WNISR Essential News

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14 May 2012 EDF Ground Work Delayed at Hinkley Point, UK French utility EDF (Électricité de France) has delayed ground work for a planned new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in the UK. The British daily The Guardian reports today: “Work to move millions of cubic metres of soil and rock at the Hinkley site was due to begin in August, according to West Somerset council’s planning department. But EDF staff have been told the work will now start in 2013.” The information comes just three days after EDF junior partner Centrica’s CEO Sam Laidlaw (…)
11 May 2012 Brazil Abandons New Build Plans A top level Brazilian government official announced on 9 May 2012 that the country will not proceed with the previously stated plans to launch up to eight new nuclear power plants. “The last plan, which runs through 2020, does not envisage any (new) nuclear power station because there is no need for it”, the energy ministry’s executive secretary Marcio Zimmermann stated. “Demand is met with hydro-electrical power and complementary energy sources such as wind, thermal and natural gas.” (…)
9 May 2012 New French President Plans to Reduce Nuclear Share The incoming French president François Hollande plans to close the two Fessenheim reactors, France’s oldest plants, during his term of office. Hollande also confirmed during his final TV debate with outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy on 2 May 2012 to progressively reduce the share of nuclear power in the electricity generation from three quarters to about half by 2025. However, the extent and schedule of the upcoming energy transition remains unclear and will also depend on the composition (…)
9 May 2012 Last Japanese Nuclear Power Plant Closed On 5 May 2012 the last nuclear power plant in Japan closed. As planned, Tomari-3 in Hokkaido was taken off the grid for maintenance, safety inspections and refueling. While, in spite of intense government pressure, local authorities continue to oppose the restart plans for the Ohi-3 and -4 reactors in the Kansai region. Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa told the government that he would not allow restart without consulting local residents. The governors of Kyoto, Osaka and Shiga Prefectures as (…)
30 April 2012 Construction at Russian Kaliningrad Project? On 29 April 2012, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) announced the start of the construction at the Baltiisk-1 reactor, also called the Baltic nuclear power plant. The announcement backdates the construction start as the 22 February 2012. However, nuclear builder/operator Rosatom published on 27 February 2012 a statement under the title “Baltic NPP: Construction of the nuclear island foundation has started”, saying that “construction has (…)
26 April 2012 Early Final Shut‑down of UK Reactor Wylfa‑2 Yesterday, 25 April 2012, the 41-year-old Wylfa-2 reactor was disconnected from the UK electricity grid. “Originally planned for the 30^th April, the reactor shut down five days earlier than planned after an issue was identified with the plant”, stated the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in a press release issued only one day after the plant closure. NDA did not state, what the “issue” was that had been identified with the reactor. The plant closure reduces the number of operating (…)
26 April 2012 US Reactor Watts Bar 2 Start‑up Delayed Again In April 2012 the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the United States announced that its plans to complete the second unit at the Watts Bar nuclear power plant would be delayed again. Construction originally started in 1972 (nineteen-seventy-two) and makes it the longest building project in nuclear history. The revised start-up date is now 2015, a delay of three years and the estimated construction cost has risen by between 60-80% from $2.49 billion to between $4-4.5 billion. The cost of (…)
17 April 2012 GDF‑Suez Questions Nuclear Investments in the UK GDF-Suez Questions Nuclear Investments in the UK “We are, with our partners, going to take a decision in 2015 [on building a new plant at Sellafield]. Today it is very difficult to invest in a nuclear power plant without clear visibility.” This declaration by Gérard Mestrallet, CEO of the French group GDF-Suez, published by The Guardian, is the second blow in a month for nuclear new build plans in the UK after E.ON and RWE announced to withdraw from their projects. The GDF-Suez boss (…)
29 March 2012 RWE and E.ON Ditch Nuclear Plans in the UK RWE and E.ON Ditch Nuclear Plans in the UK Uploaded 29 March 2012 The German utilities E.ON and RWE have announced today that they will not proceed with plans to build 6,000 MW of new nuclear power plants in the UK. The utilities now look for investors interested to take over the 50/50 joint adventure Horizon Nuclear Power. E.ON states in a press release that it will “focus on other strategic projects that will deliver earlier benefit for customers and the company”. Accordingly, “UK (…)
28 March 2012 Bulgarian Government Abandons Belene Nuclear Project 28 March 2012 Bulgarian Government Abandons Belene Nuclear Power Plant Project Uploaded on 28 March 2012 Bulgaria’s Deputy Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov announced today that the completion of the two Belene reactors would be abandoned and that a natural gas fired plant would be built instead. The two 1,000 MW units have been listed as “under construction” since 1987. The plant should have been completed by the Russian builder Rosatom. But the German utility RWE, that had been selected as (…)

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