Nuclear power in Europe

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…)

STOCKHOLM, July 11 (Reuters) - A fire broke out on Friday on the roof of a turbine facility at Sweden’s Ringhals nuclear power plant but was brought under control, rescue services said.

A spokesman for the plant said there was no risk to the reactor.

“It’s … a fire on the roof of one of the turbine facilities at Ringhals 2,” said Fredrik Akesson, of the fire brigade in Varberg. “I would say it’s under control.” (more…)

Berlin - Germany’s oldest nuclear power plant still in operation was to have been shut down for good in autumn next year. That date was determined not so much by the plant’s age - Biblis A went onstream in 1974 - as by a political decision taken in 2000 to phase out nuclear power completely by around 2021.

In terms of the relevant legislation passed two years later, each of Germany’s 17 nuclear plants was allocated a block of remaining operating time. (more…)

Stockholm - A reactor at the Swedish nuclear plant Ringhals has been offline for a month after problems with auxiliary coolant pumps were detected during annual maintenance work, the plant said Friday. Two of the three auxiliary pumps had “insufficient capacity,” Ringhals spokesman Gosta Larsen told local media.

The maintenance work began early May and the problems were detected during the overhaul. (more…)

Suez’s formal withdrawal from the bidding for British Energy further whittles down the official number of European energy groups that have expressed an interest in acquiring all or part of the nuclear power group.

In early April it was thought that British Energy was in discussions with five European energy companies about a possible bid or collaboration. The groups believed to be in the talks at the time were EDF, the French state-controlled energy group, RWE and Eon of Germany, Spain’s Iberdrola, and Centrica of the UK. (more…)

STOCKHOLM, May 21 (Reuters) - Swedish state energy firm Vattenfall said the country’s Oskarshamn nuclear plant had received a bomb threat on Wednesday, and a source at the site said a building was sealed off after an employee was found carrying explosives.

Police said they were questioning a suspect at the Oskarshamn plant, south of Stockholm on the Baltic coast, but could not immediately confirm he was an employee of the facility. (more…)

Hopes of a bidding war for British Energy were dealt a blow yesterday after it became clear that Vattenfall, Suez and Eon were not planning to bid for the UK nuclear group.

This leaves RWE of Germany and France’s EDF as the most likely bidders for the UK government’s 35 per cent stake in British Energy before the deadline of Friday, May 9. Both companies - which have power generation operations in the UK - declined to comment. (more…)

Hopes of a bidding war for British Energy were dealt a blow yesterday after it became clear that Vattenfall, Suez and Eon were not planning to bid for the UK nuclear group.

This leaves RWE of Germany and France’s EDF as the most likely bidders for the UK government’s 35 per cent stake in British Energy before the deadline of Friday, May 9. Both companies - which have power generation operations in the UK - declined to comment. (more…)

Robin Pagnamenta in Oskarshamn, Sweden

Inside the cavernous hall of a nuclear storage plant in southern Sweden, an 18-tonne steel canister, bristling with tiny fins to draw out excess heat, is being hauled slowly through a hatch by a crane.

Packed with highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from a reactor north of Stockholm, the canister is being made ready for 30 years of storage in pools sunk into the bedrock. Once it cools sufficiently, it will be placed permanently in a final repository deep underground. (more…)