Nuclear power in Europe

High-level nuclear waste from across the European Union could be shipped to eastern Europe for burial in a central underground storage facility under plans being considered by EU member states.

The Times has learnt that the project, which comes amid a resurgence of interest in nuclear power, could be given the green light later this year by the European Commission. Ewoud Verhoef, deputy director of Covra, the agency responsible for the storage of the Netherlands´ nuclear waste, said: “The nuclear programme in Holland is small and the cost of building a geological repository is very high. We only have one nuclear reactor in the Netherlands so there would be big advantages to a shared solution.” (more…)

The French nuclear industry is in turmoil as uranium supplies have dried up and the treatment of spent fuel has been blocked amid an increasingly bitter row between the heads of its two main state operators.

EDF, the electricity group that runs 58 reactors in France, said that Areva, the nuclear energy group, had stopped uranium deliveries on January 4 and was refusing to take away spent fuel for reprocessing. (more…)

The Western media reported last week on how the German company Urenco shipped nuclear material to Siberia, where the highly toxic waste was stored in containers in the open air. The company has stopped deliveries and will store the material with higher standards in Germany in the future.

The radiation warning sign was so small that few passers-by took note in the commuter rail station in Kapitolovo, Russia. Fifty-six steel canisters were sitting there on a summer day three years ago. Just a stone’s throw away, people were waiting for trains to take them to downtown St. Petersburg. (more…)

The threat of global warming has given a boost to the nuclear industry in many countries as one way to provide electricity without increasing carbon emissions. But what to do with the nuclear waste, especially the most toxic form – spent nuclear fuel. Nick Thorpe went to see how Bulgaria is coping.

Kiril Nikolov smiles a big, nuclear smile. (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…)

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…)

Luxembourg’s Minister for Health, Mars Di Bartolomeo, has confirmed that no nuclear waste is, nor has been, transported through the Grand Duchy.

The information was provided in response to a parliamentary question which was raised following an incident this summer when a train carrying nuclear waste was stopped (outside Luxembourg) on its way to the Moselle. (more…)

WASHINGTON: Germany has returned more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of highly enriched uranium fuel to the U.S. for safeguarding from terrorists or potential misuse, the government said Tuesday.

The National Nuclear Security Administration said the spent fuel shipment was transported by ship and rail under secret and secure conditions. Spokeswoman Casey Ruberg said the material was secured at a site in the southern state of South Carolina on Sept. 23. (more…)

International Nuclear Services (INS) has issued a big-money brief for world-wide PR support.

INS was created out of the ‘spent fuel services’ business of Sellafield to provide a service to more than 20 global utility firms. It manages the transportation of their nuclear waste and subsequent reprocessing at Sellafield. (more…)

The Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, located 9 miles from Belgrade, is Yugoslavia’s oldest nuclear research institute. Established in 1948 as the Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, its efforts supposedly included an attempt to build a Yugoslav nuclear bomb. For almost 45 years, it collected Yugoslavia’s and Serbia’s radioactive waste. (more…)