Asia

Armenians observe Kansas nuclear disaster drill

Friday, October 3, 2008

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Armenian officials hoping to learn how best to respond to a nuclear plant accident watched a drill in Kansas on Thursday.

The Armenians said they will use what the learn when they test their own response capabilities in December, though they expressed confidence that their nuclear power plant was safe and reliable.

"The power plant survived the earthquake in 1988," said Maj. Gen. Aram Tananyan, deputy director of the Armenian Rescue Service, after watching the exercise. "What we have seen is very interesting to us."

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Turkey's energy dependency on Russia to rise after nuclear plant

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Turkey faces the risk of becoming heavily dependent on Russia uranium if the recent tender for Turkey's first nuclear power plant, won by a Russian firm led consortium, is not canceled, analysts say.

Turkey's energy dependency on Russia to rise after nuclear plant

"The tender for the nuclear plant was held in order to lessen the Turkey's energy dependency to Russia, but if it is approved Turkey's dependency to Russia will be even greater," Necdet Pamir, an energy expert, told HotNewsTurkey.

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U.S. backing for Serbian IAEA project

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

VIENNA -- The U.S. has backed Serbian efforts to transfer the remaining nuclear waste at the Vinča Institute out of the country by 2010.

The U.S. delegation supported the project at the International Atomic Energy Association’s (IAEA) General Conference in Vienna, said Deputy Science and Technology Minister Miroslav Vesković.

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Russia to contribute $17 mln to Chernobyl cleanup

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

VIENNA, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will provide $17 million to help improve safety at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster, and fully decommission it, a top Russian nuclear official said on Monday.

Three reactors of the Chernobyl plant continued to operate for several years after reactor number four exploded in 1986, the last reactor shutting down in 2000. The reactors still contain nuclear fuel rods, and require constant monitoring. The fourth reactor is housed in a Soviet-era sarcophagus set to be replaced by a $1.4 bln metal structure.

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India and Europe in civil nuclear accord

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The European Union and India are to co-operate more closely on civil nuclear research and development as a way of strengthening a partnership that has often been seen as falling short of its potential.

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, and Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, announced the agreement on Monday at an EU­-India summit that also produced promises of closer co-ordination of climate change and energy security policies.

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Ukraine to put $90 mln into nuclear fuel reserve - Energoatom

Monday, September 29, 2008

KIEV, September 26 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's government has proposed allocating 450 million hryvnias ($90 million) in next year's budget to set up a strategic nuclear fuel reserve, the country's UNIAN new agency said.

"I think we will start gradually forming a fuel reserve next year," Yuri Nedashkovsky, head of state nuclear power utility Energoatom, was quoted as saying on Thursday.

He said the allocation had been included in the draft budget for 2009.

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Turkey’s nuclear tender falls flat

Monday, September 29, 2008

Turkey suffered a setback in its efforts to reduce a costly dependence on energy imports on Wednesday, receiving just one bid in a tender to build the country’s first nuclear power plant.

The 4,000-megawatt plant near Mersin on the Mediterranean coast is intended to be the first of three, aimed at averting power shortages and lessening reliance on natural gas imports from Russia and Iran.

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Russia and Belarus will have nuclear power plants close to Lithuania

Friday, September 26, 2008

Russia and Belarus will both have nuclear power plants close to Lithuania by the time Ignalina nuclear power plant has a replacement, The Baltic Times quotes the president of the Lithuanian Industrialists’ Confederation and the majority owner of Achema Group, Bronislavas Lubys.

Lubys said that he is certain that before Lithuania builds its planned new nuclear power plant, Russia and Belarus will construct two new atomic power stations in the region.

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Sole bidder in Turkey's first nuclear plant tender Atomstroyexport

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Turkey received six envelopes in the tender for the construction of the first nuclear power plant but only one of them was a bid, the general manager of Turkey's Electricity Trade Corp (TETAS) said Wednesday.

Haci Duran Gokkaya said Russian Atomstroyexport is the sole bidder of the tender, adding the rest of the submitted envelopes were expressions of thanks.

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Anti-nuclear protestors detained in Turkey: Greenpeace

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

ANKARA (AFP) — Police detained 40 protestors Tuesday in a demonstration against government plans to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant, a day before the tender process was to open, activists said.

Several dozen members of environmental groups, among them Greenpeace, demonstrated outside the energy ministry in central Ankara, brandishing banners that read "No to nuclear."

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