Russian Federation

First ever Russian nuclear fuel for Western reactor

Saturday, February 15, 2014

The Russian-developed and manufactured TVS Kvadrat (TVS-K) fuel will be destined for the Ringhals 3, pressurised water reactor (PWR) of Sweden. Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer- TVEL, a sister concern of Rosatom, for the first time in history to supply such fuel assembly for the western design reactors.

Under an agreement signed between TVEL and Swedish state-owned concern – Vattenfall, Russia to make the first shipment of TVS-Kvadrat in April for the Ringhals 3 NPP, Informed Valborg Bjorn, Head of the North-European subdivision of Vattenfall.

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Hungary soon to clinch Russian loan for nuclear plant project

Monday, January 27, 2014

BUDAPEST, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Hungary's development minister said on Sunday the government should soon complete talks with Russia on a multi-billion dollar sovereign loan that would enable it to start work on two new nuclear reactors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed an agreement earlier this month on a project to add 2.4 gigawatts of nuclear generation capacity at the Paks nuclear plant, more than doubling Hungary's current level.

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Hungary PM to meet Russia's Putin, nuclear deal likely

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Jan 13 (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Moscow on Tuesday, the Kremlin said on Monday, and a diplomatic source said they were likely to sign a nuclear cooperation deal.

Hungarian daily Nepszabadsag reported on Saturday that Hungary could soon sign a deal for Russia's state-owned Rosatom to build new blocks at the 2-gigawatt Paks nuclear power plant south of Budapest.

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Bulgaria abandons Belene nuclear plant plans

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

SOFIA, March 28 (Reuters) - Bulgaria has abandoned plans to build the 2,000 megawatt Belene nuclear power plant on the Danube River and will construct a new gas power plant instead, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Wednesday.

The Belene project has failed to attract serious foreign investors in the past three years after Germany's RWE pulled out in 2009 due to funding concerns.

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NPP Kozloduy High Pressure Heaters to Be Tested

Saturday, February 25, 2012

The management of Bulgaria's NPP Kozloduy has required a certificate of quality of the metal, of which the two high pressure heaters recently installed at power units five and six are made. This has become clear from a statement of NPP Kozloduy CEO Alexander Nikolov. The two heaters cost 29 million euros.

The nuclear plant's management has sent letters to the manufacturer, OAO ZiO-Podolsk, and the supplier, Atomtoploproekt, in which they insist on being provided with extra information regarding the control on the parts' manufacturing.

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Privatisation of Russian state nuclear giant

Friday, February 3, 2012

Having spent five years combining its nuclear power, engineering and research enterprises into the single entity of Rosatom, the Russian government now sees privatisation of the firm as part of a plan for industrial modernisation.

Rosatom is just one of several vertically integrated state holding companies Russia established to "discourage the decline of the more intellectual sectors of national industry" in the post-Soviet era, wrote Vladimir Putin in the Vedomosti newspaper on 30 January.

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German watchdog would examine any Gazprom-RWE deal

Friday, July 15, 2011

FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, July 11 (Reuters) - Germany's cartel office said on Monday it would "closely" examine any investment by Gazprom in RWE after reports the weakened German utility was open to an investment by the Russian gas monopoly.

Essen-based RWE has been hit by loss-making gas contracts and weak power prices, and is also under threat from a German tax on nuclear fuel that came into effect this year.

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EU Council draft of nuclear waste directive to allow exports: sources

Thursday, June 30, 2011

European Union member state experts have agreed on a draft text for a new nuclear waste and spent fuel management directive that would allow permanent exports of waste from the EU under certain conditions.

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Wikileaks: Russian Blackmail and Energy Mafia Surround Russian Energy Projects in Bulgaria

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Bulgarians "risk being cold" this winter if the government did not move forward with the Russian energy projects. This is what Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin said, off-the-record, to his Bulgarian counterpart, Boyko Borisov, during the summit in Gdansk in September, 2009. The tone of the sentence in question is not clear, we cannot judge if it was threatening enough, but obviously it seriously impressed Borisov in order for him to report it in a timely manner and for Putin’s words to find their place in the classified documents of the American diplomacy.

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Russia proposes “electricity pipeline” to Germany

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Russia is proposing to build a high-voltage electricity cable from Kaliningrad to Germany across the Baltic Sea to export power produced from a newly to be built nuclear power plant. The cable would be laid alongside the last part of the gas pipeline Nordstream that Gazprom is building together with western partners and that will be used to transport gas direct from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. The electricity cable would similarly bypass third countries, in this case Poland. A representative from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs says he does not expect Germany to be willing to acquiesce to the plan. ‘I cannot imagine that the German public will want to import nuclear power (“Atomstrom”) from Russia’, he says.

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