Britain has a stockpile of plutonium and uranium that, if converted to fuel, could be worth nearly £160 billion and power three nuclear reactors for 60 years, scientists say.
The future of the stockpile - largely left over from burning fuel - will be decided by ministers over the next year, The Times has learnt. Its value is estimated as the equivalent of 2.6 billion barrels of oil.
MADRID, Spain: Spain's nuclear watchdog agency proposed a fine of up to €22.5 million (US$33 million) over a leak at a power plant, accusing operators Monday of waiting three weeks to report it and downplaying the amount of contamination released.
The riverside Asco plant experienced a leak in November, but plant operators did not detect it until March and then waited to notify regulators on April 4, according to the Nuclear Safety Council.
THE START OF CONSTRUCTION AT NOVOVORONEZH PHASE II, in Russia, was officially launched with the first pouring of concrete for the basemat of the Unit I reactor building during a June 24 ceremony held at the site. This is the first unit in the new wave of nuclear construction in Russia. The Novovoronezh II plant will eventually house four 1200-MW--class pressurized water reactors. In June 2007, Atomenergoproekt signed a contract to construct the first two units, which are to start up in 2012 and 2013, at a cost of about $5.6 billion.
BRATISLAVA, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Slovakia is worried power generator Slovenske Elektrarne (SE) may be late finishing a second nuclear power plant, a delay which could damage the economy, Prime Minister Robert Fico said in remarks carried by a newspaper on Tuesday.
Fico asked SE, 66-percent owned by Italy's utility Enel, to present a detailed timetable of work on the two 440 MW blocks at the Mochovce nuclear plant, which should be completed in 2012-2013 at a cost of 1.6 billion euros.
Negotiations with the French-German company Areva regarding possible construction of a nuclear power plant by the company in Belarus have been postponed, the Belapan news agency reported on 8 August, quoting Mikalay Hrusha, deputy director-general of the Belarusian Science Academy's Sosny nuclear and power engineering centre.
Hrusha said that the visit by the Energy Ministry delegation was postponed because Areva's CEO Ann Lauvergeon would be on vacation at the time.
Kazakhstan may have relinquished its arsenal of nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it is seeking to expand its role in a variety of atomic energy-related fields. The country hopes to outstrip rivals Canada and Australia next year to become the world’s biggest uranium producer.
PARIS, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Radioactive gas emissions from a nuclear plant in southeast France were higher than normal in June and July but there was no threat to public safety, nuclear authorities said on Wednesday.
The gas emissions occurred at a waste reprocessing installation at the Tricastin nuclear site in southeastern France, where a separate uranium leak was reported last month.
In line with prior agreements, Russian nuclear energy company OAO Atomenergoprom has acquired a controlling interest in Hungary's Ganz Energetika, a manufacturer of fuel-loading equipment and cooling pumps for nuclear power plants, Bloomberg reported.
Once the deal is concluded, Atomenergoprom will hold a 51% stake in Ganz; the value of the transaction was not disclosed. The deal is expected to boost Ganz sales to Russia to nearly EUR 20 million in a year from now, approximately twice the current level.
The consortium with a £20bn contract to clean up Britain's Sellafield nuclear plant has been handed a blank cheque by the Government to pay for future accidents there.
CHARLOTTE - Duke Energy has removed test bundles of mixed-oxide or MOX fuel from its Catawba nuclear plant on Lake Wylie as it investigates unusual physical changes in the assemblies.
Anti-MOX groups say the halt means the testing should start all over again, delaying by years a billion-dollar federal program to use surplus weapons plutonium at Catawba.
