Nuclear power in Europe

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of Russia’s plutonium-producing reactors may be closed six months ahead of schedule this summer, a major milestone in U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts, a senior Energy Department official said Friday.

The official said Sergey Kiriyenko, the director of Russia’s nuclear agency, Rosatom, told Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman during a 40-minute meeting Friday that shutting down the two reactors in the Siberian town of Seversk so soon was “realistic.” (more…)

SOFIA, Bulgaria: Plagued by electricity shortages, Bulgaria on Wednesday announced it was considering plans to reopen nuclear reactors it had to shut down before joining the European Union a year ago.

The two Russian-made units at Bulgaria’s only nuclear plant, Kozlodui, were switched off just hours before the Balkan country joined the European Union on Jan. 1, 2007. (more…)

Sweden’s Liberal Party, a member of the country’s ruling coalition, has called for the country to build four new reactors in its preliminary climate strategy. (more…)

The thaw between Poland and Brussels has sent a chill down spines in Lithuania.

Donald Tusk, the new Polish premier, arrived at the European Commission and parliament on Tuesday to show that his country was back in the centre of Europe. The era of the Kaczynskis, “the terrible twins”, picking fights with Brussels, was over.

The fear in Vilnius is that he may stop picking fights with Russia, too, leaving the Baltic republics, which only recently threw off the Soviet yoke, alone in the ring with the bear. Talks on resolving the Russian blockade of Polish meat, which in turn have held up a new EU-Russia partnership agreement to Brussels’ ill-concealed annoyance, start next week.
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Nov 06, 2007
In cooperation with BNS

RIGA — The Latvian government has endorsed an agreement to send used nuclear fuel from the decommissioned Salaspils nuclear research facility to Russia.

The Environment Ministry proposal was given the green light at a government meeting on Nov. 6, meaning that a full agreement with russia can go ahead next week.
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By Paul Dwyer
Producer, Windscale: Britain’s biggest nuclear disaster

Fifty years ago, on the night of 10 October 1957, Britain was on the brink of an unprecedented nuclear tragedy. A fire ripped through the radioactive materials in the core of Windscale, Britain’s first nuclear reactor. (more…)

Lithuania has already spent 51.2 million euros on projects aimed at decommissioning the first unit of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) closed late in 2004. Direct European Union (EU) support for the projects made up some 29 million euros in two years.

The overall amount excludes the support extended by the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund (IIDSF), administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which funds the decommissioning projects independently via direct payments to contractors or suppliers.

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Lithuania’s state-controlled Lietuvos Elektrine (Lithuanian Power Plant, or LPP) has invited international bids to design and build a new combined cycle gas turbine plant (CCGT) with a capacity of 350 to 450 megawatts (MW), the Economy Ministry said on Wednesday.

The project, worth an estimated 720 million litas (EUR 209 mln), is part of ongoing upgrades at the LPP, which will become the main generator of electricity in Lithuania after the shutdown of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) in 2009. The CCGT project will be financed from the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund, which is administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and other resources, the ministry said. The new plant will produce electricity at around half the cost of power generated by the existing units of the LPP.
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SOURCE: Dnevnik (Bulgaria)

The Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF), administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), will grant 39 mln euro ($53.1 mln) to Bulgaria for the construction of a thermal power plant on the site of the Kozloduy nuclear plant, Dnevnik daily reported on July 8, 2007. (more…)

Inside Bradwell power station in Essex

A ceremony has been held to mark the closure of one of Britain’s oldest nuclear power stations after 40 years in service.

Bradwell power station on the Essex coast is to stop producing electricity over the Easter weekend, ready for a lengthy decommissioning process. (more…)