Nuclear power in Europe

Today, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in the United Kingdom announced that the competition for the new contract for the cleanup of the Magnox reactor sites will commence in 2011. Award of the contract is expected by the end of 2012. EnergySolutions will continue to lead this important cleanup project during this time period and it will bid on the new contract.
The NDA stated that it would select a single operator for Magnox North Limited, Magnox South Limited and Research Sites Restoration Limited. (more…)

DOUNREAY’S training and development team has become the first of its potential spin-out businesses to move off the site.

The 12-strong group has relocated to Naver Business Centre in Thurso where there are better prospects for growth. (more…)

A new generation of nuclear plants requires a new generation of nuclear physicists

MUCH more than worries about safety, the biggest obstacle to the revival of nuclear power in Britain is cost. Atom-splitting is expensive, with brochure prices for reactors starting around £3 billion, and dizzying lurches in oil prices make it hard to evaluate the industry’s competitiveness. “Nuclear power works for oil prices above $60 a barrel,” said a government adviser confidently in early October, when it was still near $100. As The Economist went to press, the price of oil was hovering around $64, barely above that margin of safety. (more…)

The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has formally advised the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate – the country’s nuclear safety regulator – that it plans to extend the operating life at Oldbury nuclear power station, the NDA said Wednesday. (more…)

E.ON UK has entered into a transmission connection agreement with National Grid for up to 1600MWe of new capacity at Oldbury.

The Oldbury-on-Severn site named in the agreement is owned by National Grid and is the location of a substation. The site is adjacent to the Oldbury nuclear power station, which is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and has two 225MWe Magnox units that are due to cease operation at the end of this year. (more…)

A SOUTH Lakeland anti-nuclear campaigner has claimed taxpayers’ money is being used to “soften up” Cumbrians for a new nuclear power station.

Artist Marianne Birkby spoke out after discovering the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has given £34 million from its “socio-economic fund” to organisations such as hospitals and colleges and wildlife, and heritage groups. (more…)

Green campaigners have expressed concern that the Government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is using the same lobbying consultancy as a firm that often bids for major nuclear decommissioning contracts.

The NDA is charged with cleaning up the UK’s nuclear waste – and in particular with decommissioning the Sellafield site. It has employed Bell Pottinger Public Affairs (BPPA) since 2005. (more…)

MAGNOX North’s Chapelcross site has begun the next phase in its life with the start of final de-fuelling of Reactor 1.

The first fuel element was removed from the reactor core on August 18, beginning the active commissioning of the newly upgraded fuel route. (more…)

Tonnes of radioactive liquid metal – a legacy of the experimental fast reactor programme at Dounreay in Caithness – have been destroyed.

Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the material was turned into “harmless” salt water.

The water was put through a further process so it could be discharged into the sea. (more…)

Britain has a stockpile of plutonium and uranium that, if converted to fuel, could be worth nearly £160 billion and power three nuclear reactors for 60 years, scientists say.

The future of the stockpile – largely left over from burning fuel – will be decided by ministers over the next year, The Times has learnt. Its value is estimated as the equivalent of 2.6 billion barrels of oil. (more…)