Ukraine plans to sign an agreement to construct new nuclear power reactors by the end of this year, Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the country's cabinet of ministers today.
"The problem is that the [planned] units were designed according to Russian reactors, but we are finding a solution and intend to sign an agreement on the construction of new units by the end of this year," Yatsenyuk said, according to Russian news agency Itar-Tass.
The EU has 18 Russian-designed nuclear power plants
Following the loss of the Malaysian airliner last week, European leaders are once again wrestling with the question of how to respond to Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis.
They are reluctant to get tough, much more so than the United States.
The EU could easily end up doing itself a lot of economic harm, most obviously if Russia were to respond by turning down the gas.
More than five years of international intrigue ended with a whimper on April 10th as ČEZ, a Czech utility company, officially cancelled the planned expansion of the Temelín nuclear power plant, 120 km south of Prague in the South Bohemia region. The project was undone by a fall in electricity prices and the spectre of a botched state energy scheme in years past.
PRAGUE, April 9 (Reuters) - A tender for the $10-15 billion expansion of the Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear power plant should be wound down and replaced with a new contest with more bidders, President Milos Zeman said on Wednesday.
The plan to build two reactors at the site has been undermined by falling power prices and the government's unwillingness to provide price guarantees to Temelin's owner, CEZ, which is majority-owned by the state.
The Russian-developed and manufactured TVS Kvadrat (TVS-K) fuel will be destined for the Ringhals 3, pressurised water reactor (PWR) of Sweden. Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer- TVEL, a sister concern of Rosatom, for the first time in history to supply such fuel assembly for the western design reactors.
Under an agreement signed between TVEL and Swedish state-owned concern – Vattenfall, Russia to make the first shipment of TVS-Kvadrat in April for the Ringhals 3 NPP, Informed Valborg Bjorn, Head of the North-European subdivision of Vattenfall.
Bulgarians are set to vote in a referendum on whether a new nuclear power plant should be built.
The opposition Socialist party called the vote because it wants the government to reverse its decision not to build a new plant at Belene.
The first referendum in Bulgaria's post-Communist history has polarised opinion and is seen as a precursor of general elections later this year.
In a shock announcement, Czech power company CEZ on Friday excluded France’s Areva from its multi-billion-euro tender to expand the Temelin nuclear power plant for failing to fulfill all the requirements, leaving Toshiba’s US unit Westinghouse and a consortium led by Russia’s Atomstroyexport as the two remaining bidders.
Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has reacted strongly to Russia's increased claim against Bulgaria's National Electric Company over the country abandoning the Belene NPP project.
On Tuesday, Rosatom subsidiary Atomstroyexport increased its claim to EUR 1 B. The case of Bulgaria having to reimburse Atomstroyexport for scrapping plans to build a second Nuclear Power Plant in the Danube town of Belene is tried by the International Court of Arbitration in Paris.
It is not an easy game, it never has been. Turkey now seems to be closer to realizing its bid for its first nuclear power plant than ever before.
Some, however, argue the country may find itself far from this dream due to some unanticipated problems that may occur behind closed doors. But isn’t there a remedy to erase all lingering doubts about the planned plant?
China appears to be edging ahead in the international contest to build a new nuclear power station on Turkey’s Black Sea coast – a sign of how the ambitions of its nuclear companies are poised to reshape the global nuclear industry.
Beijing is not looking for government guarantees for the project and can supply its own financing, according to an Ankara official, pointing to China’s advantage in the race to build the reactor for Turkey.
