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
Nuclear power project is fraught with 'ordeals', expert says
Wednesday, October 15, 2008The Belarusian government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant are fraught with “multiple troubles and ordeals for the people,” Belarusian expert Heorhiy Lepin said at an international conference in Vilnius on October 9.
He described nuclear energy programs as “the most costly and the most hazardous of all power generation technologies.” “This danger is connected not only with the possibility of accidents: a nuclear reactor pollutes the environment during its routine operation,” Dr. Lepin said.
Lithuania nuclear referendum falls short
Wednesday, October 15, 2008Vilnius - A referendum held in Lithuania to decide the future of the Baltic nation's only nuclear power plant has failed to attract the necessary number of voters to be judged valid, official sources said on Monday. Lithuania agreed to close its Ignalina nuclear power plant by 2009 as part of its deal to join the European Union in 2004. A planned replacement, to be built jointly with Estonia, Latvia and Poland, is unlikely to be ready before 2015.
Tricastin reactor 2 to be off for several weeks
Tuesday, October 14, 2008PARIS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Unplanned works at the 900-megawatt (MW) nuclear reactor 2 at the troubled Tricastin plant in southeast France will take another few weeks, EDF said on Monday.
An incident occurred at the reactor 2 on Sept. 8 during the refuelling of the reactor, when fuel assemblies got stuck in the pressure vessel.
Renewable promises
Tuesday, October 14, 2008The EU needs to invest more in research if it is to meet its climate-change targets.
The world will need to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050 to minimise climate-change impacts, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said, an awesome challenge that once again underlines the importance of investing in the next generation of renewable energy.
Delay at nuclear power plants
Saturday, October 11, 2008BRITISH Energy yesterday admitted that work had fallen behind schedule at its Hartlepool and Heysham 1 nuclear power plants and that they would be unlikely to return to service until early next year.
Maintenance work is also set to cost "marginally more" than estimated, the East Kilbride-headquartered company added.
British Energy, which last month agreed a £12.5billion takeover by France's state-owned power group EDF, owns and runs the UK's eight nuclear power stations, including Torness in East Lothian.
German's trial over Libya nuke program nears end
Saturday, October 11, 2008STUTTGART, Germany: A German engineer has acknowledged that he helped procure parts for a centrifuge system that authorities say was meant for Libya's now-abandoned nuclear weapons program, a court said Thursday.
Gotthard Lerch went on trial in June, accused of supplying Libya with sensitive technology in the knowledge that the country was seeking atomic weapons. Prosecutors have accused him of playing a key role in the network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Lithuania wants EU aid or will keep nuclear plant
Saturday, October 11, 2008VILNIUS, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Lithuania may have to defy the European Union and keep its Ignalina nuclear power plant open beyond 2009 if the EU cannot help it assure energy supplies, the prime minister and economy minister said on Thursday.
Lithuania agreed under its EU entry treaty to close Ignalina, which has the same kind of reactors as at Chernobyl in Ukraine, where the world's worst nuclear disaster happened in 1986.
Proposal Ready for New Mining Law
Friday, October 10, 2008Finnish municipalities are to be given the right to refuse permission for the establishment of uranium mines in their territory. A working group preparing changes to Finnish mining legislation proposes that prospecting for uranium would remain legal, but that actually setting up a mine would require the consent of the municipality where it is located.
Finland's current mining law is about 50 years old. The law needs updating, because the present version was drafted at a time when mining was practised mainly by state-run companies. Now most mining companies are foreign, global players.
Nuclear lobby tries to generate support
Thursday, October 9, 2008THE argument that nuclear should be part of any low- carbon solution to the UK's power requirements has been put forcefully by Westminster and, unsurprisingly, by the nuclear lobby. The counter argument – that it is, at best, a diversion from renewable energy – has been put equally forcefully by the likes of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.
Russia’s Atomstroiexport to build Khmelnytsky reactors three and four
Thursday, October 9, 2008KIEV, Oct. 7 – The general contractor to build reactors three and four at the Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant will be Russia's ZAO Atomstroiexport, a source in the Fuel and Energy Ministry told Interfax-Ukraine.
"The interagency tender commission on the selection of the type of generating units for reactors three and four at the Khmelnytsky NPP has finished its work. After studying proposals from Atomstroiexport, South Koera's ÊÅÐÑÎ and U.S. company Westinghouse, the commission said that the Russian project was the best," the source said.