EU Gives Green Light To French Nuclear Power Station

Flamanville nuclear facility, France.

Swedish nuclear reactor successfully restarted
Stockholm (AFP) Oct 24 - The second of two nuclear reactors that closed in July over safety fears at Sweden's Forsmark plant re-opened, a plant spokesman said on Tuesday. "The Forsmark 2 reactor was re-started and resumed generating power today," plant spokesman Claes-Inge Andersson told AFP. Forsmark 1 was re-started on October 14.

The reactors in central Sweden were closed on July 25 after a short-circuit caused a blackout. Two of four backup diesel generators failed to start automatically, revealing other faults in the power station's electrical system. Sweden's nuclear energy authority (SKI) gave the go-ahead for the reactors to start operating again on September 28.

Forsmark 2 would reach full production capacity on Friday, Andersson added. Nuclear power accounts for almost half of all electricity generation in Sweden, which has 10 nuclear reactors, down from 12 since 1999 as part of a plan to phase out nuclear power over the next 30 years.

by Staff Writers
Brussels (AFP) Oct 24, 2006
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it had given the green light for the construction of a nuclear power plant in northern France. "The European Commission has sent the French authorities a favourable opinion on the investment project for the construction of an EPR -- an ordinary pressurised water reactor with a power output of 1630 megawatts -- at the Flamanville site," the European Union's executive arm said in a statement.

The EPR (European Pressurised Water Reactor) design has been developed since the 1990s by Germany's Siemens and France's Framatome-ANP, which is part of the state-owned nucelar energy group Areva.

The EPR project is aimed at achieving the highest possible level of nuclear safety, environmental protection and economic performance, the Commission said, and uses 17 percent less fuel than the types of reactor currently operating in France. Its expected service life is 60 years. The reactor will be the first in a planned generation of updated plants for France's ambitious nuclear industry.

France derives around three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear power, the highest ratio of any country in the world.

It has 58 reactors in standard designs of 900, 1,300 and 1,450 megawatts.

They were built under a vast programme, launched 30 years ago during the first oil crisis, aimed at weaning the country off its dependence on imported fuel.

These reactors will start reaching the end of their approximately 40-year design life from 2015, which is why the French authorities are already looking at replacements.

Preparatory work on the new nuclear plant site began in August but construction of the plant itself should begin early next year. The project is estimated to cost 3.3 billion euros.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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CIVIL NUCLEAR

New Glitch At Czech Nuclear Plant Angers Austrians

Prague (AFP) Oct 16, 2006
A reactor at the Czech Republic's controversial Temelin nuclear power plant shut down due to a malfunction on Monday, prompting threats of new demonstrations by environmentalists in nearby Austria.

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