Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jun 29, 2007 - Belarus will soon announce a tender for the construction of its first nuclear power plant, the prime minister said Friday. The amount of finance will be determined shortly, and a tender will be announced, Sergei Sidorsky said after a ministerial Russia-Belarus union session in Moscow, adding a potential construction site was already being selected.
Vilnius (AFP) Jun 29, 2007 - The Lithuanian parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly backed the construction of a new nuclear power station to replace the Baltic country's ageing Chernobyl-type Ignalina plant. Some 107 lawmakers in the 141-seat parliament passed legislation approving what is seen as a key means to reduce the region's reliance on energy supplies from Russia.
Paris (RIA Novosti) Jun 29, 2007 - Russia's Atomenergomash and France's Alstom signed Friday documents to establish a $400-million joint venture to manufacture half-speed turbines for nuclear power plants in Russia and abroad. The companies reached a deal in April with Russia's state controlled nuclear power corporation having a 51%-share in the JV, which will operate on the platform of the machine-building firm ZIO Podolsk in the Moscow Region.
Tokyo (AFP) Jun 29, 2007 - Japan's Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it hoped to win a large deal to supply nuclear reactors in the United States, boosting its share price. Toshiba is working to secure an order for advanced boiling water reactors from US group NRG Energy which aims to build nuclear power plants, said company spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida.
Berlin (AFP) Jun 28, 2007 - Fire broke out at a nuclear power plant in northern Germany Thursday but was isolated from the atomic reactor, police said. The blaze began at the Kruemmel power plant in Geesthacht, 30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of Hamburg on the Elbe river, when coolant in a large electric power transformation substation ignited. It was extinguished about 90 minutes later.
Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Jun 28, 2007 - Russia's lower house of parliament ratified Wednesday two agreements regulating the ITER project, an experimental reactor in France being built with Russia's involvement, aimed at eventually generating power by nuclear fusion. Under the document now ratified by the State Duma, which was first signed in Paris on November 21, 2006, Russia, South Korea, China, Japan, India, the European Union and the United States agree to fund the construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
Vilnius (SPX) Jun 27, 2007 - The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are to sign a joint declaration on building a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania, the spokeswoman for Lithuania's premier said on Tuesday. Premier Gediminas Kirkilas discussed the declaration with Latvian head of government Aigars Kalvitis and Estonia's Andrus Ansip during the recent EU summit in Brussels, the spokeswoman Nemira Pumprickaite told AFP.
Kiev (RIA Novosti) Jun 26, 2007 - Ukraine's nuclear power utility Energoatom said Monday a new reactor it plans to build in the country's south will break with a long-standing tradition of using Russian design and technology. We imagine this unit as one of a non-Russian type, the company's chief executive, Andrei Derkach, was quoted as saying in a press release.
Moscow (AFP) Jun 25, 2007 - Technicians shut down a nuclear reactor in southwest Russia Monday after a problem with the cooling system, but no increase in radiation levels was recorded, state-run nuclear power company Rosenergoatom said. Personnel at the Kursk nuclear power station noticed a leak of cooling agent from a pipe in reactor number two, the statement said. To avoid a malfunction the reactor was stopped.
Bratislava (AFP) Jun 25, 2007 - French state-owned electricity giant Electricite de France (EDF) is interested in building a new nuclear plant in Slovakia, the SITA news agency reported on Monday. We would like to participate in the development of the electricity sector in Slovakia and to use our means and know how to develop new production capacity to ensure that Slovakia is self-sufficient as regards production, vice president of EDF's international unit Marc Boudier said after meeting Slovak premier Robert Fico.
Zagreb (RIA Novosti) Jun 25, 2007 - President Vladimir Putin said Sunday Russia is hoping to sign a contract this year on construction of a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, as part of cooperation with the Balkan countries in the energy sector. In October 2006, Russia's nuclear equipment export monopoly Atomstroyexport won a tender to build a nuclear power plant in Belene. The Balkan state wants to build a second NPP in Belene, 250 kilometers (about 150 miles) from the capital, Sofia, and to modernize the Kozloduy NPP in the north of the country.
Dhaka (AFP) Jun 24, 2007 - Bangladesh's emergency government said Sunday it will build a nuclear power plant to meet electricity shortages that have sparked riots and hit the country's economy. The International Atomic Energy Commission, the global nuclear watchdog, had approved a government plan to set up a nuclear power plant, interim Energy Minister Tapan Chowdhury told reporters.
Singapore (AFP) Jun 24, 2007 - Myanmar is unlikely to develop a nuclear programme as the military-run country already has enough domestic problems to overcome, Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said Sunday. I can't believe that a nuclear programme is high up on their list of priorities... They have enough problems of their own, Yeo said in response to a question at the World Economic Forum on East Asia.
Tokyo (AFP) Jun 22, 2007 - Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Friday it and France's Areva have jointly bid for a multi-million-dollar research and development project on a US nuclear fuel cycle program. The United States is set to resume building nuclear power plants after a gap of more than two decades amid growing concern about high oil prices and greenhouse gas emissions.
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jun 22, 2007 - Russian state-run nuclear fuel producer TVEL will supply nuclear fuel for a nuclear research reactor in Uzbekistan, the company said Thursday. Under a contract signed between TVEL, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the nuclear physics institute of the Uzbek Academy of Science in June, TVEL will deliver low-enriched uranium to the research reactor in December, the company said in a statement.
Paris, France (SPX) Jun 21, 2007 - AREVA has applied to the UK Regulators for its EPR nuclear reactor design to be considered for the forthcoming Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process. The application is accompanied by letters of support from British Energy, EDF, E.ON UK, Iberdrola, RWE npower and SUEZ, all who consider EPR to be a potential design for new build nuclear in UK. Other major utilities have also expressed serious interest in the EPR.
