Europe

Thorp is back

Friday, September 14, 2007

14 September 2007

The Sellafield site operator has reported that the initial 33t shearing campaign as part of the phased restart of the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp), which commenced on 4 July 2007, has been successful. The modified plant and procedures for the Feed Clarification Cell have now been fully recommissioned and tested.

The liquors resulting from the leak discovered in April 2005 and held in buffer storage since then have been reprocessed.

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Spanner in Ringhals works

Friday, September 14, 2007

14 September 2007

A generator fire at Sweden’s Ringhals 3, thought to be caused by a mislaid tool, has cost plant operators Vattenfall and E.ON several millions of Euros.

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Minor fault shuts down generator at Finnish nuclear power plant

Thursday, September 13, 2007

HELSINKI, Finland: Plant officials shut down a nuclear reactor in southern Finland Thursday, after a faulty turbine caused a generator to lose power, but no radiation leak or other damage was reported, officials said.

The 250-megawatt generator, at the Loviisa plant, 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of Helsinki, was shut down but the other 250-megwatt unit was running normally, operations manager Markku Tiitinen said.

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France begins 'strategic reflection' on future of nuclear sector, presidential spokesman says

Thursday, September 13, 2007


France begins 'strategic reflection' on future of nuclear sector, presidential spokesman says

The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

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PvdA pleit voor toestemming bij export uranium

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Trouw (web), 11 september 2007

(Novum) - De PvdA wil de Kernenergiewet aanpassen, zodat het bedrijf Urenco verantwoordelijk kan worden gesteld voor de export van kernenergie naar Rusland. Tweede Kamerlid Diederik Samsom vindt dat parlementaire toestemming aan het uitvoeren van uranium vooraf moet gaan.

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Vrom overweegt stappen om ontmantelen kerncentrale

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Trouw (website), 7 september 2007

(Novum) - Het ministerie van Vrom onderzoekt de mogelijkheden om via juridische weg extra geld af te dwingen van de huidige eigenaar van de kerncentrale in Dodewaard, om die te kunnen ontmantelen. Dit bedrijf, Gemeenschappelijke Kerncentrale Nederland (GKN), schat de kosten op 130 miljoen euro. De beoogde nieuwe eigenaar, de Centrale Organisatie Voor Radioactief Afval (Covra), zei vrijdag in het Radio 1-programma Argos dat het 230 miljoen euro gaat kosten.

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EUR 3 billion price tag for construction delay on new reactor at Finland’s Olkiluoto NPP

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - According to the Elfii consortium of large Finnish electricity users, a construction delay in an experimental new reactor design at Olkiluoto NPP will cost Nordic electricity users EUR 3 billion, the Finnish business daily Kauppalehti reported. Birthe Weijola, 12/09-2007 Elfi director Antti Koskelainen is quoted saying that the cost of the delay is comparable to the investment cost for the whole reactor.

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French nuclear vendor Areva says UK nuclear relaunch 'essential'

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

French nuclear vendor Areva says UK nuclear relaunch 'essential'

London (Platts)--6 Sep 2007

French nuclear vendor Areva NP says that the revival of a nuclear power program in the UK is "absolutely essential."

CEO Luc Oursel, speaking at a conference in London Thursday, said that the UK would be the first in Europe to relaunch on a large scale a nuclear power effort. Therefore, he said, it has to be successful.

Success in the UK could lead other European countries planning to exit nuclear power to reconsider their plans.

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Public doubts over nuclear power persist

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Public doubts over nuclear power persist
By Rebecca Bream

Published: September 10 2007 04:03 | Last updated: September 10 2007 04:03

Serious misgivings about nuclear power remain as well as concerns over the role of private sector operators in the industry according to the largest ever public consultation to be held in the UK.

A sample of 1,000 people in nine cities were asked to give their views on whether the government should give the green light to a new generation of nuclear power stations in a series of workshops on Saturday.

The day was hailed by ministers as a victory for the democratic process and a reflection of prime minister Gordon Brown’s push to involve a wider range of people in policy-making.

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Finnish plant demonstrates nuclear power industry's perennial problems

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

By Alan Katz, Bloomberg News, September 6, 2007

Martin Landtman hunched forward in his shirtsleeves as a June storm on Finland's Baltic coast drenched the construction site of the world's most powerful nuclear reactor. As project manager for TVO, the joint venture buying the plant, Landtman has weathered far worse annoyances than rain.

Flawed welds for the reactor's steel liner, unusable coolant pipes and suspect concrete in the foundation already have pushed back the delivery date of the Olkiluoto-3 unit by at least two years.

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