Nuclear power in Europe

SOFIA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - French power giant GDF Suez said on Tuesday it would decide whether to share a stake in a Bulgarian nuclear project with RWE after examining a deal agreed between the German utility and Sofia.

The Bulgarian government last month chose RWE to become a strategic partner for a 49 percent stake in the planned Belene plant and gave the option to split the stake with the second-listed bidder, Belgian Electrabel, owned by GDF Suez. (more…)

Electrabel has reacted strongly against a plan from the Belgian government to force a one-off payment of €250 million ($338 million) from nuclear power generators.

The company’s parent group, GdF-Suez has told the Belgian government that it “emphatically protests” a draft of new legislation which requires nuclear operators - and nuclear operators only - to make a “contribution” of €250 million to government coffers for the 2008 financial year. (more…)

AMSTERDAM, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Belgium’s proposals to charge the country’s nuclear power generators a one-off tax of 250 million euros ($339.8 million) are in conflict with previous agreements, Belgian energy company Electrabel said.

The Belgian cabinet is set to present a bill to parliament to levy the charge against all nuclear players in the country for 2008 in return for keeping five out of seven of the country’s nuclear reactors open. (more…)

SOFIA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Bulgaria is close to choosing a winner between Belgian energy firm Electrabel and Germany’s RWE AG to make a strategic investment in a planned 4 billion euro ($5.6 billion) nuclear plant, Bulgarian utility NEK said on Thursday.

In August, state-owned NEK asked RWE and Electrabel, owned by France’s GDF Suez, to improve their offers for a 49 percent stake in the plant it is building to restore Bulgaria’s position as a leading power exporter in southeastern Europe. (more…)

The groundbreaking ceremony for the official start of construction on the second Bulgarian Belene nuclear power plant is scheduled for September 3. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will turn the first sod, according to the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s press centre in the northern city of Pleven, as quoted by Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik. (more…)

CEZ Romania expects the construction of the third and fourth reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear plant to be delayed about one year. On the other hand, CEZ bought in Eastern Romania a wind energy project evaluated at 100 million euro.

“We haven’t been invited until now to continue the negotiations for the construction of the two Cernavoda rectors”, said the CEZ Development Manager, Doru Voicu, who added that the company also waits for a response from Termoelectrica, in order to establish a partnership and build two thermal plants. (more…)

Romania is eyeing construction of a new nuclear plant with capacity of between 2,000 and 2,400 megawatts, whose first unit could come on line after 2020, the head of the state nuclear operator Nuclearelectrica said on Friday.

Along with some other former communist EU members, Romania is at the forefront of a renewed push for nuclear energy as an alternative to coal and gas which emit carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming. Nuclearelectrica operates Romania’s only nuclear power station in Cernavoda, where the first of two 706MW units went on stream in 1996. (more…)

Bulgaria’s power grid operator the National Electricity Company (NEC) launched the final round of talks with Germany’s RWE and Belgium’s Electrabel, who are bidding to become strategic investors in Belene nuclear power plant, sources close to the procedure said, as quoted by mediapool.bg on April 3.

NEC wants the two candidates to clarify their offers for a 49 per cent stake in the company that will build and run Belene. The two 1000MW reactors of the plant are scheduled to be connected to the power grid by 2014. (more…)

Belgian section of the environmental organisation Greenpeace has been fined following a protest at Doel power station

The Belgian section of the environmental organisation Greenpeace has been fined following a protest at Doel power station in East Flanders. (more…)

BRUSSELS, March 12 (Reuters) - Belgian electricity company SPE said on Wednesday it had bought 635 megawatts of nuclear energy capacity from Suez’s Electrabel, boosting its share of Belgium’s nuclear market to some 15 percent.

SPE, partly owned by Gaz de France and Britain’s Centrica, said it was a three-part deal. (more…)