Nuclear power in Europe

Finland and Sweden are working on technology for the safe burial of nuclear waste in bedrock. A partly Finnish-designed machine was on display at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden. The purpose of the device is to transport the dangerous materials deep into caverns excavated for the purpose.

The highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel needs to be isolated for at least 100,000 years.

Sweden is preparing to bury a total of about 12,000 tonnes of radioactive uranium waste. (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…)

A growing number of people are warming to nuclear power and more people now favour it rather than oppose it, according to a new YouGov survey for EDF Energy, the French nuclear power operator.

The survey, to be published tomorrow, shows that 53 per cent of the 4,449 people who took part in the online poll are now in favour of nuclear power stations to replace old ones. This compares with 46 per cent last year, and 41 per cent the previous year. At the same time 62 per cent agree that nuclear is needed as part of a balanced energy source for the UK compared with 59 per cent last year, and 54 per cent in 2006. (more…)

BERLIN (AP) — Almost 15,000 anti-nuclear demonstrators protested Saturday against a shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste being transported to a storage site in northern Germany, police said.

German police were working to free three demonstrators who had chained themselves to railway tracks near the western city of Woerth, preventing the shipment from crossing from France into Germany. (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…)

BERLIN: Some 500 students demonstrated Friday against the disposal of reprocessed nuclear waste at a temporary storage center in northwest Germany, police said.

A train carrying the waste was due to leave France Friday, with trucks taking it the final miles (kilometers) to the storage facility near the town of Gorleben early Monday. (more…)

SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) - The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog on Wednesday praised Spain’s regulator but recommended stepping up efforts to find a permanent site for dumping spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.

Urich Schmocker, head of an International Atomic Energy Agency mission to Spain, said building a central storage facility was just an interim solution. (more…)

The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has formally advised the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate - the country’s nuclear safety regulator - that it plans to extend the operating life at Oldbury nuclear power station, the NDA said Wednesday. (more…)

Sofia. ‘This is not a rare case, we have such cases once every month’, the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency Sergey Tsochev said in an interview for FOCUS News Agency.

There are such problems around the world and they are caused by having a radiation source inside metal scrap. (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…)