Hopes of a bidding war for British Energy were dealt a blow yesterday after it became clear that Vattenfall, Suez and Eon were not planning to bid for the UK nuclear group.
This leaves RWE of Germany and France's EDF as the most likely bidders for the UK government's 35 per cent stake in British Energy before the deadline of Friday, May 9. Both companies - which have power generation operations in the UK - declined to comment.
Robin Pagnamenta in Oskarshamn, Sweden
Inside the cavernous hall of a nuclear storage plant in southern Sweden, an 18-tonne steel canister, bristling with tiny fins to draw out excess heat, is being hauled slowly through a hatch by a crane.
Packed with highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from a reactor north of Stockholm, the canister is being made ready for 30 years of storage in pools sunk into the bedrock. Once it cools sufficiently, it will be placed permanently in a final repository deep underground.
STOCKHOLM (Thomson Financial) - The UN's nuclear watchdog today noted improved security measures at a problem-prone nuclear plant in Sweden, but recommended a number of other steps to increase safety further.
The Forsmark nuclear plant on Sweden's east coast 'has introduced or extended several programmes contributing to improved operational safety,' Miroslav Lipar, head of International Atomic Energy Agency mission in Sweden, said in a statement.
STOCKHOLM, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Utility Vattenfall is putting a string of nuclear mishaps behind it and sees a bright future for atomic power in Europe, although it cannot yet say when its hobbled German plants will be back online.
"You should be a little humble and not overconfident but we have taken a lot of measures and we are definitely on the right track to be the benchmark of our industry," Lars Josefsson, chief executive of the Swedish state-owned firm, told Reuters.
STOCKHOLM, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Vattenfall Chief Executive Lars Josefsson said on Thursday he was not prepared to estimate when the Brunsbuettel and Kruemmel nuclear plants in Germany would come back on line.
Josefsson told a conference call on Vattenfall's 2007 results he was "not prepared to give any estimation" on when the plants, jointly owned with E.ON, would come back on line.
FRANKFURT, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A fire started at Vattenfall Europe's currently closed Kruemmel nuclear plant in northern German but was quickly put out by the plant's own fire brigade on Monday, the operator and local government said.
No radioactive substances had been released and all relevant authorities had been informed, Vattenfall said in a statement.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A court ruled on Wednesday that a dispute between the German government and a power group about whether to close a major nuclear reactor will be referred to the country's Federal Administrative Court.
The decision prolongs a dispute between the operator, Vattenfall Europe, which last year applied to keep the 806 megawatts plant open beyond 2010, and the Environment Ministry, which threw out the application.
FRANKFURT, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Germany will uphold staunch political opposition to atomic energy, unperturbed by the mood swinging back in favour of nuclear power elsewhere.
Oil at record highs, climate worries, and the need to cut dependency on energy imports is due to move the British government to back new nuclear power plants on Thursday.
But Germany, Europe's biggest and most central power market, will not follow suit.
AFX News Limited
FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - RWE AG and Vattenfall Europe AG's chances of delaying the shut-down of nuclear reactors until after the next German parliamentary elections have risen after a fall in power volumes following the closure of two reactors, Handelsblatt reported.
Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:17pm GMT
STOCKHOLM, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Swedish utility group Vattenfall said on Monday it will create a new executive post to keep tabs on its nuclear power activities after criticism over operations at plants in Sweden and Germany.
