PARIS, July 20 (Reuters) - EDF has delayed the completion of its first French next-generation EPR nuclear reactor by another two years to 2016, saying it expects the project's costs to rise to 6 billion euros ($8.52 billion).
In July 2010, the state-controlled utility had delayed the commercial start of the 1,600 megawatt nuclear reactor by two years to 2014. It had also previously raised its cost estimate for the project in northern France by almost 2 billion euros to 5 billion euros.
Northern German nuclear reactor Brokdorf may stay closed for several weeks after it was taken offline on Sunday, a spokeswoman for operator E.ON said on Tuesday.
E.ON hoped to know by the end of this week what the future schedule for the plant would be, the spokeswoman said, adding that E.ON assumed that a transformer at the plant needed to be swapped out.
FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, July 11 (Reuters) - Germany's cartel office said on Monday it would "closely" examine any investment by Gazprom in RWE after reports the weakened German utility was open to an investment by the Russian gas monopoly.
Essen-based RWE has been hit by loss-making gas contracts and weak power prices, and is also under threat from a German tax on nuclear fuel that came into effect this year.
PARIS, July 8 (Reuters) - France raised the possibility for the first time of pulling out of nuclear power although its energy minister stressed on Friday that this was just one of many scenarios, not the one favoured by the government.
Energy Minister Eric Besson announced on radio Europe 1 the launch of a study on Friday on the country's energy mix by 2050, with options including a complete exit from nuclear production, a cut in the share of nuclear to 50 percent and a progressive reduction of total electricity production in France.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's nuclear strategy is "uninvestable" for private clients, who are only likely to put money into new plants if the government shoulders more of the risks involved, Citigroup's head of European utilities research said on Wednesday.
Nuclear developers plan to build around 16 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in the UK by 2025 to help meet the UK's tough climate targets, but the investment environment is "dire," Peter Atherton told journalists at a briefing in London.
British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known.
Planned stress tests on European nuclear plants should focus on threats from natural disasters and exclude potential man-made catastrophes such as a terrorist attack, European atomic industry group Foratom said.
European nuclear officials are to decide today on parameters for the safety checks on atomic power plants in response to the Japanese nuclear crisis caused by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The meeting of the European Commission, the EU regulator, and 27 national nuclear safety authorities comes a day after Spain’s biggest earthquake in 57 years killed eight people.
Bulgarians "risk being cold" this winter if the government did not move forward with the Russian energy projects. This is what Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin said, off-the-record, to his Bulgarian counterpart, Boyko Borisov, during the summit in Gdansk in September, 2009. The tone of the sentence in question is not clear, we cannot judge if it was threatening enough, but obviously it seriously impressed Borisov in order for him to report it in a timely manner and for Putin’s words to find their place in the classified documents of the American diplomacy.
Energy Solutions of Oak Ridge, TN has applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to import up to 1000 tons of radioactive waste from Eckert and Ziegler Nuclitec, a German company that specializes in the collection, processing, and disposal of these materials from hospitals, research, and technical facilities world wide.
Initial construction work at the Belarus nuclear power plant will begin in August or September 2011, First Vice Prime Minister Vladimir Smeashko said on Monday, February 14.
"We are beginning to build a nuclear power plant this year. The preparatory period is drawing to an end, the document has been signed, according to which initial construction work will begin from the end of August or the beginning of September," he said.
