July, 2008

Two Spanish companies - Equipos Nucleares SA (Ensa) and Tecnicas Reunidas (TR) - have agreed to collaborate in the supply of heat exchangers for nuclear and thermal power plants worldwide.

The cornerstone of a new used nuclear fuel store was laid yesterday in Bulgaria. The €50 million facility will store all the old fuel from the six Kozloduy power reactors above ground for at least 50 years.

New reactors in Lithuania would be built at a site called Visaginas, it was agreed today by partners in the project. A firm with the same name is being set up as a joint venture for the new plant.

Ground has been broken on the first of China's AP1000 nuclear power reactors as the country puts together what amounts to a production line for further build.

Entergy Nuclear will assist in a project to extend the operating life of Taiwan Power Co's Kuosheng nuclear power plant. The plant is considered a sister plant to Entergy's Grand Gulf plant in Mississippi, USA, in terms of age and design.

Ameren has submitted an application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a combined construction and operating licence for a potential new nuclear power plant at its existing Callaway site in Missouri.

Last year's isotope crisis left Canadian medicine "teetering on the brink of disaster" a report by nuclear medicine experts has said. It recommended new reactors in Canada to assure supply.

Italy could begin a program of nuclear cooperation with Russia following a ministerial meeting in Moscow yesterday. A joint working group on nuclear energy is to be launched at an intergovernmental meeting in October.

Small advanced reactors offer enormous potential to extend the reach of nuclear power - but safety regulators in some leading nuclear nations are too busy to approve the designs.

[The Canadian Press, 26 July] Ontario's energy minister, George Smitherman, has announced that the deadline for reactor vendors to submit bids for two new reactors at the existing Darlington site has been extended. In June, the provincial government asked Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), Westinghouse...

Production from a new uranium recovery plant at First Uranium's Ezulwini gold and uranium mine in South Africa has been put back from August to October 2008. Although partial commissioning of the 1.2 million tonnes per year plant began on schedule in June, the plant's first output will be delayed...

The Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) could be used to burn up plutonium and transuranics currently thought of as waste after recently commissioned research. Two national laboratories will study the idea of extending NGNP's scope.

British Energy (BE) has confirmed it is engaged in "advanced discussions" in response to a new round of media interest in the future of the firm. BE owns eight power reactors and some of the UK's most promising sites for new build. Electricité de France (EdF) is widely held to be the only...

Construction work at two new nuclear power reactors as well as a MOX nuclear fuel facility helped drive Areva's first-half sales up by 16%. The group now has a backlog reaching almost $60 billion.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has completed its assessment of an planning application the construction of low-level waste facilities at Dounreay. It has recommended that some conditions are imposed.

As India's first indigenously designed nuclear power plant celebrates its 25th anniversary, a vote of confidence in prime minister Manmohan Singh's coalition government could pave the way for the conclusion of the long-awaited US-India nuclear energy deal.

The completion of Brazil's Angra 3 reactor looks more doubtful after the country's environment minister set 60 tough conditions for the project. Eletronuclear must beautify nearby cities and pay for the maintenance of a 100,000 hectare national park.

Germany's EOn group has finalized its agreement with Statkraft for a €4.5 billion ($6.2 billion) asset swap under which EOn will take total ownership of its Swedish subsidiary, EOn Sverige. As part of the agreement, EOn will acquire Statkraft's 44.6% stake in EOn Sverige, whose nuclear power...

Refuelling and maintenance work is to restart at Tricastin 4 this afternoon, following a radiation alarm yesterday morning. Workers in and around unit 4 were sent to the power plant's medical centre after alarms sounded to indicate an increase in radiation compared to normal levels. All 129 staff...

Two contracts have been awarded related to new Areva facilities in the USA. One concerns an environmental study of an enrichment plant; the other, detailed engineering of sintering furnaces for a MOX plant.

The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory is to be an international "centre of excellence", said a minister today when confirming the facility will indeed go ahead. It is to be a main part of a regional regeneration project for West Cumbria.

Kazakhstan aims to overtake Canada and Australia to become the world's leading uranium supplier next year. The country is also getting involved in all stages of the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Gaz de France (GdF) and Suez shareholders agreed their merger yesterday, creating an oil and gas giant with substantial links to nuclear energy. In a related move, Britain's Centrica has consolidated a controlling stake in Belgium's second-largest power company.

Russian uranium mining company Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) has said it intends to set up a joint uranium prospecting and mining venture with French nuclear company Areva. Meanwhile, its Lunnoye subsidiary is to build a new uranium processing plant in Siberia.

[AFP, 22 July; The Star Online, 21 July] Malaysian utility Tenaga has set up a nuclear energy taskforce to look into building a nuclear power station at the request of the country's government. According to Mohamad Zam Zam Jaafar, head of the taskforce, Tenaga would likely enter a joint venture with...