Nuclear power in Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's nuclear strategy is "uninvestable" for private clients, who are only likely to put money into new plants if the government shoulders more of the risks involved, Citigroup's head of European utilities research said on Wednesday.

Nuclear developers plan to build around 16 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in the UK by 2025 to help meet the UK's tough climate targets, but the investment environment is "dire," Peter Atherton told journalists at a briefing in London.

Planned stress tests on European nuclear plants should focus on threats from natural disasters and exclude potential man-made catastrophes such as a terrorist attack, European atomic industry group Foratom said.

European nuclear officials are to decide today on parameters for the safety checks on atomic power plants in response to the Japanese nuclear crisis caused by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The meeting of the European Commission, the EU regulator, and 27 national nuclear safety authorities comes a day after Spain’s biggest earthquake in 57 years killed eight people.

The foreign workers – including many Bulgarians and Romanians – on the construction site of EDF's new-generation nuclear reactor in Flamanville – face severe working conditions, according to French media.

Some one-third of the total number of 3 200 workers of the French state energy company EDF on the site in Flamanville are foreigners – mostly Romanians and Bulgarians but also Spanish and Portuguese, reported French news site Europe 1 citing the France Soir newspaper.

The UK nuclear regulator said Wednesday it expects both the Areva EPR and the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to have unresolved safety issues when the generic design assessment, or GDA, program completes next year. In a quarterly progress report released Wednesday, the NII said it has potential open issues in 10 out of 18 topical areas on the Areva EPR design review and in 16 out of the 18 topical areas on the Westinghouse AP1000 design.