Companies

Finance deal agreed for Polish nuclear plant

Friday, October 25, 2013

Poland’s nuclear power ambitions have moved a step forward after four state companies agreed to team up to finance a 3,000-megawatt unit.

State utility PGE, which is coordinating the project, will sell three 10% stakes to utilities Tauron and Enea and to copper and silver producer KGHM. The total cost of the project is likely to be almost €10bn, according to government estimates.

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Incident with nuclear fuel bars in Slovenian Krsko

Friday, October 25, 2013

During a regular maintenance of the nuclear power plant “Krsko” in Slovenia damages have been found on bars for the nuclear fuel. It was determined that one of the bars fell down to the bottom of the reactor with water.

Nuclear plant is still functioning, but it is not known until when, although reasons for this incident are unknown.

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EU to examine aid for UK nuclear deal

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

AFP - The European Commission said Tuesday it would examine British government support for a massive 19-billion-euro nuclear plant to be built by French and Chinese firms.

London announced Monday plans for two reactors to be built by French energy giant EDF, backed by the world's leading nuclear power company, Areva of France, and Chinese nuclear firms CGN and CNNC.

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Britain to build Europe's first nuclear plant since Fukushima

Sunday, October 20, 2013

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Britain is set to sign a deal with France's EDF for the first nuclear plant to start construction in Europe since Japan's Fukushima disaster raised safety concerns worldwide, at a cost estimated at around $23 billion.

Under the deal, expected to be announced on Monday, the French utility will lead a consortium, including a Chinese group, to construct two European Pressurised Water Reactors (EPRs) designed by France's Areva.

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Four Central European states urge EU to support nuclear energy

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

BUDAPEST, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary want the European Union to support nuclear energy projects and not to over-regulate the area, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday after a summit of the "Visegrad Four" countries.

The four also threw their backing behind shale gas extraction in Europe, and agreed to set up a natural gas market forum with the aim of fostering a regional gas market, which will convene in Budapest this month, Orban said.

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Full probe call after nuclear train derails in Barrow

Thursday, October 10, 2013

INVESTIGATIONS have been launched to determine how a train carrying nuclear flasks derailed between Roose and Barrow stations.

Emergency crews raced to the scene, just behind Salthouse Road, Barrow, at about 2.15pm yesterday and St Luke’s Avenue was cordoned off.

A spokesman from International Nuclear Services Ltd, a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is responsible for the management and transport of nuclear material, said the train had been on the way to Sellafield carrying empty flasks when it derailed while travelling at approximately 5mph.

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The birthing pains of new nuclear

Sunday, October 6, 2013

With a deal over subsidies now weeks away, Emily Gosden looks back at the tortuous path to this point and the challenges that remain.

Ed Davey was adamant. He had never given a “day-by-day or week-by-week account” of the negotiations with EDF, and nor was he about to start — no matter how much the assembled journalists wanted to know whether a deal to build Britain’s first reactor in a generation would finally be agreed in the few weeks before the energy firm’s end-of-year deadline.

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CEZ scales back new investments in tough power market

Sunday, September 29, 2013

PRAGUE, Sept 25 (Reuters) - CEZ is taking a wait-and-see approach to new investment as low power prices pressure energy companies and will scale back renewable plans due to an uncertain regulatory landscape, the Czech utility's chief strategy officer said.

Pavel Cyrani, also a CEZ board member, told the Reuters Eastern Europe Investment summit on Wednesday that a cautious approach was necessary to allow central Europe's biggest utility to remain healthy in current tough market conditions.

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EDF : Fessenheim Nuclear Plant Dismantlement Not Until 2018 - Report

Thursday, September 26, 2013

PARIS--France's oldest nuclear plant Fessenheim, in the east of the country bordering Germany, won't be dismantled until 2018 at the earliest due to the plant's lengthy closing procedures, the French government mediator for the shut down of Fessenheim Francis Rol-Tanguy said in an interview with French daily Les Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace.

The closing of Fessenheim is seen as a litmus test for French President Francois Hollande's ability to reform the country's strategy on energy which heavily relies on its nuclear capacities. By law only the operator of a power plant or France's nuclear regulator can decide to shut down a reactor.

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EDF Nuclear Deal With U.K. Would Be Reviewed by EU, Almunia Says

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Electricite de France SA’s deal with the U.K. to build the nation’s first new nuclear plant in two decades will be probed by the European Union once an agreement is struck and regulators are informed, the EU’s antitrust chief said.

“The U.K. government has announced to us that they will notify in the coming months a program linked with investments in nuclear energy, in new plants,” Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said in the margins of a conference in Florence, Italy. “Once this notification will take place we will need to assess if this scheme, this program complies or not” with the EU’s rules.

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