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E.ON sizes up new nuclear at Oldbury

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

E.ON UK has entered into a transmission connection agreement with National Grid for up to 1600MWe of new capacity at Oldbury.

The Oldbury-on-Severn site named in the agreement is owned by National Grid and is the location of a substation. The site is adjacent to the Oldbury nuclear power station, which is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and has two 225MWe Magnox units that are due to cease operation at the end of this year.

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The future will not be nuclear

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The government is pinning its hopes on a nuclear renaissance to meet Britain's climate change goals. Planning procedures are being eased and hidden subsidies offered. But the policy is based on a misunderstanding of nuclear power's lousy economics, and will fail
Tom Burke

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Finnish Nuclear Agency Finds Some Flaws in Olkiluoto Safety

Friday, August 29, 2008

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority said today the supervision and ''safety culture'' of welding at the Olkiluoto-3 nuclear plant did not meet all of its standards and must be improved.

The agency, known as STUK, demanded changes after inspecting the site and interviewing workers this week, according to a statement posted on its Web site. The regulator said it found no quality problems that threaten the durability of the welds.

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Areva faces 50 pct cost rise for Finnish nuclear reactor: report

Thursday, August 28, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — French nuclear group Areva is facing a 50 percent rise to the cost of building the world's first next-generation pressurised water reactor in Finland, the business daily Les Echos reported Thursday.

The cost of constructing the plant at Olkiluoto has risen from three billion to 4.5 billion euros (6.7 billion dollars), the paper reported citing an unidentified source.

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YLE: Serious Shortcomings at Olkiluoto Nuclear Site

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Serious shortcomings exist on the construction site of the new Olkiluoto nuclear reactor.

According to YLE current affairs programme, welding work has been carried out on the site without proper supervision. Neither has there been a qualified manager on site to direct the welding work for several months.

A qualified manager with responsibility for welding work must be on site at nuclear reactor construction site in order to meet with international standards.

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Greenpeace objects to "Super Waste" Storage

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Greenpeace has raised objections to the underground disposal of highly radioactive wastes from the new Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power unit.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Greenpeace says that the nuclear power industry has plans to create a new underground disposal facility at the Olkiluoto site for the ""super waste" spent fuel that will be created by the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power unit.

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German Anti-Nuclear Activists Slam Plan to Boost Research

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The German government is willing to spend millions of euros on atomic research in the years ahead despite a binding agreement to phase out nuclear energy completely. But with the rest of Europe banking on nuclear, German scientists don’t want to miss out on future developments.

German Research Minister Annette Schavan said this week she will increase funding for nuclear research. Her announcement may have come as a surprise to those who believe that more money to be spent on research in this field is bound to contradict an agreement to phase out nuclear energy in Germany completely.

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'It feels like a sci-fi film' - accidents tarnish nuclear dream

Saturday, July 26, 2008

French nuclear companies are hoping to play a central role in the government's plan to build a new generation of reactors. At home, however, the industry has been buffeted by a series of mishaps. Angelique Chrisafis reports from Bollène

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Nuclear fuel to be moved

Thursday, July 24, 2008

300 tons of spent fuel in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's military forces this summer held a training exercise to thwart a fake terrorist assault on a Soviet-built nuclear facility near Almaty, the country's former capital located on its southeastern border.

In the exercise, a reactor was the simulated target of terrorists trying to steal some of the deadliest nuclear material ever made. It came, by no coincidence, as U.S. and Kazakh officials put the finishing touches on a plan to move 300 tons of used nuclear fuel from a decommissioned Soviet nuclear reactor near the port city of Aktau on the Caspian Sea not far from Iran.

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Russian Company Retains Contract to Supply Nuclear Fuel to Slovakia

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Bratislava, 16 July: Russian open joint-stock company TVEL has maintained its position in Slovakia, having won the tender for the supply of nuclear fuel for five power-generating units of the local Mochovce and Bohunice nuclear power plants until 2015, management company Slovenskie Elektrarne has reported.

These plants were built to Russian design and equipped with VVER-440 reactors.

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