President Francois Hollande’s decision to shut Electricite de France SA’s oldest reactor at Fessenheim in 2016 may force the power-exporting eastern region to rely on imports and require extra spending on the local grid.
“The power supply situation of Alsace will become more fragile,” Dominique Maillard, president of grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite, said at a press conference today.
Lithuania will find it difficult to ensure the security of energy supply without building a new nuclear power plant, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said.
Oettinger said on Wednesday (14 November) that if a nuclear power plant is not built in Lithuania, the problems with energy supply security will persist in the entire region, including the Baltic countries, Finland and the Kaliningrad region, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported.
Electricite de France SA’s plan to bolster the concrete base of its oldest reactor would be a world first and could be extended to the rest of its French reactor fleet, the atomic safety regulator said.
EDF, which operates all of the country’s 58 reactors, has submitted a plan to the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire to carry out a project to thicken the base of the 900-megawatt Unit 1 of the Fessenheim plant in eastern France. The regulator, which ordered EDF to improve safety or shutter the reactor by the middle of 2013, could rule within two months on whether the plan is viable.
(Reuters) - Britain's nuclear power generation future may be at risk as the list of potential operators shrinks due to concerns about the high costs of entry.
The British government wants to build around 10 nuclear power stations by 2025, which it says are necessary to keep the lights on in future decades, reduce dependence on foreign gas and meet tougher carbon targets.
China is poised to make a dramatic intervention in Britain's energy future by offering to invest billions of pounds in building a series of new nuclear power stations.
Officials from China's nuclear industry have been in high-level talks with ministers and officials at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) this week about a plan that could eventually involve up to five different reactors being built at a total cost of £35bn.
The Government is planning to write a "blank cheque" to the nuclear industry by underwriting the cost of new power stations, leading energy academics have claimed in a letter to The Independent.
Under a major policy U-turn being considered by ministers, the taxpayer would be left to cover the cost of budget over-runs or building delays at new nuclear plants. Costly setbacks are almost inevitable with such complex construction projects.
Two nuclear-power plants majority-owned by Vattenfall AB, a state-owned Swedish power company, were targeted by Greenpeace activists, about 70 of whom broke into restricted areas.
The activists targeted the Ringhals plant on Sweden's west coast and the Forsmark facility on the east coast. Combined they produce about 36% of energy consumed in Sweden.
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.
The owner of Scottish Power has pulled out of a multibillion-pound plan to build atomic reactors, dealing a blow to Britain’s faltering nuclear renaissance.
The decision by Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant, means there is now a question mark over two of the three groups that planned plants. Ministers hoped the trio would build a dozen reactors generating roughly a fifth of Britain’s power over the next 20 years.
(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.
