South Africa needs to start planning now for new nuclear power capacity to come online after 2045, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday, reopening a heated debate about whether the country should build more nuclear reactors. Af.reuters.com

EDF has been instructed to further reinforce the embankment, or dyke, of the canal supplying cooling water to its 3820-megawatt Tricastin nuclear power plant in southern France by “no later than” the end of 2022, the French nuclear safety authority, Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), said yesterday. The company is not required to close the plant while it carries out the work. World-nuclear-news.org

There is evidence that Pyongyang already has shrugged off the threat of unending U.S. sanctions. Even as Trump and Kim met for the third time, activity continued at the uranium-enrichment plant at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, according to 38 North. Nationalinterest.org

A faction of clergy within the Russian Orthodox Church wants to end the eyebrow-raising practice of blessing the country’s nuclear missiles. Futurism.com