The European Nuclear Energy Leadership Academy (ENELA) is going to open in Germany to attract university graduates to the nuclear energy sector and train future leaders in the field.
The founding treaty of ENELA was signed here on Thursday by six European nuclear energy companies, which are shareholders of the academy.
Prime Minister Robert Fico said he was unpleasantly surprised by the European Commission’s (EC) lack of a response to the meeting of the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF).
"I am sorry that, despite the renewed interest in nuclear energy, the European Commission did not nominate a single member to attend the forum,” he said at ENEF’s opening session. “Neither Slovakia nor the Czech Republic came to the ENEF. Nonetheless, I’d like to confirm that we are interested in its activities.”
In Prague, where was the second European Nuclear Energy Forum, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas participated in the meeting with President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and the prime ministers of Slovenia, the Baltic States and the Visegrad Group Countries.
The meeting focused on the importance of nuclear energy for the European Union, as ELTA was informed by the Lithuanian government. According to Kirkilas, from the economic viewpoint, nuclear energy is among the most attractive alternatives to other energy resources, and at the same time it is an important tool in combating global warming.
The prime ministers of Lithuania and Slovakia have criticised deals struck by their governments with the EU before they joined the bloc to shut down aging Soviet-era nuclear power plants. International
pressure to cut carbon emissions and rising oil prices had revealed the move to be a mistake, they said.
EUOBSERVER / FOCUS - Europe's top energy official has called for a fresh discussion of the pros and cons of nuclear energy "without taboos."
Energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs wrote on Friday (16 May) in his blog that "Use of nuclear energy ... would increase our energy independence and supply security as well as contribute to the limitation of CO2 emissions."
PRAGUE, May 24 (IPS) - The EU seems to be backing nuclear energy as the response to global warming and gas dependency, but civic groups warn that safety and waste processing should be preconditions for the industry's growth.
These issues were debated in Prague May 22-23 at the second European Nuclear Energy Forum, an EU (European Union) initiative to discuss opportunities and risks of nuclear energy.
PRAGUE (AFP) — European power companies called Friday for urgent EU-wide moves to clear the way for new nuclear plants, stressing the security and climate change dangers of a failure to act.
"We have a barrel of oil costing 135 dollars a barrel, it is urgent to act. Industry cannot wait for a gradual approach to lead to convergence (in harmonised safety rules)," Electricite de France board member Bruno Lescoeur warned on the second, final day of the European Nuclear Energy Forum.
Upon launch of an EU forum on the issue, the European Commission says nuclear energy has a role in the bloc's low-carbon future
The case for greater use of nuclear energy in the EU received a high-profile boost on Monday, as the bloc formally launched its Nuclear Energy Forum, serving as the first-ever channel for EU-wide dialogue on the often taboo issue.
Bratislava, November 26 (TASR-SLOVAKIA) - Using the well-known cartoon figure Homer Simpson, the Greenpeace organisation on Monday protested against European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) in Bratislava.
According to environmentalists, the meeting is only a promotional platform during which representatives of the nuclear energy industry and representatives of countries exploiting atomic power plants can continue to uncritically reaffirm their current opinions on the advantages of nuclear energy.
With increasing energy-import dependency and the quest for climate-friendly energy production at the top of the EU's political agenda, the Commission last week (21 September) announced the creation of a new research platform to study 'sustainable' nuclear energy.
