British Energy has said that it would extend the lives of Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B nuclear power stations by five years to 2016.
The two sites, which are currently running at around 60% capacity due to boiler issues, began generating power in 1976.
Further studies will be conducted by 2013 regarding the potential for additional life extensions beyond 2016, the company added.
Vilnius, Dec 10 (ELTA) - State institutions and courts might soon receive a request to amend or recognize the law on the Ignalina
Nuclear Power Plant as illegal. The winners of the Constitution exam who now make up the Citizens' Council on Constitutionality think that a decision to build a nuclear power plant and the principles of formation of the national investor are in conflict with the
Constitution.
(Novinite) Bulgaria will be able to start construction works on the planned Belene nuclear power plant no sooner than 2009, the head of the country's nuclear regulator said on Monday.
The regulator is yet to rule on the technical details of the project and the proposed safety measures, said Sergey Tsochev, who chairs Bulgaria's Nuclear Regulation Agency.
Switzerland has issued a new decree to address excess funds for nuclear decommissioning and waste disposal, the Swiss Energy Office said on Monday.
The decree will take into account the longer-expected lifetime of nuclear power plants from 40 to 50 years, which has left excess sums totalling around CHF 600-700 million (EUR 363-423 million) in the funds. These sums must now be returned to nuclear power plant operators. The total cost of decommissioning and waste disposal for Switzerland's five nuclear power plants was estimated at CHF 13.7 billion in 2001, the majority of which (CHF 11.8 billion) was allocated for the disposal of waste. By the end of 2006, around CHF 4.4 billion had accumulated in the funds.
18:05 Mon 10 Dec 2007 - Rene Beekman
Environmental organisations Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Europe, Urgewald, Bankwatch, WISE and the Bulgarian NGO coalition BeleNE! condemned on December 10 the European Commission´s (EC) favourable opinion on the Belene nuclear power project (NPP) in Bulgaria, a media statement by the organisations said.
By Jean Eaglesham, Chief Political Correspondent
Financial Times: December 9 2007
Gordon Brown faces a dilemma on energy policy after a legal warning from Greenpeace, the environmental group, that a decision to approve a new generation of nuclear power stations would "not be lawful".
The prime minister is expected to give the green light to replacing Britain's ageing fleet of nuclear power stations next month.
New construction sites have been identified and a number of energy companies have signalled their enthusiasm for the multi-billion-pound project.
But the threat of legal action from Greenpeace, which has sent a formal warning letter, gives Mr Brown a political headache.
The thaw between Poland and Brussels has sent a chill down spines in Lithuania.
Donald Tusk, the new Polish premier, arrived at the European Commission and parliament on Tuesday to show that his country was back in the centre of Europe. The era of the Kaczynskis, “the terrible twins”, picking fights with Brussels, was over.
The fear in Vilnius is that he may stop picking fights with Russia, too, leaving the Baltic republics, which only recently threw off the Soviet yoke, alone in the ring with the bear. Talks on resolving the Russian blockade of Polish meat, which in turn have held up a new EU-Russia partnership agreement to Brussels' ill-concealed annoyance, start next week.
DW-WORLD - Children living near nuclear power stations are more likely to suffer leukemia than those living farther away, a report funded by the German government has found, according to German media.
"Our study confirmed that in Germany a connection has been observed between the distance of a domicile to the nearest nuclear power plant ... and the risk of developing cancer, such as leukemia, before the fifth birthday," the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted the report as saying.
Fri Dec 7, 2007 2:13pm GMT
BRUSSELS, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The European Commission gave a green light o the construction of a new, 4-billion-euro ($5.82 billion) nuclear power plant in Bulgaria with capacity of 2,000 megawatts, it said on Friday.
"The Commission has decided today to give a favourable opinion to the initiative of Natsionalna Elektricheska Kompania (NETC) of Bulgaria to build a new nuclear power plant at the site of Belene," the EU executive said in a statement.
Sofia - Opponents of Bulgaria’s controversial planned nuclear power station at Belene have asked the European Commission to oppose its construction, according to Bulgarian media reports on Monday.Work on building two 1,000 megawatts reactors at Belene, near Bulgaria’s northern border with Romania, was initially approved in 1981, but the construction project was abandoned in 1990 when many communist-era investment projects were reviewed.
