(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…)
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…)
Constant hold-ups, skyrocketing costs, faulty construction…Finland’s new Olkiluoto reactor, touted as the great white hope for Europe’s nuclear sector, is looking more and more like a great white elephant – and casting a fat black shadow over the whole industry. (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…)
An accident at Germany’s sole uranium enrichment facility in North Rhine Westphalia has left one worker in hospital under observation.
The incident occurred at the plant in the town of Gronau, when a room in the uranium enrichment facility was accidently exposed to radioactive material. The worker was in the room when the accident occurred, and was taken to the hospital as a precaution. He is expected to be released Friday. (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…)
