Companies

New French giant GDF Suez interested in British nuclear sites

Thursday, July 17, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Newly formed global energy giant GDF Suez of France is interested in nuclear power operator British Energy but only if the company is split up and sold off site by site.

"If the plan remains to sell British Energy in one go, then it will be sold without us," said GDF Suez head Gerard Mestrallet in an interview with Les Echos daily to appear Thursday.

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Checks ordered at French nuclear sites after leak

Thursday, July 17, 2008

PARIS (Reuters) - Authorities will hold tests at all French nuclear power plants to ensure leaks like the one this month at Tricastin in southern France have not occurred, Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told a newspaper.

Plant operator Areva said earlier this month that 30 cubic meters of liquid containing non-enriched uranium was accidentally poured on to the ground and into a river at the Tricastin site.

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Nuclear staff skills 'transferable'

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Staff at Dounreay nuclear plant can transfer their skills to a renewable energy "revolution" in Scotland, it has been claimed.

Scotland's environment secretary Richard Lochhead is expected to visit the Caithness site to see how the decommissioning process could be harnessed to create jobs in alternative energy production.

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Russian Company Retains Contract to Supply Nuclear Fuel to Slovakia

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Bratislava, 16 July: Russian open joint-stock company TVEL has maintained its position in Slovakia, having won the tender for the supply of nuclear fuel for five power-generating units of the local Mochovce and Bohunice nuclear power plants until 2015, management company Slovenskie Elektrarne has reported.

These plants were built to Russian design and equipped with VVER-440 reactors.

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Spain's nuclear watchdog reports power surge at nuclear power station

Monday, July 14, 2008

MADRID, Spain: A Spanish nuclear power plant reported an unexpected power surge Sunday, the fourth safety alert there in 12 days, the country's nuclear authority said.

Safety systems prevented any radiation leak at the Cofrentes reactor when power surged by more than 20 percent just before 5 a.m. Sunday (0300 GMT), the Nuclear Security Council said in a statement.

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Areva mishandled uranium leak: safety body

Monday, July 14, 2008

PARIS (Reuters) - France's nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Friday that Areva-subsidiary Socatri had poorly managed a leak of liquid containing uranium that occurred in southeastern France this week.

The nuclear watchdog inspected the site on Thursday.

"The management of the crisis by the company involved has shown omissions in terms of communication to the authorities," the ASN said in a statement.

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URS unit leads team likely to clean up U.K.'s Sellafield nuclear plant

Friday, July 11, 2008

The Washington Division of URS Corp. was picked as the preferred bidder to lead a group that will clean up and shut down the Sellafield nuclear complex in England.

Sellafield, on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria in Northwest England, is a major nuclear power and reprocessing facility.

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CEZ asks for impact study for new nuclear units

Friday, July 11, 2008

PRAGUE, July 11 (Reuters) - Czech power firm CEZ asked the Environment Ministry for an environmental impact study of the potential construction of two extra units at its Temelin nuclear power plant, the company said on Friday.

The central European country's government has pledged not to approve construction of new nuclear power stations before its term ends in 2010, but has said CEZ could go ahead with the assessment.

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Fire at Swedish nuclear plant, reactor safe

Friday, July 11, 2008

STOCKHOLM, July 11 (Reuters) - A fire broke out on Friday on the roof of a turbine facility at Sweden's Ringhals nuclear power plant but was brought under control, rescue services said.

A spokesman for the plant said there was no risk to the reactor.

"It's ... a fire on the roof of one of the turbine facilities at Ringhals 2," said Fredrik Akesson, of the fire brigade in Varberg. "I would say it's under control."

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French uranium leak was low level - safety authority

Friday, July 11, 2008

PARIS (Reuters) - France's nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Thursday it had provisionally classified a leak of liquid containing uranium on a site in southeastern France earlier this week at level one of the INES nuclear scale.

The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), used to measure the potential danger of incidents at nuclear installation, has seven levels, the lowest of which is zero.

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