(Reuters) – Two key German ministers took different positions on Monday on the length of time that nuclear power plants should be extended after Chancellor Angela Merkel reduced expectations for a long extension. (more…)
LINGEN, Germany – (Dow Jones)- German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday said she is in favor of the country’s nuclear power plant operators making further financial contributions in return for longer reactor operating lives, which would come on top of a tax on nuclear fuel her government has proposed to help reduce the public budget deficit. (more…)
Germany’s nuclear power plants operators have threatened to pull out of nuclear power generation in protest of a proposed tax. The general debate over the future of German nuclear power has heated up again.
Controversial negotiations are underway in Germany between the government and energy providers as companies threaten to shut down their nuclear power plants over a proposed tax on fuel rods and Germany’s debate over its nuclear energy future reignites. (more…)
LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) – Britain must reform electricity markets if it is to secure the private investment needed to meet its carbon emissions targets, according to a study by KPMG.
The report, which will be published on Monday, said the British government’s approach to investment in low-carbon generation was inconsistent and clearer planning was needed to show how emissions targets will be met. (more…)
Bulgaria aims to limit the cost of the Belene nuclear plant being built by Russia’s ZAO Atomstroyexport to 7 billion euros ($8.8 billion), Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said.
Borissov met today with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov in Sofia to discuss joint energy projects including construction of the 2,000-megawatt power plant on the Danube river, natural-gas supply and the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Western Europe via Bulgaria. (more…)
IT IS hard to escape from history. Just as Britain is about to embark on an ambitious programme to build a new generation of nuclear power stations, an old atomic relic offers a timely reminder of the risks. On June 1st Chris Huhne, the newly installed Liberal Democrat energy secretary, revealed that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the publicly funded outfit charged with cleaning up Britain’s old nuclear power stations, is facing a £4 billion funding shortfall over the coming four years. For a department with an annual budget of just £3 billion, that is, as Mr Huhne puts it, an “existential” problem. (more…)
BERLIN, June 7 (UPI) — The German government will extend the running times of its nuclear power plants by no more than 10 years.
The decision is the product of lengthy government consultations over the weekend, the Berliner Zeitung newspaper reports. It would be a victory for Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen, who has campaigned for no or moderate running time extensions. A host of pro-nuclear state governors had lobbied to extend the running times by as much as 28 years. (more…)
FRANKFURT, May 10 (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition may have trouble pushing through planned nuclear lifetime extensions after a German regional election on Sunday went awry for the government.
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, left Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Free Democrat (FDP) allies short of their previous state majority, leaving the make-up of the next government unclear. (more…)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s nuclear power industry is no closer to knowing how long its plants may operate than five months ago when Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new government assumed power and promised to extend their lives.
Rifts inside her center-right cabinet over the merit of rivalling renewables energies and a local election potentially threatening her party’s leadership of a key state have delayed steps to free the 17 reactors from closure in the coming decade. (more…)
German utility RWE has indicated its interest in building a nuclear power plant in the Netherlands should a new government revoke the ban on such projects, RWE CEO Juergen Grossmann said at the company’s annual earnings press conference Thursday in Essen.
“We are interested and we are competent,” Grossmann said, when asked about the issue by a Dutch journalist. (more…)
