BRATISLAVA, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Slovak power firm Slovenske Elektrarne (SE) has launched a tender to find a builder to finish two new blocks at the Mochovce nuclear power plant, it said in the Official Journal of the European Union on Monday.
The power generator, managed by Italian utility and 66 percent shareholder Enel, said bidders should submit letters of interest by Sept 18. It said it expected final bids would be due on Dec 8.
Cold rain beats down outside the Biblis power station (pictured above), but behind the airlock that isolates the slightly radioactive containment area, the temperature rises to uncomfortable levels. Past several other layers of steel, the nuclear reactor hums gently.
“See these beams,” says Frank Staude, an engineer for the RWE power group, sweat streaming down his cheeks. “They will protect us against the kind of earthquake that would leave no skyscraper in Frankfurt standing.”
MADRID (AFP) — A Spanish nuclear power plant shut down after an electrical generator fire Sunday, safety officials said, the latest incident at a reactor that has already been hit with record fines for its safety record.
The incident came just weeks after the government vowed to take action against another nuclear station over a radioactive leak last year.
PRIORITIES FOR UKRAINE'S NUCLEAR INDUSTRY were the focus of a June 12 strategy meeting led by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. According to a statement released by Ukraine's nuclear operator, Energoatom, Tymoshenko said that immediate priorities include the construction of two new units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power station and life extension for Rovno-1 and -2 and South Ukraine-1, which are now scheduled to end production between 2011 and 2013. She also identified the treatment of spent fuel and the development of a complete fuel cycle capability as priorities.
HELSINKI (Thomson Financial) - The Finnish government said Thursday it wanted the country's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) to clarify its inspection principles, following criticism of its work at a nuclear reactor building site.
'The (economy) ministry wants further reports from STUK on its inspection principles and precision, and how these compare to practices in other countries,' the Finnish employment and economy ministry, in charge of energy industry issues, said in a statement.
As the nuclear industry enjoys a global revival, Kazatomprom is positioning itself to overtake Cameco as the world's largest producer of uranium. It said in July that it expects to achieve this as early as next year, rather than in 2010 as originally planned.
The progress of Kazakhstan's national atomic company is to a large degree due to the vision of its charismatic president Mukhtar Dzhakishev, helped by the country's substantial uranium reserves and the Soviet technical legacy.
ISTANBUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Turkey's Dogan Enerji signed an accord with Turkish, Belgian and Canadian firms on Wednesday to take part in a tender to build and operate Turkey's first nuclear power plant, parent company Dogan Holding said.
Its partners in the deal are Turkish conglomerate Anadolu Endustri Holding, Brussels-based energy company Unit Investment N.V. and Canada's Bruce Power, Dogan said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's government said on Tuesday it would take firm action against a nuclear plant after the watchdog pressed for charges over its handling of a radioactive leak for which 2,600 people had to be screened.
After a months-long investigation, the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) on Tuesday asked the government to sanction the Asco I plant on four charges of seriously breaching safety regulations arising from a leak in November.
Tonnes of radioactive liquid metal - a legacy of the experimental fast reactor programme at Dounreay in Caithness - have been destroyed.
Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the material was turned into "harmless" salt water.
The water was put through a further process so it could be discharged into the sea.
Electricity ratepayers' dollars in Tennessee as well as federal tax money are increasingly going to a company owned largely by the French government: the nuclear power conglomerate AREVA.
The company holds U.S. Department of Energy contracts for nuclear-related projects at major facilities such as Hanford, Wash., and Yucca Mountain, Nev., and others, including in Erwin, Tenn., and Aiken, S.C.
