PARIS, July 20 (Reuters) - EDF has delayed the completion of its first French next-generation EPR nuclear reactor by another two years to 2016, saying it expects the project's costs to rise to 6 billion euros ($8.52 billion).
In July 2010, the state-controlled utility had delayed the commercial start of the 1,600 megawatt nuclear reactor by two years to 2014. It had also previously raised its cost estimate for the project in northern France by almost 2 billion euros to 5 billion euros.
Northern German nuclear reactor Brokdorf may stay closed for several weeks after it was taken offline on Sunday, a spokeswoman for operator E.ON said on Tuesday.
E.ON hoped to know by the end of this week what the future schedule for the plant would be, the spokeswoman said, adding that E.ON assumed that a transformer at the plant needed to be swapped out.
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.
PARIS, July 8 (Reuters) - France raised the possibility for the first time of pulling out of nuclear power although its energy minister stressed on Friday that this was just one of many scenarios, not the one favoured by the government.
Energy Minister Eric Besson announced on radio Europe 1 the launch of a study on Friday on the country's energy mix by 2050, with options including a complete exit from nuclear production, a cut in the share of nuclear to 50 percent and a progressive reduction of total electricity production in France.
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.
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.
VLISSINGEN // A tapestry adorns a concrete wall that separates a decade’s worth of radioactive waste from the population of the Netherlands.
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It is a reproduction of a 17th-century weaving of a naval battle from the Dutch war of independence. A golden sun marks the spot on the panorama where, now, the by-products of nuclear power plants and medical research reactors are sequestered in concrete warehouses.
BERN — The Swiss government on Wednesday recommended to parliament that the country's five nuclear power plants should not be replaced as they age, leaving them to be phased out by 2034.
The move, to be accompanied by a switch to more renewable energy, follows Switzerland's decision to suspend plans to replace its nuclear power stations in the wake of the Fukushima accident in Japan in April.
BRUSSELS, May 25 (Reuters) - European nuclear watchdogs have agreed details of safety checks on the EU's reactors to prevent crises like that in Japan, but they will not include tests for resisting terror attacks, the European Commission said.
European leaders agreed in March to subject European nuclear power plants to "stress tests", but since then experts at national nuclear authorities have been wrangling over details such as whether to test for resilience to acts of terror.
Planned stress tests on European nuclear plants should focus on threats from natural disasters and exclude potential man-made catastrophes such as a terrorist attack, European atomic industry group Foratom said.
European nuclear officials are to decide today on parameters for the safety checks on atomic power plants in response to the Japanese nuclear crisis caused by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The meeting of the European Commission, the EU regulator, and 27 national nuclear safety authorities comes a day after Spain’s biggest earthquake in 57 years killed eight people.
