A £15bn international bid to harness the fusion process that powers the Sun is facing a major funding crisis. Scientists have revealed that the cost of the International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (Iter) has trebled from its original £5bn price tag in the past three years. At the same time, financial crises have beset all the nations involved in the project. (more…)
Brussels is against member states exporting their nuclear waste to countries outside the EU or to store it in joint sites, energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger said, as the commission is working on a set of common safety standards for this dangerous material.
“It is the duty of national politicians to do their homework,” Mr Oettinger told Financial Times Deutschland in an interview published on Wednesday (10 March). The German commissioner warned against common storage sites, as well as exporting the radioactive material outside the EU, for instance Russia. (more…)
Brussels – The European Commission intends to propose EU- wide rules on the disposal of nuclear waste by the end of 2010, an official said Thursday.
‘Nuclear waste management is an important area which needs to be addressed by both industry and national governments (…) the role of the EU is to set a common framework for the establishment of national waste management programs,’ said Marlene Holzner, spokeswoman for energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger, during a briefing in Brussels. (more…)
The European Union is heading for a clash with other major economies over the timetable for building an experimental fusion reactor.
European governments want to slow down construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) because they are paying for the bulk of the construction costs and are concerned that the budget is spiralling out of control. Other countries involved in the ITER project are, however, strongly opposed to any kind of delay. (more…)
VILNIUS — Lithuania Thursday shut down its Soviet-era nuclear plant under an EU deal in a move set to drive up electricity prices amid an economic crisis and leave it counting on ex-master Moscow for power.
“At 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) everything went offline. It all went according to plan,” Viktor Sevaldin, director of the 26-year-old plant, told AFP by telephone. (more…)
Paris, March 13, 2006 – Nuclear power will dominate the first G8 energy summit in Moscow next week.
The rising price of fossil fuels, combined with concerns about the greenhouse effect and the demands of the Kyoto agreement ha s meant industrialised nations are having to reconsider how they source their energy supplies. Most countries regard nuclear energy as the solution to environmental concerns and dwindling fossil fuel supplies. (more…)
