The government's energy policy took another blow on Friday as major energy provider RWE reviewed whether to scale down or abandon its UK nuclear programme.
The German-owned utility, which owns the npower supply business, has started an internal probe of its plans to construct two possible atomic power stations at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire.
The Mox nuclear fuel plant at Sellafield was closed on Wednesday, with the loss of around 600 jobs.
The closure is a consequence of the Fukushima incident in Japan in March, which has closed down much of the nuclear industry there and led to a rethink of nuclear power around the world. But the government said the move had "no implications" for the UK's plans for new nuclear reactors.
British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known.
Europe is preparing new stress tests designed to put nuclear power stations through their paces. It's a response primarily to the problems at Japan's Fukushima plant. But will the tests be as rigorous as promised?
The European Commission is set to present a draft for its new nuclear stress tests next week. While the Fukushima power plant, ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami, teetered on the brink of meltdown in March, European leaders agreed to set the "highest standards" of nuclear safety, with a mandatory round of new stress tests key to achieving this goal.
The nuclear industry could receive a £3.4bn windfall as a result of plans to set a carbon floor price, according to green campaigners.
WWF and Greenpeace argue the coalition’s move to make low-carbon technologies more profitable by setting a minimum carbon price would provide a big boost to the nuclear sector. They argue the move breaches its promise not to provide subsidies for new nuclear power.
The government's Green Investment Bank could fund the building of new nuclear reactors, it has emerged.
It is the latest form of public financial support on offer to the industry from the government which continues to insist that the industry will not receive any more subsidies.
The UK nuclear regulator said Wednesday it expects both the Areva EPR and the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to have unresolved safety issues when the generic design assessment, or GDA, program completes next year. In a quarterly progress report released Wednesday, the NII said it has potential open issues in 10 out of 18 topical areas on the Areva EPR design review and in 16 out of the 18 topical areas on the Westinghouse AP1000 design.
A leaked European Commission draft report says Europe should solve the problem of handling nuclear waste by making industry pay to stash it deep underground, where it will be overseen by independent watchdogs.
"The current situation of spent fuel and radioactive waste management in EU member states is not satisfactory," says the draft, seen by Reuters Thursday.
Britain’s “big six” energy companies will this week warn Chris Huhne, secretary of state for energy, that the government’s proposed “floor price” for carbon emission permits is not enough of an incentive for them to invest in new nuclear power stations.
Executives from the companies, including Centrica, EDF Energy and Scottish Power, now owned by Iberdrola, are due to make their views clear at a dinner with Mr Huhne on Wednesday.
British Energy said Wednesday that output from its 15 nuclear reactors reached 3.5 TWh in August, up 3% from July, following the restart of the UK generator's Dungeness B-21 reactor on August 19.
The 550 MW Dungeness B-21 unit in Kent generated power for the first time in a year in August, following an extended outage to repair a pipe adjacent to a boiler reheater.
