Moscow (Gregory Williams) 615x160

Privatisation of Russian state nuclear giant

02  February 2012

Having spent five years combining its nuclear power, engineering and research enterprises into the single entity of Rosatom, Russia now sees privatisation of the firm as part of a plan for industrial modernisation.

Certain divisions of Rosatom manage Russia's military nuclear program and these will remain under full control of the state. However, its civil nuclear assets - for example nuclear fuel, reactor technology, supply chain, power plant operation, services and waste management - are to become a "public liability company" with its shares "subsequently sold off," wrote prime minister Vladimir Putin in a Vedomosti article.

Kazakhstan continues front-end push

03 February 2012

Kazakhstan has posted another year of record uranium production as it furthers its diversification into value-added nuclear fuel products.

Novovoronezh II steam generators on track

02 February 2012

Novovoronezh II SG shipment 72x48The first of four steam generators for the second phase of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant in Russia has been transported to the construction site by rail.

Bids in for new Finnish plant

01 February 2012

Fennovoima Pyhajoki - thumbFennovoima has received commercial bids from Areva and Toshiba for the construction of its planned nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki on the western coast of Finland. A final decision on the plant supplier will be made by the end of next year.

Is there life after sixty?

03 February 2012

A new research program headed by the US Department of Energy will begin to investigate the case for reactor lifespans of greater than 60 years.

Low risk from major accident consequences

02 February 2012

A severe accident at a US nuclear power plant would not be likely to cause any immediate deaths, while the risks of fatal cancers caused by such an accident would be millions of times lower than the general risks of dying of cancer, a long-running research study has found.

Shrinkwrapping Bradwell

01 February 2012

Berkeley in Safestor (Magnox) 68x45 The main buildings at the UK's shuttered Bradwell nuclear power plant are to be sealed in a £20 million ($31 million) 'weather envelope' while they await final dismantling.

Industry Talk

New UK energy minister

Ed Davey has taken over as UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change after Chris Huhne resigned following charges of perverting the course of justice to avoid a driving penalty. Both politicians are from the Liberal Democrat Party, the junior partner in a governing coalition with prime minister David Cameron's Conservatives.

Horizon completes Oldbury land purchase

RWE and EOn's joint venture Horizon Nuclear Power has completed the purchase of land near the existing Oldbury nuclear power plant in Gloucestershire, on which it proposes to build a new plant. The land was purchased from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority under terms agreed in a 2009 auction.

Kyushu cuts managers' wages

Citing the "severe business conditions" for power companies in Japan, Kyushu Electric Power Company has decided to cut wages of directors by 20%; of senior executive officers by 15%; and of executive officers by 15%. All of Kyushu's six large power reactors are shut down, either for periodic inspection or awaiting permission to subsquently restart.

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