Despite an agreement when it joined the EU, Lithuania lobbies to keep a nuclear power plant running beyond its deadline for closing
At a time when European nations are being urged to close old nuclear power plants and split state energy monopolies into competing private companies, Lithuania is doing the exact opposite.
LONDON, Mar. 18, 2008 (Thomson Financial) -- The UK government has said that the four new designs being considered for future nuclear reactors in the UK have all passed initial safety tests.
It said that all the designs had passed the first step of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) and that the companies developing the reactors -- EdF, together with Areva, General Electric-Hitachi, Westinghouse and AECL -- must now respond to the government saying whether they are interested in taking part in further tests.
HELSINKI, March 11 (Reuters) - Energy firm Fennovoima said on Tuesday it has agreed to buy over 200 hectares of land in Simo, northern Finland, for a potential nuclear plant site, securing its second plot in Finland.
The company, a joint venture formed by Finnish steel firm Outokumpu, German utility E.ON and other smaller companies, aims to build a 1,500 to 2,500 megawatt nuclear plant in Finland and hopes the power station would be ready in 2018.
Britain’s leading energy suppliers have been approached by government advisers to sound out interest in its 35.2 per cent stake in British Energy, which is valued at £2bn-plus.
The government has mandated UBS to help with a potential sale process, while British Energy has appointed NM Rothschild as its adviser. Eon and RWE of Germany, Électricité de France, Iberdrola of Spain and Centrica of the UK have all been asked if they would be interested in acquiring part of the stake, people close to the situation said.
A technical glitch was reported at the north German Brokdorf nuclear power plant as a short circuit of a malfunctioning pump caused a fire in the facility, press reports Friday.
According to the nuclear supervisory board, workers at the plant managed to extinguish the fire.
PARIS/MADRID, March 14 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has persuaded his Spanish counterpart to let EDF take a 15 to 18 percent stake in Spain's Iberdrola in exchange for control of some nuclear power plants in France, ABC newspaper reported.
Citing no sources, ABC said this solution would allow state-controlled EDF to gain a foot in Spain, and let Iberdrola add more nuclear power to its portfolio while Spain keeps the lid on building more nuclear plants at home.
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee: Tennessee regulators say there is no "technical reason" to prevent a Utah company from processing nuclear waste from Italy in Tennessee, but political opposition continues to grow.
Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. wants to bring about 20,000 tons (18,144 metric tons) of waste from shuttered nuclear plants in Italy through the ports of Charleston, South Carolina, or New Orleans, process it in Tennessee and send what's left to a disposal site in Utah.
MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will build four nuclear power stations in the central part of the country and in the Urals by 2020, an official document revealed on Wednesday.
The Russian government approved in February a general scheme for new nuclear build until 2020, to be reviewed approximately every three years. The document was published on Wednesday.
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- For decades, Russian civilian nuclear scientist Vladimir Asmolov lived in the shadow of the bomb makers. They were the elite, their names and work secret, building the arsenal behind a superpower.
While the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, the Russians are back as a nuclear force. Asmolov, deputy head of nuclear-plant operator Rosenergoatom in Moscow, is tapping yesterday's military brains to develop a new generation of atomic plants. Russia's reactor industry aims to compete with Westinghouse Electric Co., General Electric Co. and Areva SA.
AMSTERDAM, March 13 (Reuters) - A Dutch advisory body is recommending the government keep the option of nuclear power open and review it along with all possible future sources of energy, according to a report released on Thursday.
The SER socio-economic advisory body said the cabinet should consider the expansion of nuclear energy in two years when it is due to evaluate its climate policies.
