MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Italy's minister for economic development Claudio Scajola said the government will be setting up a nuclear safety body as part of its policy for reintroducing nuclear power generation.
In a parliamentary hearing, Scajola said the body will be 'strong and authoritative' and will seek to ensure that, as regards nuclear reintroduction, the best technologies are used, the various checks and balances are reliable and the industrial processes are the right ones.
PARIS, July 9 (Reuters) - French nuclear firm Areva said on Wednesday that a leak of liquid containing uranium from a site in southeastern France was smaller than initially thought.
Areva said late on Tuesday that 30 cubic metres of liquid containing uranium, which was not enriched, was accidentally poured on the ground and into a river at the Tricastin nuclear site.
MARSEILLE -- An accidental spillage of waste containing uranium occurred Tuesday at one of France's top nuclear plants but authorities said there was no immediate cause for concern, authorities said.
Some 30 cubic meters (over 1,000 cubic feet) of effluents containing 12 grams (easily less than half an ounce) of uranium per liter spilled out at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Centre in Bollene in southern France.
Budapest/Vienna - Faulty maintenance procedures led to an incident in the Hungarian nuclear power plant in Paks on Monday, but no radioactivity was released, a report by Hungarian authorities to the UN nuclear agency said. It was the second incident in Paks caused by human error since 2006, the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority said in its report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
On Monday morning, two workers failed to properly seal an air- locked area during maintenance of the first unit of the power plant, 100 kilometres south of Budapest.
Journalist Goldirova sent, from Brussels, a report on a letter written by the Slovak prime minister, in which he warned the European Commission that, unless it soon announced its position on the completion of Mochovce [nuclear power station], the Slovak Government would have to "consider all options, including a proposal to postpone the decommissioning of the second block of the V1 reactor [in Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power station] until 2010." It follows from the report that Prime Minister Fico now behaves in the same way towards the EU as he behaves in domestic politics.
Cuts of up to 40 per cent in grants to scientists have been announced, triggering a warning they could undermine the nation’s ability to build and decommission nuclear power plants.
The reduction in support for individual scientists stems from the budget squeeze experienced by the funding agency which oversees astronomy and physics - the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
VIENNA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine will accelerate the development of nuclear power in a bid to reduce dependence on imported energy, visiting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said here Tuesday.
More nuclear reactors will be brought into operation in Ukraine by 2013, said Yushchenko, who was on a one-day visit to Vienna.
BERLIN, July 8 (IPS) - Confirmation that radioactive brine has been leaking for two decades from a German underground deposit for nuclear waste is yet another blow to the idea that nuclear power can safely increase electricity generation and simultaneously reduce emissions.
Radioactive leaks from the nuclear waste deposit Asse II near Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, some 225 km southwest of Berlin, were first discovered in 1988. The state-owned Helmholtz Institute for
Scientific Research, which operates the centre, officially admitted the leaks only Jun. 16, under pressure from the German press.
France's two biggest energy groups, EDF and GDF Suez, are vying to build the country's latest nuclear power plant, casting fresh doubt on their participation in Britain's planned nuclear renaissance.
Last week President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the go-ahead for a second new-generation European pressurised reactor (EPR) on an existing site. It will be France's 60th nuclear power plant.
French energy major Suez and nuclear engineering company Areva have signed an agreement, giving Suez a 5% ownership interest in the company that holds the Georges Besse II uranium enrichment plant.
The facility, built by Areva at the Tricastin site in France's Drome department, is based on ultra centrifuge technology. Suez, through its energy services business line, is building the electrical installations, and supplying the fluid management systems and the HVAC and process cooling equipment of the new plant, which is scheduled for startup in 2009.
