Foreign News

The first reactor at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant will be shutdown on February 22, 2020. Unions, local elected officials, traders, are preparing to see around 2,000 jobs disappear in the years to come. Despite the announced economic development plan, the concern remains.

France Culture 17th Feb 2020 read more »

Workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may need to wear plastic raincoats as the coronavirus outbreak threatens production of protective suits in China, the operator warned on Tuesday. Staff cleaning up the plant wear special plastic overcoats to prevent radioactive dust settling on clothes or the body and the TEPCO operator gets through 6,000 per day. But a TEPCO spokesman told AFP “we could have difficulties getting certain specific items from our usual suppliers” because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Daily Mail 18th Feb 2020 read more »

The United Arab Emirates has announced that it has given the green light to start operating the Barakah nuclear power plant, the first in the Arab world. The date of commissioning of the plant, estimated at 22.5 billion euros, has not been specified.

Les Echos 17th Feb 2020 read more »

Washington Examiner 17th Feb 2020 read more »

NS Energy (accessed) 18th Feb 2020 read more »

Daily Mail 17th Feb 2020 read more »

Romania’s state nuclear company Nuclearelectrica needs €3.0bn-3.5bn to develop the third nuclear reactor of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant using its own resources and bank loans, but it needs state guarantees to make the project bankable, said Theodor Chirica, a member of the company’s board and it former CEO, speaking at an energy conference. With a partner, the company can develop two reactors he said — implying that the partner will probably not be the Chinese company that has been in talks on a joint venture until recently. In 2015, Nuclearelectrica signed a memorandum of understanding with China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) on the construction of two new reactors, 3 and 4, at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant. However, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban announced in January that the government will exit the deal with its Chinese partner. He invoked the European Union’s Green Deal rather than security issues or cost concerns circulated previously as the main reason behind a potential end of the deal with CGN to expand Romania’s only nuclear power plant.

BNE Intellinews 18th Feb 2020 read more »

Five international companies are lining up in the race to add a fifth nuclear reactor to the Czech Republic’s Dukovany nuclear power plant. Karel Havlicek, the Czech trade and industry minister, said last week that an agreement on the project had been reached between the government and the state-controlled energy utility CEZ. Havlicek said: ““We are determined that the new reactor will go ahead. This is a done deal and cannot be changed by a millimetre.” The timetable for the work, set out by Czech prime minister Andrej Babis in November, is to select a contractor for the project by the end of 2022 and green light construction by 2029. The plant is expected to become operational in 2036.

Global Construction Review 17th Feb 2020 read more »

China has one of the largest nuclear fleets in the world, with 48 reactors currently in action and a further nine under construction. Here, NS Energy lists the seven biggest nuclear power plants in China.

NS Energy 17th Feb 2020 read more »

The canals of the West Midlands may seem an unlikely source of warmth, but these waterways could soon be used to heat hospitals and tower blocks under a plan to harness Britain’s hidden heating sources. The government has promised to spend more than £20m on nine schemes across the country to exploit cheap, renewable heat from canals, old mineshafts and in London tube lines. It will spend another £70m to build some of Europe’s first plants to generate green hydrogen gas for homes and factories, including a project in Grimsby that will use the clean electricity generated by offshore wind turbines to make the low-carbon alternative gas from water. Kwasi Kwarteng, the minister for business, energy and clean growth, said cleaning up emissions from industry and housing was a big challenge, and an important part of “eliminating our contribution to climate change by 2050 while also growing our economy”. The government’s hunt for alternative renewable sources of heat has gained pace after ministers pledged to ban gas-fired boilers from newbuild homes from 2025. Officials estimate that the latest funding could provide a local renewable energy resource to 250,000 people by 2030, which would cut their energy bills by half while helping the UK to meet its climate targets. Birmingham’s canals have been picked to play a role in the UK’s green heating revolution by the same team behind a scheme that uses “waste heat” from the Northern line of the underground to warm hundreds of homes in Islington, north London. The consortium, led by London South Bank University and known as GreenSCIES, plans to use the government funding to grow its Islington project and install water source heat pumps in the canal, which runs through Sandwell near Birmingham.

Guardian 18th Feb 2020 read more »