Climate change is an often heard argument for the once called nuclear "renaissance". However, if one looks closer, there was something fishy about the industry using climate change protection as its most prominent feature... » Read more
More then thirty years of debate, and the controversy remains as polarised as ever. This website (to be fair - whose maintainer is anti-nuclear) collects news about nuclear power in Europe, sorted by nuclear power plant, type of power plant, country etc.
By presenting different (media) angles on current nuclear issues, we hope to be able to cut out some spin, either pro or against, and to allow the reader to make up his or her own mind about today's pro's and con's of nuclear power.
In the menu on the right you can select your country, the nuclear power plant in your neighbourhood, or your favourite company and read latest (most English) news about it.
Latest nuclear news
Belarus rally chides nuclear plan on Chernobyl date
Sunday, April 27, 2008MINSK (Reuters) - Opposition protesters marched through the capital of Belarus on Saturday to mark the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and denounce plans to build an atomic power station in the ex-Soviet state.
Belarus was the country most affected by the world's worst nuclear accident and the anniversary is traditionally the year's biggest rally for opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of violating fundamental human rights.
TVO Files New Nuclear Reactor Application
Saturday, April 26, 2008The power utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) on Friday filed an application for a decision-in-principle concerning the construction of a new nuclear power plant unit at Olkiluoto on Finland's west coast.
LEO LT can break European law - Brussels
Friday, April 25, 2008Vilnius, Apr 22 (ELTA) - The European Commission has confirmed that LEO LT can break the European law and has dismissed the extension of the operation of Ignalina nuclear power plant. It has been confirmed to the newspaper Respublika by the office of European Commissioner responsible for energy Andris Piebalgs.
Utah governor opposes imports of Italian nuclear waste
Friday, April 25, 2008SALT LAKE CITY: Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman says he is reversing his stance and will block the shipment of Italian nuclear waste to a desert dump site in his state.
Huntsman initially said the federal government should decide where to dispose such foreign waste.
Nuclear waste storage inaugurated in Chernobyl
Friday, April 25, 2008KIEV (AFP) — Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko Wednesday inaugurated a nuclear waste storage and processing centre in the contaminated zone around the Chernobyl nuclear station ahead of the catastrophe's 22nd anniversary, his press service said.
The centre's first module, constructed with the European Commission's aid, would be launched by the end of the year, Valentin Melnichenko, a project official, told AFP.
Radioactive leak sparks Spanish debate on nuclear power
Friday, April 25, 2008Madrid - For advocates of nuclear power in Spain, the recently discovered incident at the Asco I nuclear plant in the country's north-east could scarcely have come at a worse time.
Just as global warming and rising oil prices were making nuclear energy seem more acceptable, the radioactive leak at the plant near the coastal city of Tarragona sparked new safety concerns.
Chernobyl still felt in Wales
Friday, April 25, 2008Twenty two years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Plaid MEP Jill Evans says tomorrow's anniversary (Saturday) serves as a timely reminder of why nuclear power must be phased out.
The radioactive cloud spread radiation from Chernobyl right across Europe, and more than 300 farms in the north of Wales are still affected by restrictions imposed in the aftermath of the disaster.
Ms Evans visited the the site of the nuclear power plant two years ago with a group of MEPs and met local people whose lives were shattered by the disaster as well as people who are now working to secure the site.
Reasonable Doubt
Thursday, April 24, 2008AMONG the many environmental concerns surrounding nuclear power plants, there is one that provokes public anxiety like no other: the fear that children living near nuclear facilities face an increased risk of cancer. Though a link has long been suspected, it has never been proven. Now that seems likely to change.
Studies in the 1980s revealed increased incidences of childhood leukaemia near nuclear installations at Windscale (now Sellafield), Burghfield and Dounreay in the UK. Later studies near German nuclear facilities found a similar effect. The official response was that the radiation doses from the nearby plants were too low to explain the increased leukaemia. The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, which is responsible for advising the UK government, finally concluded that the explanation remained unknown but was not likely to be radiation.
RWE mulls withdrawal from Belene nuclear power plant -Die Welt
Tuesday, April 22, 2008German energy giant RWE is considering withdrawal from the race to buy 49 per cent in the company that will build Bulgaria´s second nuclear power plant at Belene, German newspaper Die Welt reported on April 20.
The newspaper quoted company sources as saying on April 18 that RWE would re-align the investments earmarked for buying the minority stake in the nuclear power plant to the acquisition of British Energy.
Nuclear super-fuel gets too hot to handle
Tuesday, April 22, 2008It 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.