Nuclear power in Europe

Nov 17 (Interfax) – The Russian nuclear fuel producer TVEL and Slovenske Elektrarne signed two long- term contracts on the production and delivery of fuel to Slovak nuclear power plants on Monday, an Interfax correspondent reported from the signing ceremony.

Slovenske Elektrarne Director General Paolo Ruzzini and TVEL President Yuri Olenin are signatories to the document. The ceremony took place at the TVEL Machine-Building Plant. (more…)

Projected cost of Mochovce’s completion has ballooned

10 Nov 2008 Beata Balogová Business – JUST weeks after the government approved its strategy on energy security, which is intended to guide policy for the next 20 years or so and which defined nuclear energy as one of its key pillars, Slovakia’s dominant power generator started the construction phase of two further blocks at the Mochovce nuclear plant. (more…)

MOCHOVCE, Slovakia, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Italy’s utility Enel SpA plans to spend around 90 billion crowns ($3.8 billion) in Slovakia through its 66 percent-owned power generator Slovenske Elektrarne, Chief Executive Fulvio Conti said on Monday.

Conti said the company may reassess other Slovak investment plans worth another 20 billion crowns. (more…)

BRATISLAVA, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Slovak power firm Slovenske Elektrarne (SE) has launched a tender to find a builder to finish two new blocks at the Mochovce nuclear power plant, it said in the Official Journal of the European Union on Monday.

The power generator, managed by Italian utility and 66 percent shareholder Enel, said bidders should submit letters of interest by Sept 18. It said it expected final bids would be due on Dec 8. (more…)

BRATISLAVA, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Slovakia is worried power generator Slovenske Elektrarne (SE) may be late finishing a second nuclear power plant, a delay which could damage the economy, Prime Minister Robert Fico said in remarks carried by a newspaper on Tuesday.

Fico asked SE, 66-percent owned by Italy’s utility Enel, to present a detailed timetable of work on the two 440 MW blocks at the Mochovce nuclear plant, which should be completed in 2012-2013 at a cost of 1.6 billion euros. (more…)

Bratislava, 16 July: Russian open joint-stock company TVEL has maintained its position in Slovakia, having won the tender for the supply of nuclear fuel for five power-generating units of the local Mochovce and Bohunice nuclear power plants until 2015, management company Slovenskie Elektrarne has reported.

These plants were built to Russian design and equipped with VVER-440 reactors. (more…)

BRATISLAVA, June 16 (Reuters) – Italy’s utility Enel said on Monday it has boosted the installed capacity at Slovakia’s nuclear power plant Mochovce by seven percent to ease the country’s electricity import needs. Enel, majority owner of leading domestic power firm Slovenske Elektrarne which operates Mochovce, said the capacity boost was to offset the decommissioning of two units at the country’s oldest nuclear power plant at Jaslovske Bohunice. (more…)

BRATISLAVA (AFP) – Environmental group Greenpeace will lodge a legal challenge to Slovak authorities’ go ahead for the completion of two nuclear power stations in the country’s west, a representative said Wednesday.

The organisation will complain to the supreme court against the go ahead for completion of Mochovce’s third and fourth nuclear reactors without prior environmental impact assessments being carried out. (more…)

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has filed a complaint with the European commission, alleging illegal state aid in the development of the controversial Mochovce nuclear power plant.
“Market-distorting measures” were put in place by Slovak authorities to persuade Slovak electricity utility Slovenske elektrarne, in which Italian firm Enel has a majority share, to participate in “what would otherwise have been an unviable and unattractive project,” Greenpeace claims. (more…)

The completion of the third and fourth blocks at the Mochovce nuclear power plant in Slovakia can meet difficulties, reports Hospodarske Noviny daily. Apart from traditionally anti-nuclear oriented Austrian neighbour, objections are raised also by Green Fraction at the European Parliament. They say that Mochovce design and its equipment is not based on accident and earthquake safety considerations. In addition, they claim that Mochovce construction is far too advanced to be retrofitted to comply with international safety standards. (more…)