VALENCIA, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Spain's nuclear watchdog told plants on Wednesday that renewing their operating permits would depend on how they implemented tighter safety procedures spurred by a rash of unscheduled stoppages.
Among others, the Nuclear Safety Council reviewed safety plans at the 1,000 megawatt Asco I plant, which faces a hefty fine after the regulator asked for government sanctions over the management's handling of a radioactive leak last November.
WARSAW, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Poland needs to build between 1,500 and 2,000 megawatts a year of new power capacity to keep up with growing demand, an adviser to the economy minister said on Wednesday.
The country, which needs to increase capacity quickly to make up for years of abandoning investments and plant renovations, would be interested in building natural-gas fired plants, Joanna Strzelec-Lobodzinska said.
"The estimates show Poland needs to create between 1,500 and 2,000 MW in new capacities to keep up with growing demand and replace outdated technologies," Lobodzinska told reporters.
The government is pinning its hopes on a nuclear renaissance to meet Britain's climate change goals. Planning procedures are being eased and hidden subsidies offered. But the policy is based on a misunderstanding of nuclear power's lousy economics, and will fail
Tom Burke
BERLIN, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Radioactive water is leaking from an old salt and potash mine in Germany that had been converted to a storage facility for nuclear waste.
The discovery of the leak has reopened debate about nuclear power, theerman magazine Der Spiegel reports. German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel described the mine as "the most problematic nuclear facility in Europe."
A statement by the Socialists that nuclear power is not a taboo subject within the party could signal a parliamentary majority in favour of building new nuclear power plants in the Netherlands, reports Wednesday’s Telegraaf.
‘Everything is open to discussion. Nuclear power is not taboo for the SP,’ Socialist party (SP) leader Agnes Kant is quoted by the paper as saying.
LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - British Energy's Heysham 2-7 nuclear power reactor was running at about a third of its capacity on Wednesday after output was cut for planned refuelling, a spokesman for the plant said.
'It is low power refuelling,' he said, without giving any indication how long the 625-megawatt reactor would have to remain at reduced output.
(DRUSKININKAI) - Belarus plans to build a new nuclear power plant by 2015 that could possibly export energy to neighbour Lithuanuia, Belarus Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said Tuesday in Lithuania.
"We are going to build the first block by 2015. We spoke with Lithuanian energy specialists about the possibility of supplying part of the electricity produced in this power plant to Lithuania," said Sidorsky after talks with Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas in Lithuania's resort town of Druskininkai, near the Belarus border.
3 September 2008 - A proposed low-level radioactive waste store near the former Dounreay nuclear power plant has won approval from the Scottish Government environmental agency.
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) wants to construct the £110m ($195m) facility - the first of its kind in Scotland - on grazing land as a deposit for material removed from the Caithness plant during decommissioning. An approved site nearby is now considered too susceptible to coastal erosion.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the official start of construction on the second Bulgarian Belene nuclear power plant is scheduled for September 3. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will turn the first sod, according to the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s press centre in the northern city of Pleven, as quoted by Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik.
Bidders interested in buying the Government's share in the uranium company Urenco have contacted its former chairman about forming a consortium to table an offer for the stake which could be worth up to £4bn.
Neville Chamberlain, who was chairman of Urenco from 2002 to 2005, said: "I have had discussions with various potential bidders." He added: "I would not be surprised if a bid emerged."
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