’s Stop Methane Project mapped over 3,100 methane plumes at oil & natural gas extraction “sites in dozens of countries of all income levels and in all world regions.” They based the findings on data provided by Carbon Mapper, a non-profit working to fully chart “greenhouse gas emissions to empower mitigation action.” 

Of the top 25 sites in terms of hourly emission rates, 17 are found in Turkmenistan, according to the UCLA list. The top two emitters are in the Esenguly District of Turkmenistan’s Balkan Province on the Caspian Sea, pumping out 10 million tons and 9.6 million tons respectively of methane per hour. Three other sites in Esenguly also made the top 10. Other high-pollution sites were confirmed in Balkanabat, also in Balkan Province.

Other countries with more than one site in the top 25 were Venezuela and Iran. Methane emissions are considered a major factor driving global warming.

The UCLA researchers said they excluded some major methane emission sites from their list because they were observed only once by satellites, due to their orbit routes.  

“To be careful, we only included sources that were observed at least twice,” according to an explanatory note posted on Substack. “So, there are a few oil and gas sector sources with extremely high emissions rates that appear on Carbon Mapper’s portal, but that we excluded from this list because they were observed only once.”

By Eurasianet

 

Turkmenistan still venting like crazy, methane super-emissions data show

East of Hazar, Turkmenistan, a port city on the Caspian Sea, 12 plumes of methane stream westward. The plumes were detected by NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation mission. / NASA/JPL-Caltech

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By bne IntelliNews November 22, 2025

Turkmenistan is back in the headlines as the world’s guiltiest country when it comes to “super-emitting” sites of planet-heating methane.

The secretive regime that runs the Central Asian state cannot hide thanks to evidence of plumes gathered by satellites passing over. The latest analysis of such data shows gas-rich Turkmenistan is the location of 17 of the 25 largest methane emission sites identified worldwide so far in 2025. The finding was made by an academic monitoring initiative conducted by researchers at the UCLA Emmett Institute’s Stop Methane Project. It mapped over 3,100 methane plumes at oil & natural gas extraction “sites in dozens of countries of all income levels and in all world regions.”  

Conclusions were based on data provided by Carbon Mapper, a non-profit.

It is almost exactly two years since Turkmenistan was congratulated for joining the Global Methane Pledge at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. Signatories promise on a voluntary basis to slash their methane emissions, but in two years, Turkmenistan does not seem to have made much progress, despite the consensus among climate action experts that sealing methane leaks is one of the easier tasks faced by those fighting climate warming. What’s required amounts to low-hanging fruit.

“They vent like crazy,” Christian Lelong at climate tech and data firm Kayrros told the Guardian in March 2023, as pressure on Turkmenistan to take action intensified.

Gathered data on 2022 showed that Turkmenistan’s methane leaks from two gas fields alone contributed more to global warming in that year than all the carbon emissions in the United Kingdom.

Though methane has more warming potential than carbon dioxide, it breaks down in the atmosphere within just years compared with decades for CO2. That means that an effective crackdown on methane emissions could have a relatively quick impact on limiting climate change and.

At the COP29 summit in Baku, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) revealed that just 1% of 1,200 notifications on major methane leaks delivered to governments and companies in the previous two years by a high-tech detection system were responded to.

 

The World’s First Thorium Molten Salt Reactor

By Haley Zaremba - Nov 21, 2025

• China’s experimental thorium molten salt reactor has reportedly achieved sustained thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion, marking a major scientific first.
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• The breakthrough could ease China’s dependence on Russian-enriched uranium and accelerate its rise as the world’s dominant nuclear power.
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• With thorium abundant domestically, the technology could transform China’s long-term energy security and global nuclear influence.

An experimental Chinese nuclear plant reportedly just crossed a historic threshold, successfully operating the world’s first thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR). The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has broken a major scientific barrier by successfully converting thorium to uranium in a historic first.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that the breakthrough, which took place at an experimental reactor out in the Gobi Desert, is “poised to reshape the future of clean sustainable nuclear energy.” 

The process works by using a “precise sequence of nuclear reactions” in which naturally occurring thorium-232 absorbs a neutron, becoming thorium-233. Through a decay process, that isotope breaks down into protactinium-233 and then finally into uranium-233, a potent form of nuclear fuel that can sustain chain reactions for nuclear fission.

While this breakthrough was just publicized this month by a report by Science and Technology Daily, the TMSR has apparently been operational for years. Li Qingnuan, Communist Party secretary and deputy director at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, told the outlet that “since achieving first criticality on October 11, 2023, the thorium molten salt reactor has been steadily generating heat through nuclear fission”.

If the reports are true, this breakthrough would signal an incredible leap forward in a nuclear technology race that China is already winning handily. Although the United States is still the world’s biggest producer of nuclear energy, that status won’t last much longer. In the same time period that the United States built the overdue and over-budget Plant Vogtle, China built 13 reactors of similar scale, and has 33 more on the way. Beijing is also making major forays into the nuclear sectors of emerging economies, with particularly concerted efforts in Africa.

“The Chinese are moving very, very fast,” Mark Hibbs, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and expert on the Chinese nuclear sector, told the New York Times. “They are very keen to show the world that their program is unstoppable.”

But while China has invested huge sums of money and manpower into becoming a global nuclear energy innovator and superpower, the nation lacks sufficient uranium to power its lofty goals. While nuclear power production growth is dominated by China, uranium supply chains are dominated by Russia, which is home to nearly half (approximately 44 percent) of all global uranium enrichment capacity. 

China has been buying up more and more of Russia’s uranium, but reliance on exports is both risky and antithetical to China’s ethos of domestic energy independence and international energy dominance. Russia’s outsized presence in the nuclear fuel supply chain has resulted in some degree of risk and market volatility, as the Kremlin has shown that it is not afraid to use enriched uranium for political leverage.

“The nuclear energy supply chain sits atop the clean technology risk pyramid,” warned a recent article from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Beyond standard supply chain considerations, nuclear exports are subject to a suite of safety and security concerns, and overreliance on a single technology or fuel provider can create significant dependencies given the limited number of suppliers and distinct intellectual property (IP).”

By sidestepping the uranium supply chain issue by using thorium instead, China is leaping over a critical hurdle and straight over the finish line for global nuclear power sector domination. Thorium is much more accessible and abundant than uranium, and could theoretically solve all of China’s nuclear fuel problems. According to the South China Morning Post, just one mining site in Inner Mongolia “ is estimated to hold enough of the element to power China entirely for more than 1,000 years.”

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

World Nuclear News

Nuclear energy can power Russia’s AI, says Putin

Friday, 21 November 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the country has "unique solutions that can be utilised for powering data processing centres" and the plan is "to transition to the serial production of small floating and land-based nuclear stations".
 

The Russian President was shown a dancing robot at the event (Image: kremlin.ru)

Putin, speaking at a conference on AI (artificial intelligence) in Moscow this week, said that AI could be "one of the largest technological projects in human history" and "we cannot allow critical dependence on foreign systems. For Russia, this is a question of state, technological, and, one could say, value sovereignty. Therefore, our country must possess a complete range of its own generative artificial intelligence technologies and products".

He said the country had to develop data centres to "allow us to guarantee data sovereignty, so that user information remains within the borders of Russia … the most critical and fundamental task is to ensure a constant, stable, and reliable energy supply for data centres".

"This is a serious challenge, but it is one we are equipped to overcome, as we are perhaps the only country in the world currently capable of, ready for, and already producing and utilising small nuclear power plants … in locations with large nuclear units, specific research and preparation can be carried out. However, to guarantee the rapid delivery of necessary information - with timeframes, as I have just been informed, measured in seconds and fractions of a second - and to ensure operational efficiency, small nuclear power plants can also be deployed. The imperative is to execute this swiftly," he said.

He said that the country plans to build 38 nuclear power units over the next two decades, doubling current nuclear capacity and he said the "growing potential of our domestic nuclear energy sector will enable us to consistently expand the computational capabilities required for artificial intelligence".

Demand for 24/7, reliable and carbon-free power for data centres was cited in the latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency as one of the key drivers for its forecast that global nuclear power capacity is set to increase by at least one-third to 2035.

Niigata governor consents to restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors

Friday, 21 November 2025

The governor of Japan's Niigata Prefecture has given his approval for the restart of units 6 and 7 at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. Pending backing of his decision by the prefectural assembly next month, Hideyo Hanazumi will inform the central government of the approval, ending the process of obtaining local consent.
 

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant (Image: Tepco)

The seven-unit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant was unaffected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami which damaged Tokyo Electric Power Company's (Tepco's) Fukushima Daiichi plant, although the plant's reactors were previously all offline for up to three years following the 2007 Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake, which caused damage to the site but did not damage the reactors themselves. While the units were offline, work was carried out to improve the plant's earthquake resistance. All units have remained offline since the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

Although it has worked on the other units at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site, Tepco is concentrating its resources on units 6 and 7 while it deals with the clean-up at Fukushima Daiichi. These 1356 MWe Advanced Boiling Water Reactors began commercial operation in 1996 and 1997, respectively, and were the first Japanese boiling water reactors to be put forward for restart. Tepco received permission from the Nuclear Regulation Authority to restart units 6 and 7 in December 2017. Restarting those two Kashiwazaki-Kariwa units - which have been offline for periodic inspections since March 2012 and August 2011, respectively - would increase the company's earnings by an estimated JPY100 billion (USD638 million) per year.

Tepco is prioritising restarting Kashiwazaki-Kariwa unit 6, where fuel loading was completed in June. The company has until September 2029 to implement anti-terrorism safety measures at unit 6, and it could operate until that time, pending local approval. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 6 would become the first reactor owned by Tepco to restart following the Fukushima Daiichi accident. However, Tepco has yet to obtain the Niigata prefectural government's consent.

Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi has now given his consent to the restart of the unit. 

"The government's policy is to promote nuclear power generation, which boasts excellent supply stability and technological self-sufficiency," he said in a statement. "Based on this policy, the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant is considered extremely important in light of the vulnerability of the power supply structure in eastern Japan, the disparity in electricity rates between east and west Japan, and the need to secure economic growth opportunities through decarbonised power sources."

Hanazumi said that as part of his approval he will call on the government to take seven steps to ensure the safety of the plant and of nearby residents. These include continuing to provide "thorough, easy-to-understand explanations" abut the plant's safety; continuing to improve the safety of the plant; promoting public awareness and understanding of evacuation procedures among residents; the construction of new roads to allow evacuation; the monitoring of Tepco's performance; and reviewing the current allocation of subsidies for areas hosting nuclear power plants.

"We will strongly urge the national government and Tepco to demonstrate through their actions and results that they are prioritising safety in the operation of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, which will help restore the trust of the prefecture's residents," he said. Hanazumi added: "Tepco has announced that it will contribute approximately JPY100 billion over approximately 10 years from revenues from operations to the prefecture to contribute to improving safety and security in the prefecture and revitalising the local economy. Tepco will also make new business investments in the prefecture to promote local industry and create jobs. We view this as a sign of Tepco's commitment to coexisting with the local community and working hand in hand with it."

A survey of Niigata residents showed earlier this month that 50% are in support and 47% against restarting Kashiwazaki-Kariwa unit 6, while nearly 70% said they are concerned about Tepco being responsible for operating the reactor, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Last month, Tepco President Tomoaki Kobayakawa informed the Niigata Prefectural Assembly that the utility is considering decommissioning Kashiwazaki-Kariwa units 1 and 2, which are 1,067 MW boiling water reactors that began supplying power in February 1985 and February 1990, respectively.

KEPCO and ENEC enhance cooperation in nuclear energy

Friday, 21 November 2025

Korea Electric Power Corporation and Emirates Nuclear Energy Company have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation in advanced nuclear technologies, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation to support the UAE's and South Korea's civil nuclear fleets. The MoU will also facilitate cooperation for potential nuclear energy projects in third countries.
 

(Image: KEPCO)

The new MoU builds on the long-standing strategic partnership between the UAE and South Korea following the successful delivery of the Barakah nuclear power plant, with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) as prime contractor as part of a broader Korean consortium of companies.

The MoU was signed on 18 November, during a UAE–Korean presidential summit, by Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC) Managing Director and CEO Mohamed Al Hammadi and KEPCO President and CEO Dong-Cheol Kim. It deepens existing cooperation on advanced nuclear technologies, including joint assessment of small modular reactors (SMRs), advanced reactor systems, fuel cycle innovation, radioactive waste management and nuclear safety research.

The MoU also covers artificial intelligence and digital transformation, including AI-based predictive maintenance, plant optimisation tools, digital twins and machine learning to enhance safety and efficiency, supported by a joint ENEC–KEPCO AI Innovation Laboratory. ENEC and KEPCO will also identify cooperation opportunities for third-country clean energy projects, leveraging the successful Barakah model in other markets.

"This MoU marks a positive step forward in our efforts to advance civil nuclear innovation, digital transformation, and the deployment of AI solutions, further strengthening our cooperation on technologies that enhance performance and support safe, reliable and sustainable civil nuclear operations," Al Hammadi said. "Through this MoU with our partners in the Republic of Korea, we are reaffirming our commitment to fostering knowledge exchange, developing next-generation talent and contributing to global efforts to accelerate the clean energy transition."

KEPCO said: "This MoU is significant in that it establishes a commitment between the two companies to further develop their friendly relationship through cooperation on future new nuclear power projects. It also provides new business opportunities for the nuclear power industries of both countries. Furthermore, building on the success of the Barakah nuclear power plant, it is expected to further enhance the nuclear power export competitiveness of both countries through joint advancement into the global nuclear power market."

A second MoU was signed by Mohamed Al Braiki, General Manager of ENEC Consulting and Group Chief Operating Officer of ENEC, and Sang-Hyung Park, President of KEPCO Knowledge Data Network (KDN). It focuses on accelerating digital transformation across nuclear operations in the UAE and wider Middle East through AI-based technologies. Cooperation includes joint research and deployment of AI and data-driven solutions, including digital twins, predictive maintenance and intelligent monitoring systems, to enhance the efficiency, safety and reliability of nuclear energy plants. ENEC Consulting and KDN will localise and implement KDN's AI, cybersecurity and data analytics solutions across the UAE energy sector, explore a regional joint venture for AI and digital transformation services, and promote AI-based digital projects across the UAE and Gulf Cooperation Council energy organisations.

A joint working group will be formed for the two MoUs to evaluate opportunities, drive implementation, and provide recommendations supporting their objectives.

Under a USD20 billion deal announced in December 2009, four Korean-designed APR1400 reactors have been built at the Barakah site in the UAE by a consortium led by KEPCO. First concrete for Barakah 1 was poured in July 2012, while that for units 2-4 was poured in April 2013, September 2014 and July 2015, respectively. The units entered commercial operation between April 2021 and September 2024. The plant provides about 25% of the UAE's electricity needs.

A concrete recycling plan for Sizewell A to C

Friday, 21 November 2025

More than 15,000 tonnes of crushed concrete generated from the demolition of the turbine hall at the shutdown Sizewell A nuclear power plant in Suffolk, England, is to be used in the construction of the new Sizewell C plant.
 

The Sizewell A reusable aggregate pile, pictured last month (Image: NRS)

The demolition of the turbine hall and adjoining structures at Sizewell A was completed in June by UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority subsidiary Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS). The football-pitch-sized turbine hall was razed to the ground using a series of "innovative and forward-thinking techniques" which meant the completed work was achieved in a significantly quicker timeframe than if traditional decommissioning and dismantling approaches had been followed, the company said. Up to 700 kgs of explosives were used last November to weaken the four reinforced concrete plinths on which two 65-tonne turbogenerators stood.

More than 17,000 tonnes of concrete and rubble were removed from the turbine hall, fire station and electrical annexe structures at Sizewell A. This waste has been crushed, processed and reused for ongoing construction projects. About 35 miles of cable have also been removed. A scrap metal contract has raised income from the sale of the 11,000 tonnes removed during the de-plant and demolition phases. This revenue will be used to offset decommissioning costs.

Under an innovative circular economy agreement between NRS and Sizewell C, more than 15,000 tonnes of the crushed concrete from the turbine alternator plinths will be reused at Sizewell C.

Since September, Sizewell A has been carrying out the crushing, testing, and certification of the concrete to ensure it meets the WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) Quality Protocol. Once certified, all the material has now been transported to Sizewell C's main construction area as recycled aggregate. The recycled concrete is planned to be used in the sub-bases for various foundation platforms at the new plant.

The reusable aggregate pile at Sizewell C (Image: NRS)

"This landmark collaboration significantly reduces shared costs and carbon emissions, and the need for newly mined aggregates," NRS said.

"This is another example of how Sizewell C is working with local projects to maximise benefits, not just for us, but for the local community," said Damian Leydon, Site Delivery Director, Sizewell C. "By reusing this material, we're reducing the number of trucks transporting aggregate through East Suffolk, while further reaffirming our commitment of minimising our environmental impact during construction. This is great news all round."

Wendy Heath, NRS Senior Project Manager at Sizewell, added: "This innovative approach has prevented 28 tonnes of CO₂ emissions by diverting waste from landfill, completing the circular economy for this material. This marks a first-of-its-kind achievement for NRS and showcases how collaborative working is enabling sustainable decommissioning. By reducing waste and minimising traffic on local roads, we're actively supporting the future of clean energy. It's a clear demonstration of NRS values in action - placing safety, sustainability, and community impact at the heart of everything we do."

Sizewell A's two 210 MWe Magnox gas-cooled reactors operated from 1966 until 2006. Defuelling began in 2009, with fuel removed from the reactors placed in the site's used fuel storage ponds before being packaged in transport containers for shipment to the Sellafield complex for reprocessing. The final flask of fuel was shipped to Sellafield in August 2014. Sizewell A was declared completely fuel-free in February 2015. The decommissioning milestone marked the removal of 99% of the radioactive hazard from the former Magnox nuclear power station. Planning consent was given to demolish the turbine hall and electrical annexe in August last year. The empty land that now lies where the flattened turbine hall once stood will eventually be restored and released for re-use. The whole site Sizewell A site is expected to be completely cleared by 2077.

The Sizewell C plant will feature two EPR reactors producing 3.2 GW of electricity, enough to power the equivalent of around six million homes for at least 60 years. It would be a similar design to the two-unit plant being built at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, with the aim of building it more quickly and at lower cost as a result of the experience gained from what is the first new nuclear construction project in the UK for about three decades. A final investment decision for the Sizewell C project was taken in July this year.

Brazil aims to start construction of Centena repository in 2026

Friday, 21 November 2025

The National Nuclear Energy Commission says that a preferred site has been selected and the aim is for the Centena radioactive waste repository to be completed by 2030.
 

A model of how the centre could look (Image: CNEN)

The Centena (Centro Tecnológico Nuclear e Ambiental) Project says it will be the first radioactive waste repository in Latin America. It will be a permanent storage solution for low- and medium-level radioactive waste material with a radioactive half-life limited to 30 years - as well as housing a technology centre for studies related to radioactive waste management.

In its 'clarification response' to reports suggesting Angra 1 and 2 might have to shut in 2030 if there is no new waste storage, the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) said progress was being made following the selection of a preferred site.

"The next step is the completion of the studies characterising the geophysical parameters, necessary for both nuclear and environmental licensing. CNEN has already hired a consultancy that is evaluating the documentation and the project itself, with construction expected to begin in 2026 and be completed in 2030. In other words, if the project starts in 2026, the repository could be completed in 2030, compatible with the 2031/2032 deadline for the storage capacity of the current repositories at the Angra dos Reis Nuclear Power Plant," the commission statement said.

It added: "If there are any delays in the construction and, consequently, in the completion of Centena, Eletronuclear is working with two possibilities. The first would be the reorganisation of the current storage facilities, which does not require a new environmental licensing process. There is also the possibility of constructing another waste storage facility, which would require a new licensing process, both nuclear and environmental."

"Financing of the construction and removal of the waste to this final repository ... will be provided by the Decommissioning Fund of the Angra 1 and Angra 2 plants, which was also established for this purpose.”

CNEN says the repository facilities in the southeast of the country, will cost approximately BRL130 million (USD24.2 million). It says that the existence of such a repository is a requirement for the environmental licensing process for the Angra 3 nuclear power unit, as well as that for the Brazilian Multipurpose Reactor.

At the moment Brazil stores low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste at facilities by its existing nuclear power plants or in intermediate repositories. It says that the Centena project "brings a national solution for the safe storage of radioactive waste generated by the use of radioisotopes and nuclear energy in Brazil".

Brazil currently has two operating power reactors - Angra 1 and Angra 2 - which generate about 3% of the country’s electricity. Work on the Angra 3 project - to feature a Siemens/KWU 1405 MW pressurised water reactor - began in 1984 but was suspended two years later, before construction began. The scheme was resurrected in 2006, with first concrete in 2010. However, amid a corruption probe into government contracts, construction of the unit was halted for a second time in 2015, when it was 65% complete. It has since restarted and been halted again, with a decision currently awaited on completing it.

The aim is for construction on the Brazilian Multipurpose Reactor to begin in 2026 and to be completed in 2030 with operations scheduled to begin in 2031. It descibes it as a priority for the country's nuclear sector.

Valar Atomics project achieves early criticality milestone

Friday, 21 November 2025

The company said its NOVA Core achieved zero-power criticality at LANL's National Criticality Experiments Research Center on 17 November.
 

(Image: Valar Atomics/X)

Valar said it is collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL) National Criticality Experiments Research Center in Project NOVA (Nuclear Observations of Valar Atomics). The project is a series of criticality experiments on Valar's graphite-moderated core using high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) TRISO fuel, carried out under the oversight of the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration. The NOVA Core builds on LANL's 2024 Deimos experiment, which was the first criticality experiment using HALEU fuel to be carried out in the USA in more than 20 years.

Valar, a startup launched in 2023, plans to build nuclear "gigasites" with "clusters of thousands of high-temperature reactors designed to supply the energy, industrial heat, and carbon-neutral fuels that modern industry and AI infrastructure demand". It says its TRISO (tri-structural isotropic) fuelled, helium-cooled cooled and graphite-moderated reactors are "inherently safe and capable of operating at much higher temperatures than conventional plants".

The company was announced earlier this year as one of the initial selectees under the US Department of Energy's Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, which aims to see at least three of them achieve criticality before 4 July 2026. In September, the company broke ground at Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (USREL), a unit within the Utah Office of Energy Development, for its first test reactor, called Ward250, and has completed a non-nuclear prototype called Ward Zero. It has also been selected by the department alongside Terrestrial Energy, TRISO-X and Oklo for a pilot programme to build advanced nuclear fuel lines.

Zero-power - or "cold" - criticality is a self-sustaining chain reaction of uranium-235 within a nuclear core, but without reaching full operating temperatures or actively removing heat with a working fluid, Valar explained. Zero-power criticality allows Valar to gain a greater understanding of the neutronic characteristics of the core and verify assumptions about fuel, moderators, active reactivity control and burnable poisons.

NOVA Core's configuration models the Ward250 core, which the company says is scheduled to begin power operations next year. NOVA uses the same fuel, moderator and reactivity-control scheme as Ward250, enabling LANL researchers to collect high-fidelity neutronics data and validate Valar Atomics' physics models ahead of Ward250 power operations.

Valar Atomics Founder and CEO Isaiah Taylor described the cold criticality milestone as the dawn of a new era in US nuclear engineering. "Zero power criticality is a reactor’s first heartbeat, proof the physics holds,” he said. "I’m incredibly proud of the Valar team that took this from blueprint to splitting the atom, securing the first criticality ever achieved by a venture-backed company. We extend our gratitude to the phenomenally talented team at Los Alamos and especially NCERC for their close partnership on Project NOVA."

INL begins irradiation testing of Lightbridge fuel samples

Thursday, 20 November 2025

Samples of enriched uranium-zirconium alloy fuel material are being irradiated in the lab's Advanced Test Reactor, a significant step forward in the development and testing programme which is part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Lightbridge and INL.
 

The irradiation testing campaign is designed to collect key material performance data for the Lightbridge fuel design, Lightbridge said. The start of irradiation follows the successful fabrication and loading of enriched uranium-zirconium coupon samples into an experiment assembly earlier this year.

Irradiation testing involves exposing materials to intense irradiation conditions, to study the effects of those conditions on reactor materials and fuels. The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory is a one-of-a-kind pressurised water test reactor which operates at very low pressures and temperatures compared to a large commercial nuclear power plant, and produces neutrons - rather than heat - as its main output. It is the only US research reactor capable of providing large-volume, high-flux thermal neutron irradiation in a prototype environment.

The irradiation testing campaign is expected to provide essential data on the fuel alloy's microstructural evolution, thermal conductivity properties, and other data as a function of burnup that are critical to the qualification and licensing of Lightbridge Fuel for future commercial use.

Some irradiated samples will be removed at various burnup levels during the testing campaign, to undergo post-irradiation examination at INL to assess the fuel alloy's performance. This will support further design qualification for licensing report submissions.

Jess Gehin, Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear Science & Technology at INL, said the start of irradiation testing of the samples represents a major achievement for both INL and Lightbridge. "The ATR provides a world-class platform for evaluating advanced nuclear materials under realistic conditions, and we look forward to analysing the results of this important experiment," Gehin said.

"The start of capsule irradiation testing marks a pivotal step in demonstrating the performance of Lightbridge Fuel," Lightbridge Vice President of Engineering Scott Holcombe said. "The data generated in this phase will help us validate some key thermo-mechanical properties of our fuel alloy and how these properties vary with irradiation, moving us closer toward commercial deployment of Lightbridge Fuel in existing and new water-cooled reactors."

Lightbridge Fuel is described by the company as a proprietary next-generation nuclear fuel technology for existing light-water reactors and pressurised heavy-water reactors which it says significantly enhances reactor safety, economics, and proliferation resistance. It is also developing Lightbridge Fuel for new small modular reactors.