HELSINKI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Nuclear power will play a key role in helping the European Union cut its dependence on fossil fuels and secure future energy supplies, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Friday.
"Nuclear energy will have a prominent role in leading the EU towards a low-carbon society," Rehn said in the text of a speech at a conference in the Finnish city of Turku.
A new coal-burning power plant, which would be the first conventional station to come on stream in Scotland since 1980, is being planned for the Firth of Clyde.
Denmark's state-owned energy company, Dong, has identified Hunterston, North Ayrshire, as the preferred site.
Two previous proposals failed; European Commission seeks greater interest in nuclear energy.
All nuclear activity in the EU will be subject to common safety rules, if a draft directive adopted by the European Commission wins the backing of member states.
Under the plans, published on 26 November, international nuclear safety standards – the 1996 Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS), and the 2006 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fundamentals – would form the backbone of legislation that would be mandatory for all EU member states.
Hungary's only nuclear power plant, south of Budapest on the Danube in Paks, last Friday applied to the National Atomic Energy Office (OAH) for a 20-year extension to the working life of its four reactors. Spokesman István Mittler told state news agency MTI that the 30-year lifespan of the four reactors is due to expire between 2012 and 2017. The plan to extend the lifespan of Soviet-era pressurised water reactors was drawn up with the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the OAH. The power plant provides over 40 per cent of Hungary's electricity generating capacity.
PRAGUE, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Czech power group CEZ said on Tuesday it had disconnected Unit 2 at its nuclear power plant Temelin from the grid in the morning due to a fault in a non-nuclear part of the unit and it would be down for two days.
Temelin has two 1,000 megawatt units. The other unit is also out of order, undergoing repair work that is expected to continue until the middle of December.
Kyiv, November 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft agreement with the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan about the joint participation in the International uranium enrichment center in Angarsk, Irkutsk region, Russia.
The Cabinet of Ministers passed a respective resolution on November 19 2008.
RWE Power, Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica and five other partners have given the provisional go-ahead for an investment contract towards the creation of a joint venture company in Romania.
The contract will be signed by the participating companies upon approval by the Romanian government. The contract seeks to construct Unit-3 and Unit-4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power station in Romania, using the Canadian CANDU reactor technology.
Andres Mäe, researcher of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, Estonia, answered questions about prospects of energy security and nuclear industry of the Baltic region.
PARIS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - French energy strikers cut a total of 4,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity and 1,000 MW of thermal capacity since Monday night, an official at the CGT union told Reuters on Tuesday.
French strikers are holding a 24-hour strike to protest against salaries and pensions.
"The strike has cut a total of 5,000 MW, this is a very positive outcome for us," the union official said, adding that strikers had been warned by EDF not to cut more capacity to avoid endangering the supply/demand balance.
KISIELICE, Poland (AFP) — Standing in the shadow of a massive windmill, Mayor Tomasz Koprowiak thinks part of the answer to Poland kicking its coal habit is blowing in the wind and growing in farmers' fields.
"Our new straw-fired heating plant serves 80 percent of the community and is saving everyone money," Koprowiak says of Kisielice, a poor north-eastern rural municipality of 6,500.
