Nuclear power in Europe

This must take the record for the trippiest data-center build anywhere, ever: It’s an old nuclear bunker 30 meters below central Stockholm, and its new conversion for one of Sweden’s biggest ISPs has made it truly 007-worthy. Check it: it has simulated daylight, greenhouses and waterfalls, there’re German submarine engines rigged as emergency backup generators, plus there’s 1.5 megawatts of cooling for the servers. Oh, and it can survive a hydrogen bomb attack. (more…)

DOUNREAY’S training and development team has become the first of its potential spin-out businesses to move off the site.

The 12-strong group has relocated to Naver Business Centre in Thurso where there are better prospects for growth. (more…)

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Britain has set up a watchdog to ensure that decommissioning the nuclear power plants that the government wants to be built, and disposing of the waste, does not cost the taxpayer anything.

The Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB) will scrutinise how the companies planning to build the new power plants will pay to shut them at the end of their useful lives and clean up the radioactive waste they produce. (more…)

The consortium of the Energiewerke Nord GmbH (EWN), Sintagma UAB and Ernst & Young Baltic UAB successfully completed in September 2008 the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) decommissioning management system and database (DMSD) project.

The joint team with subcontractors IBM and CORE2 provided all services according to the project schedule of 14 months. Beside the delivery of a comprehensive set of different IT equipment, an enlarged training of nominated INPP staff was performed. The project was financed by the International Ignalina Decommissioning Support Fund managed by the Central Project Management Agency with the overall value of 3.5 million EUR. (more…)

For decades nuclear power has been slated as being environmentally harmful. But with climate change emerging as the world’s top environmental problem, the nuclear industry is now starting to enjoy a reputation as a green power provider, capable of producing huge amounts of energy with little or no carbon emissions. As a result, the industry is gaining renewed support. In the United States, both presidential candidates view nuclear power as part of the future energy mix. The US government isn’t alone in its support for an expansion of nuclear facilities. Japan announced in August that it would spend $4 billion on green technology, including nuclear plants. (more…)

MILAN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Italy’s nuclear decommissioning company Sogin will invest 490 million euros ($711 million) under its new 2008-2012 business plan to speed up decommissioning of power stations, part of Italy’s ban on nuclear power.

Sogin’s new plan comes as Italy, which rejected nuclear power in a referendum in 1987 after the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, debates the possibility of a nuclear energy revival to help offset rising oil costs and the emission of greenhouse gases. (more…)

The Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, located 9 miles from Belgrade, is Yugoslavia’s oldest nuclear research institute. Established in 1948 as the Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, its efforts supposedly included an attempt to build a Yugoslav nuclear bomb. For almost 45 years, it collected Yugoslavia’s and Serbia’s radioactive waste. (more…)

“Wind power could put another half million people into fuel poverty” – shock, horror! That was how BBC Radio 4 promoted last week’s The Investigation into the future of wind power in the UK.

Who can blame them? It got me listening. But do their figures stack up? And what exactly was Sir David King, former government chief scientific advisor, up to when he uttered his dire warning? In case you missed it, here’s that warning in full (more…)

Green campaigners have expressed concern that the Government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is using the same lobbying consultancy as a firm that often bids for major nuclear decommissioning contracts.

The NDA is charged with cleaning up the UK’s nuclear waste - and in particular with decommissioning the Sellafield site. It has employed Bell Pottinger Public Affairs (BPPA) since 2005. (more…)

MAGNOX North’s Chapelcross site has begun the next phase in its life with the start of final de-fuelling of Reactor 1.

The first fuel element was removed from the reactor core on August 18, beginning the active commissioning of the newly upgraded fuel route. (more…)