Nuclear power in Europe

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…)

Sept 11 (Reuters) – RWE AG, Germany’s largest producer of power, said on Thursday it was prepared to invest profits from its nuclear power stations in renewable energy if it was allowed to operate the atomic plants longer.

German utilities, including RWE, E.ON AG, Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg and Vattenfall’s German unit, are seeking to convince the German government to allow them to operate their nuclear power stations longer. (more…)

Cold rain beats down outside the Biblis power station (pictured above), but behind the airlock that isolates the slightly radioactive containment area, the temperature rises to uncomfortable levels. Past several other layers of steel, the nuclear reactor hums gently.

“See these beams,” says Frank Staude, an engineer for the RWE power group, sweat streaming down his cheeks. “They will protect us against the kind of earthquake that would leave no skyscraper in Frankfurt standing.” (more…)

German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety said Saturday that 122 incidents were subject to reporting at the country’s nuclear power plants last year, according to the Munich-based Focus news magazine.

Based on a seven-stage international evaluation scale (INES), 120 incidents were reported on the lowest notifiable category. (more…)