FRANKFURT, Sept 22 (Reuters) - E.ON's Unterweser nuclear plant in northern Germany was given the green light for a restart after its annaul maintenance outage, the environment ministry of the state of Lower Saxony said in a statement on Monday.
The ministry oversees nuclear safety in the state.
Wholesale power traders had expected a gradual restart of the 1,344 MW unit from Monday and for the plant to run at half load until the end of October.
Stockholm - The Swedish nuclear watchdog on Wednesday filed charges against the operators of a Swedish nuclear plant over failing to uphold security checks at the plant. The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said the Oskarshamn nuclear plant operators had failed to ensure 24-hour checks of people entering and leaving the site.
The security lapse was detected in connection with an inspection at the end of May, the nuclear watchdog said.
Sept 11 (Reuters) - RWE AG, Germany's largest producer of power, said on Thursday it was prepared to invest profits from its nuclear power stations in renewable energy if it was allowed to operate the atomic plants longer.
German utilities, including RWE, E.ON AG, Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg and Vattenfall's German unit, are seeking to convince the German government to allow them to operate their nuclear power stations longer.
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.
Recent allegations that a dash for wind would cause a big increase in fuel poverty crumble when you do the numbers, says Oliver Tickell. Nuclear is the real worry
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
A statement by the Socialists that nuclear power is not a taboo subject within the party could signal a parliamentary majority in favour of building new nuclear power plants in the Netherlands, reports Wednesday’s Telegraaf.
‘Everything is open to discussion. Nuclear power is not taboo for the SP,’ Socialist party (SP) leader Agnes Kant is quoted by the paper as saying.
Cold rain beats down outside the Biblis power station (pictured above), but behind the airlock that isolates the slightly radioactive containment area, the temperature rises to uncomfortable levels. Past several other layers of steel, the nuclear reactor hums gently.
“See these beams,” says Frank Staude, an engineer for the RWE power group, sweat streaming down his cheeks. “They will protect us against the kind of earthquake that would leave no skyscraper in Frankfurt standing.”
STOCKHOLM, July 11 (Reuters) - A fire broke out on Friday on the roof of a turbine facility at Sweden's Ringhals nuclear power plant but was brought under control, rescue services said.
A spokesman for the plant said there was no risk to the reactor.
"It's ... a fire on the roof of one of the turbine facilities at Ringhals 2," said Fredrik Akesson, of the fire brigade in Varberg. "I would say it's under control."
Berlin - Germany's oldest nuclear power plant still in operation was to have been shut down for good in autumn next year. That date was determined not so much by the plant's age - Biblis A went onstream in 1974 - as by a political decision taken in 2000 to phase out nuclear power completely by around 2021.
In terms of the relevant legislation passed two years later, each of Germany's 17 nuclear plants was allocated a block of remaining operating time.
