PWR

Nuclear super-fuel gets too hot to handle

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

It seems like a no-brainer. Make uranium burn stronger, hotter and longer in nuclear reactors, and you'll need less fuel, and there'll be less waste to deal with when it has been exhausted.

For decades, nuclear operators have done just that, but emerging safety and waste-disposal issues are raising questions about this approach. The latest high-efficiency fuel may prove to be unstable in an emergency, and so poses a greater risk of leakage of radioactive material into the environment. What's more, the waste fuel is more radioactive, meaning it could prove even more difficult than existing waste to store in underground repositories.

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Defects found in nuclear reactor the French want to build in Britain

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Safety investigators uncover cracks in the concrete base and substandard welds. Lack of recent experience in building nuclear plants said to have caused problem.

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EDF's Flamanville nuclear plant site has 'shortcomings' - report

Saturday, April 12, 2008

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - France's nuclear safety authority identified 'shortcomings' during an inspection in March of the Flamanville site where Bouygues is building a new nuclear power plant for EDF, Les Echos reported.

The authority criticised Bouygues for bad preparation of a concreting operation and asked EDF to supervise the work more closely, according to the business daily.

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Safety fears over French nuclear technology

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Nuclear reactors of the kind France wants to sell to Britain suffer from "potentially catastrophic" problems, it was claimed yesterday.

News of the structural flaws came days after President Nicolas Sarkozy used a state visit to Britain to boast about his nation's nuclear expertise.

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Ukraine's nuclear authorities are playing with fire

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - Ukrainian politicians have made one more move aimed at easing their dependence on Russia's nuclear fuel supplies.

In late March, Ukraine's nuclear power company Energoatom signed a five-year contract with U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Company to provide nuclear fuel to three Ukrainian reactors at the Yuzhnoukrainsky nuclear power plant in 2011-2015.

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Price for French nuclear tech may prove too high

Monday, March 3, 2008

With France pushing for greater cooperation on nuclear power with Romania, the Canadians who first introduced nuclear tech to Romania argue the Gallic technology comes at a cost the country may not be willing to pay.

Romania plans to build a second nuclear power station, but its rumoured interest in French nuclear technology may prove too expensive an option. News of the country’s flirtation with French nuclear technology arose when President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Bucharest last February.

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Power failure: What Britain should learn from Finland's nuclear saga

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

It was hailed as the template for all future reactors – but then they tried to build it.

The island of Olkiluoto, off Finland's west coast, seems like the perfect picture of Nordic serenity. Surrounded by the still, idyllic waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, it looks like an ideal spot for a peaceful retreat away from it all. Anyone wanting to visit the island has to travel down a long, lonely road, hugged tightly on each side by a thick forest of spruce and birch, and avoid the many elk that roam freely.

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UK nuclear power: The contenders

Thursday, January 10, 2008

A new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK has been given the formal go-ahead by the government.

Ministers have invited energy companies to submit plans to build new nuclear plants, which will replace the ageing fleet that currently provides about 18% of the UK's electricity.

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Areva’s power play sets off sparks

Thursday, January 10, 2008

FT, January 10 2008 19:59: The new year has hardly begun and already the first salvoes over the future of the world’s biggest nuclear group, Areva, have been fired.

Last week it emerged that Areva had held preliminary talks with French construction group Vinci about a partnership to build nuclear power stations in the UK and elsewhere.

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EDF nuclear power plant construction faces legal challenge

Friday, December 7, 2007

December 04, 2007: 05:55 AM EST

PARIS, Dec. 4, 2007 (Thomson Financial) -- French anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire said it has mounted a legal challenge to the construction of EDF's Flamanville nuclear reactor and hopes to get work stopped.

EDF said the construction of the 1,650 megawatts EPR European pressurised water reactor, to be supplied by Areva, has started following ground preparation at the site.

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