(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…)
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…)
The European Nuclear Energy Leadership Academy (ENELA) is going to open in Germany to attract university graduates to the nuclear energy sector and train future leaders in the field.
The founding treaty of ENELA was signed here on Thursday by six European nuclear energy companies, which are shareholders of the academy. (more…)
State owned Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest power producing companies, has found itself in the middle of a political storm since it became known they had plans to sell their part of the Swedish power grid. Accusations that CEO Lars G. Josefsson has ‘pledged’ the entire corporate group, in an agreement with German authorities, has made the Minister for Enterprise, Maud Olofsson, to put forward strong criticism. (more…)
STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) – Sweden’s Vattenfall is ready to reopen one of its two north German nuclear plants shortly and the second will reopen later this year at the earliest as the operator completes safety-related measures, Chief Executive Lars Josefsson said on Monday.
“Kruemmel is almost ready to go live but of course requires approval while the time schedule for Brunsbuettel is not as firm,” he said at the Reuters Energy Summit by video link from Stockholm. (more…)
Stockholm (Platts) – 13 Nov 2008 Forsmark management said it will try to use control rods from the closed Barsebaeck nuclear power plant to replace rods with broken and cracked shafts in Forsmark-3.
About 25% of the Swedish unit’s 197 rods are cracked and at least one is broken. In a November 13 statement, Forsmark management said it wants to use the Barsebaeck rods because it would be difficult to quickly order and install so many new rods. (more…)
STOCKHOLM, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Swedish power group Vattenfall said on Tuesday an inspection had revealed one broken control rod and cracks in about 30 percent of others at its Forsmark 3 reactor.
Forsmark communications director Claes-Inge Andersson told Reuters that about 100 out of 169 rods had been inspected and cracks had been found in some 25-30 percent of them. (more…)
Stockholm – Two of Sweden’s 10 nuclear reactors were to be offline for at least a month as checks continued on the control rods used to control the nuclear fission process, officials said Monday. The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority last week ordered operators to check the control rods after cracks were detected in the control rods at one of the three reactors at the Oskarhamn nuclear plant, south-eastern Sweden. (more…)
