Today, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in the United Kingdom announced that the competition for the new contract for the cleanup of the Magnox reactor sites will commence in 2011. Award of the contract is expected by the end of 2012. EnergySolutions will continue to lead this important cleanup project during this time period and it will bid on the new contract.
The NDA stated that it would select a single operator for Magnox North Limited, Magnox South Limited and Research Sites Restoration Limited.
Europe
EnergySolutions to Continue Magnox Cleanup
Wednesday, December 10, 2008No prosecution over contamination leak
Wednesday, December 10, 2008ENVIRONMENT Agency bosses have decided not to prosecute the operator of Sizewell A over an incident which saw thousands of gallons of water contaminated when radioactivity escaped into the North Sea.
The incident, in January 2007, involved the fracture of a plastic pipe in a cooling pond building where highly radioactive spent fuel rods are stored under water prior to their despatch to the Sellafield reprocessing works in Cumbria.
Finland wants to build nuclear plant in Lapland
Monday, December 8, 2008A Finnish energy company wants to build a nuclear power plant along the Botnia Bay. Local authorities in neighboring Sweden consider the analysis of the project's environmental consequences to be insufficient.
The Finnish energy company Fennovoima Oy wants to build a nuclear power plant in the Botnia Bay, close to the Swedish border. The company has made an analysis of the project's environmental consequences, but this has been met with criticism and distrust from locals. Municipal authorities in the Swedish town of Luleå consider the analysis to be “lacking objectivity”.
Nuclear Power Plant Loan Paid Off
Monday, December 8, 2008Krsko, 2 December (STA) - GEN Energija, the owner of Slovenia's half of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant (NEK), paid off at the end of November the last installment of the loan taken out by Slovenia in 1983 to finance its share in the construction of what remains the country's sole N-plant.
Hungary's new nuclear waste dump receives first load
Monday, December 8, 2008The first 16 barrels of low and medium radioactivity waste were deposited at Hungary's new nuclear waste facility "Radioaktív Hulladékokat Kezelő Közhasznú" at Bataapati (SW) on Tuesday.
The country's sole nuclear power plant at Paks (C) produces some 900 barrels of radioactive waste a year, of which a truckload is planned to be forwarded to Bataapati each day, Jozsef Hegyhati, head of the radioactive waste management company (RHK) told MTI.
Bridging Lithuania’s energy gap
Monday, December 8, 2008VILNIUS - Lithuania is staring down the barrel of an energy crisis. The fact is the previous government did little to fix the problem, and the country now faces the prospect of being left in the long feared hands of Russian gas company Gazprom for electricity and heating.
Russia has been licking its chops thinking of the profits it will make while political infighting and bureaucracy saw Lithuania’s energy future go nowhere.
Energy firms refuse to pass on cost cuts
Monday, December 8, 2008Energy firms will refuse to pass on all of the savings they make on cheaper wholesale gas and electricity to consumers, one of the UK's top energy bosses admitted this weekend.
The warning, issued by Paul Golby, chief executive of Eon UK, came after a week in which the price of oil tumbled to just above $40 a barrel. As the government demands that the banks give borrowers the benefit of the latest cut in interest rates, energy companies are also coming under increasing pressure to cut customers' bills.
Free radio for safe nuclear site
Monday, December 8, 2008All staff at the Dounreay nuclear energy complex will get a free wind-up radio if there are no security breaches at the Caithness site for 60 days.
The challenge is laid down in the in-house magazine, Dounreay News, and started on Monday.
Firms aim to replace ageing nuclear plants
Monday, December 8, 2008Swiss electricity companies, Axpo and BKW Energy, are submitting plans to replace the country's oldest nuclear plants with two new facilities.
The firms confirmed on Thursday they would be filing an initial application with the Federal Energy Office for licences to replace two reactors at Beznau in canton Aargau and Mühleberg in canton Bern.
Berlin hosts int'l confab on N-energy
Monday, December 8, 2008An international confab on nuclear energy has opened in Berlin to promote exchange of information on technical and legal aspects of the issue.
Some 200 participants of the two-day conference will focus on nuclear waste disposal, security and relevant issues of nuclear facilities.
Germany's powerful nuclear lobby, Deutsches Atomforum, which enjoys close ties with co-ruling Christian Democratic Party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosted the meeting, IRNA reported.
