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
Finland wants to build nuclear plant in Lapland
Monday, December 8, 2008A Finnish energy company wants to build a nuclear power plant along the Botnia Bay. Local authorities in neighboring Sweden consider the analysis of the project's environmental consequences to be insufficient.
The Finnish energy company Fennovoima Oy wants to build a nuclear power plant in the Botnia Bay, close to the Swedish border. The company has made an analysis of the project's environmental consequences, but this has been met with criticism and distrust from locals. Municipal authorities in the Swedish town of Luleå consider the analysis to be “lacking objectivity”.
Berlin hosts int'l confab on N-energy
Monday, December 8, 2008An international confab on nuclear energy has opened in Berlin to promote exchange of information on technical and legal aspects of the issue.
Some 200 participants of the two-day conference will focus on nuclear waste disposal, security and relevant issues of nuclear facilities.
Germany's powerful nuclear lobby, Deutsches Atomforum, which enjoys close ties with co-ruling Christian Democratic Party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosted the meeting, IRNA reported.
Firms aim to replace ageing nuclear plants
Monday, December 8, 2008Swiss electricity companies, Axpo and BKW Energy, are submitting plans to replace the country's oldest nuclear plants with two new facilities.
The firms confirmed on Thursday they would be filing an initial application with the Federal Energy Office for licences to replace two reactors at Beznau in canton Aargau and Mühleberg in canton Bern.
Free radio for safe nuclear site
Monday, December 8, 2008All staff at the Dounreay nuclear energy complex will get a free wind-up radio if there are no security breaches at the Caithness site for 60 days.
The challenge is laid down in the in-house magazine, Dounreay News, and started on Monday.
Energy firms refuse to pass on cost cuts
Monday, December 8, 2008Energy firms will refuse to pass on all of the savings they make on cheaper wholesale gas and electricity to consumers, one of the UK's top energy bosses admitted this weekend.
The warning, issued by Paul Golby, chief executive of Eon UK, came after a week in which the price of oil tumbled to just above $40 a barrel. As the government demands that the banks give borrowers the benefit of the latest cut in interest rates, energy companies are also coming under increasing pressure to cut customers' bills.
Hungary's new nuclear waste dump receives first load
Monday, December 8, 2008The first 16 barrels of low and medium radioactivity waste were deposited at Hungary's new nuclear waste facility "Radioaktív Hulladékokat Kezelő Közhasznú" at Bataapati (SW) on Tuesday.
The country's sole nuclear power plant at Paks (C) produces some 900 barrels of radioactive waste a year, of which a truckload is planned to be forwarded to Bataapati each day, Jozsef Hegyhati, head of the radioactive waste management company (RHK) told MTI.
Rostekhnadzor Registers Two Minor Events at Nuclear Plants in November
Sunday, December 7, 2008Dec 5 (Interfax) - Russia's Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Oversight (Rostekhnadzor) registered two minor events at nuclear power plants in November 2008.
On November 12, Balakovskaya NPP's power unit N2 switched off without activation of the emergency system, the agency said in a press release. Rostekhnadzor has already completed an investigation of this incident. The discharge occurred as a result of a switch- off of the primary circulatory pumps, caused by the loss of a pressure signal in the lubrication system's oil pumps, the agency said.
Extracting a disaster
Saturday, December 6, 2008The increased sourcing of raw uranium that will arise from nuclear new build is an ethical and environmental nightmare currently being ignored by the government.
The World Nuclear Association (WNA), the trade body for companies that make up 90% of the industry, admits that in "emerging uranium producing countries" there is frequently no adequate environmental health and safety legislation, let alone monitoring. It is considerately proposing a Charter of Ethics containing principles of uranium stewardship for its members to follow. But this is a self-policing voluntary arrangement. Similarly, the International Atomic Energy Agency's safety guide to the Management of Radioactive Waste from the Mining and Milling of Ores (pdf) are not legally binding on operators.
EDF: Nuclear Goals Mean EUR40 Billion
Thursday, December 4, 2008PARIS - (Dow Jones)- French nuclear utility Electricite de France SA Thursday announced higher costs for a reactor it's building in France and said its ambition to lead a worldwide wave of building new nuclear plants means total capital expenditure of between EUR40 billion and EUR50 billion by 2020.
The net financing requirements for EDF over the same period should be between EUR12 billion and EUR20 billion, EDF said, given the involvement of partners in projects in France, China, the U.S. and possibly the U.K.
EC shifts on safety
Monday, December 1, 2008By adopting a revised proposal for a directive on nuclear safety, the European Commission has significantly backtracked on its earlier attempts to harmonise safety standards.