(Reuters) - A second nuclear reactor in Belgium has indications of cracks in its core tank, the nuclear regulator said on Thursday, putting further strain on the country's energy supply as it heads into winter.
Preliminary results of tests being carried out at Tihange 2, a reactor operated by GDF Suez unit Electrabel, showed that there were indications of cracks on the core tank, Belgium's nuclear regulator FANC said in a statement.
London, 29 August (Argus) — The restart of the 1,006MW Doel nuclear power unit 3 in Belgium has been pushed back by a further two months, according to French utility GDF Suez, which operates the unit through its Belgian subsidiary Electrabel.
The unit is now forecast to go back on line on 1 December, two months later than the previous forecast.
BRUSSELS—Belgium has halted one of its seven nuclear reactors on suspicion that one of its components might be cracked, the country's atomic power regulator said Wednesday.
"We have found anomalies," said Karina De Beule, spokesman for the ACFN, the federal agency for nuclear control. The agency is "evaluating these anomalies, if they can cause cracks," Ms. De Beule said, adding that the 1,006-megawatt Doel 3 reactor will remain shut at least until the end of August.
The government's energy policy has suffered a fresh blow when GDF Suez, the French firm behind plans to build a new nuclear plant in Cumbria, said it needed more financial incentives if it was to proceed.
Gérard Mestrallet, chairman and chief executive of GDF, said he wanted talks with the government about a fixed or minimum price for producing nuclear energy: "We are, with our partners, going to take a decision in 2015 [on building a new plant at Sellafield]. Today it is very difficult to invest in a nuclear power plant without clear visibility."
PARIS/FRANKFURT, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Power groups GDF Suez, Iberdrola and RWE said on Thursday they were pulling out of a multi-billion dollar nuclear project in Romania, confirming an earlier report by Reuters.
"Economic and market-related uncertainties surrounding this project, related for the most part to the present financial crisis, are not reconcilable now with the capital requirements of a new nuclear power project," the groups said in a joint statement.
France's GDF Suez has paid the Belgian government a 2010 nuclear tax payment of Eur212 million ($276 million), a company spokeswoman said Thursday.
Through its subsidiary Electrabel, GDF Suez operates almost all of Belgium's 5.9 GW of nuclear capacity.
The Romanian state will take a decision in 2011 on the make-up of the company set to construct two new nuclear reactors in Romania’s existing site in Cernavoda, Constanta county, Minister of Economy Ion Ariton told The Diplomat
This will further delay the development of the four billion Euro, 1,500 MW power plant development and is likely to contribute to pushing back its commissioning date of 2015 to 2017 at the earliest.
Czech power firm ČEZ will quit a joint venture to build two units at Romania's sole nuclear power plant by December and seek other low-risk projects in the region, a company official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Romania, whose state-owned nuclear power firm already has two 706 megawatt reactors at its plant in Cernavodă, accounting for roughly 18 percent of the country's power, had planned plans to build two more in partnership with six foreign firms.
BRUSSELS, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Belgium may extend the lifetimes of its three oldest nuclear power stations by ten years to 2025 to guard against energy shortages, newspaper De Standaard reported on Friday.
The plants, two in Doel near the northern city of Antwerp and one in Tihange in southeastern Belgium, are due to close in 2015.
But Energy Minister Paul Magnette will submit a report to the government on Friday that concludes Belgium will face energy supply problems if the plants close on schedule, De Standaard said.
PARIS, Feb 18 (Reuters) - French utility GDF Suez has decided to pull out of Bulgaria's planned atomic power plant of Belene to focus on its other nuclear projects, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. GDF Suez's Belgian subsidiary Electrabel had been in talks to take part in German utility RWE's 49-percent stake in Bulgaria's 4 billion euro plant.
The Balkan country is building the 2,000 megawatt plant to help it regain its position as a major exporter in Southeast Europe and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
