Nuclear power in Europe

Reuters Mon 20 Aug 2007

A cyclist travels away from Sizewell A and B power stations in Suffolk, Britain May 22, 2007.

No new nuclear plants likely before 2020

By Daniel Fineren

LONDON (Reuters) - No nuclear power plants are likely to be built in Britain before 2020, if they are built at all, which will be too late to fill the country's looming power generation gap, according to a report published on Monday.

The government wants the private sector to build new nuclear power plants to replace the country's ageing reactors and plug a generation shortfall left by the closure of coal-fired power plants under European environment laws.

Number 10 has finally pressed the button. By the end of today, the government should have offloaded a large chunk of its holding in British Energy, the UK's big nuclear generator. This stands to increase the company's free-float by about three-quarters, hence the 6 per cent drop in British Energy's share price yesterday. But the shares could easily have fallen further - were it not for the clever timing of the sale.

Nuclear Engineering International - The International Energy Agency's review of the UK energy industry has called for a nuclear waste and decommissioning fund to be set up.

The International Energy Agency's (IEA's) recently published The United Kingdom 2006 Review, the second of its Energy Policies of IEA Countries series, praised the UK energy market framework but highlighted the need for a nuclear waste policy, covering all types of waste, and called for the establishment of a liabilities fund to pay for decommissioning and waste disposal.

By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
Saturday, 24 December 2005

An inquiry was under way last night at the Torness nuclear power station in Scotland after an incident involving fuel rods in one of its reactors.

Anti-nuclear campaigners said the incident was just the latest in a series of problems at the British Energy-owned site and called for the investigation to be wide ranging.