News December 2020

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been informed by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA) that the Krško Nuclear Power Plant automatically shut down and is in a safe state following the earthquake in Petrinja, Croatia, that took place today at 11:19 UTC. The national regulatory authority also informed the IAEA that there are no environmental impacts and that preventive inspections of systems and equipment at the nuclear power plant are ongoing.

IAEA 29th Dec 2020 read more »

A nuclear power plant in Slovenia was closed as a precaution on Tuesday after an earthquake hit Croatia, killing a child and injuring dozens of others. Many buildings were levelled by the 6.3 magnitude quake, Croatia’s largest in 140 years. The army was called in to support rescue efforts as local footage showed children being pulled from the rubble. The epicentre was at the town of Petrinja, around 50km south of Zagreb, in central Croatia.

National News 29th Dec 2020 read more »

Slovenia’s single-unit Krško nuclear power station is in a safe sate after it was automatically shut down earlier on 29 December as a result of an earthquake in neighbouring Croatia, according to the national nuclear regulator.

Nucnet 29th Dec 2020 read more »

World Nuclear News 29th Dec 2020 read more »

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck central Croatia on Tuesday, killing seven people, injuring more than 20 and rattling several neighbouring countries, officials and residents said. In Slovenia, the STA news agency said the country’s sole nuclear power plant, 100 km (60 miles) from the epicentre, was shut down as a precaution.

Reuters 29th Dec 2020 read more »

EPR Flamanville: environmental associations dismissed from their referral by the Council of State. They requested the suspension, then the cancellation of the authorization for partial commissioning of the Flamanville EPR. The associations were dismissed by the Council of State. Four ecological associations, Crilan, Greenpeace, the Sortir du nuclear network and the collective “Stop EPR, neither in Penly nor elsewhere”, had seized the Council of State to request in summary the suspension, then the cancellation of the authorization of partial commissioning of the Flamanville EPR reactor , issued by ASN.

La Presse 29th Dec 2020 read more »

Flamanville EPR: the council of state rejects the request to suspend the partial commissioning authorization.

Crilan 29th Dec 2020 read more »

EDF repaired earthquake resistance faults discovered on the emergency diesel generators of ten additional nuclear reactors (11.7 GW), announced the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). “All the defects observed were the subject of repairs by EDF, or (…) of reinforced monitoring until the next shutdown of the reactor, during which [the defective elements] will be replaced”, indicated the Constable of the atom in a press release. This brings to 37 the number of faulty standby diesels that EDF has discovered since February 2019, when ASN ordered it to check the resistance of these generators to seismic shocks on the 58 reactors in the nuclear fleet.

Montel News 29th Dec 2020 read more »

Organisations from the French nuclear industry are developing digital twins for the country’s nuclear reactors that can be used from design right through to decommissioning.

NS Energy 30th Dec 2020 read more »

The South Korean government finalized its ninth national power supply plan on Dec. 28. According to it, half of coal-fired power plants in South Korea will be shut down within 15 years for the purpose of carbon reduction, 11 old nuclear power plants will be shut down at the ends of their service lives without any service life extension, and LNG- and renewable energy-based power generation will be expanded to offset the resultant decrease in power supply. At present, a total of 60 coal-fired power stations are in operation in South Korea. Half of them that have a combined capacity of 15.3 GW and have been in operation for more than 30 years will be shut down by 2034. Still, seven new coal-fired power stations with a capacity of 7.3 GW will be built as planned. As a whole, the capacity of such facilities will be reduced from 35.8 GW to 29 GW from this year to 2034.

Business Korea 29th Dec 2020 read more »

Rosatom to build small-scale land-based Arctic nuclear plant by 2028. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said Thursday that it has reached another milestone in its plans to build a small-scale land-based nuclear plant near the community of Ust-Kuyga in the eastern Russian Arctic.

Barents Observer 25th Dec 2020 read more »

Vilnius and Minsk have been in conflict for a long time over the launch of a new nuclear power plant in Belarus in Ostrovets. According to Lithuania: “The Belarusian nuclear power plant poses a threat to EU citizens. Therefore, it is necessary to stop such an irresponsible launch. In addition, the EU should not allow third-country producers who do not comply with the highest standards of nuclear safety and environmental protection to enter the electricity market,” writes Alexi Ivanov, Moscow correspondent.

EU Reporter 30th Dec 2020 read more »

Construction work has started on the second CFR-600 sodium-cooled pool-type fast-neutron nuclear reactor in Xiapu County, in China’s Fujian province. Also known as the Xiapu fast reactor demonstration project, the CFR-600 is part of China’s plan to achieve a closed nuclear fuel cycle.

World Nuclear News 29th Dec 2020 read more »

A group lobbying for nuclear power to be explored to combat the climate crisis has blasted environment minister Eamon Ryan for not exploring it as an option in resolving Ireland’s use of fossil fuels. Speaking earlier this month, Mr Ryan said that while he has “not ruled out” the possibility of nuclear power being utilised during the transition to more efficient energy, he said there is no appetite for it at the moment. Those comments were criticised by the 18for0 group, which claimed that “all available low-carbon technologies must be assessed urgently”.

Irish Examiner 29th Dec 2020 read more »

Isolated and challenged by a harsh climate and battered by the financial crisis of 2008, Iceland has successfully moved away from fossil fuels and shifted to 100% electricity production from renewable sources. The island nation has developed high-tech greenhouses to grow organic vegetables and embraced sustainable fish farming, ecotourism, breakthrough processes for carbon capture and disposal, and efforts to restore the forests that were lost in earlier centuries.

Guardian 30th Dec 2020 read more »