Nuclear power in Europe

Dec 5 (Interfax) - Russia’s Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Oversight (Rostekhnadzor) registered two minor events at nuclear power plants in November 2008.

On November 12, Balakovskaya NPP’s power unit N2 switched off without activation of the emergency system, the agency said in a press release. Rostekhnadzor has already completed an investigation of this incident. The discharge occurred as a result of a switch- off of the primary circulatory pumps, caused by the loss of a pressure signal in the lubrication system’s oil pumps, the agency said. (more…)

Kyiv, November 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft agreement with the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan about the joint participation in the International uranium enrichment center in Angarsk, Irkutsk region, Russia.

The Cabinet of Ministers passed a respective resolution on November 19 2008. (more…)

MOSCOW, Nov. 18 (UPI) — Russia’s state-run uranium mining concern Atomredmetzoloto said it would increase uranium production to 3,841 tons this year.

Proven uranium reserves in Russia have reached 545,000 metric tons, a 275 percent increase from 2006, Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said Tuesday, RIA Novosti reported. (more…)

MOSCOW, Nov. 18 (UPI) — An uncompleted project to clean up a radioactive former dump in a densely populated Moscow suburb is endangering the health of residents, advocates say.

A mound along Marshala Rokossovskogo Boulevard that for years was used by children as a sledding hill actually contained radioactive waste dumped there in the 1940s and 1950s, and after beginning an excavation to enable the building of new apartments on the site, officials have suspended the operation, the Moscow Times reported Tuesday. (more…)

Projected cost of Mochovce’s completion has ballooned

10 Nov 2008 Beata Balogová Business - JUST weeks after the government approved its strategy on energy security, which is intended to guide policy for the next 20 years or so and which defined nuclear energy as one of its key pillars, Slovakia’s dominant power generator started the construction phase of two further blocks at the Mochovce nuclear plant. (more…)

MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax) - The Federal Technological, Environmental and Atomic Supervisory Service has completed an inspection of the Mayak plant based in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region. No violations of nuclear, radiation and technological safety have been exposed, the service said.

The inspectors verified control over nuclear materials, radioactive substances and waste and physical protection of the plant. (more…)

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia wants to take part in Vietnam’s planned nuclear energy program, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov said Thursday following talks with Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem in Hanoi.

“We know that such plans were made in Vietnam, very daring and far-reaching plans. We hope that Russia will be among those who will work with Vietnam in this hi-tech area and continue the traditions of our cooperation,” Denisov said in an interview to the ITAR-TASS news agency. (more…)

Agreements on cooperation to revive Italy’s nuclear sector and give LUKoil a foothold in the European refining sector topped a slew of deals signed Thursday, overseen by President Dmitry Medvedev and visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

But Berlusconi, renowned for impolitic and controversial statements, grabbed the most attention with comments about Barack Obama, describing the U.S. president-elect as “young, attractive and even suntanned.” (more…)

As work started on LAES-2, a complex of six power station units with VVER-1200 reactors that is due to complement the existing four 4 RBMK-1000 units of Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES), environmentalists began a protest campaign against what they call an illegitimate and potentially hazardous construction.

The project’s estimated cost is $10 billion. (more…)

KIEV, November 4 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine will stop importing electricity from Russia on December 1, the country’s Fuel and Energy Ministry said on Tuesday.

Ukraine began importing electricity from Russia on September 15 due to a shortage of coal and unscheduled repairs to the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant. (more…)