Group items tagged

"The subtext of this little explanation from French nuclear giants AREVA is that it is using the people of Finland as guinea pigs in an experiment: Yes, we have faced challenges with the construction of the first EPR™ reactor, Olkiluoto 3 in Finland. AREVA will be the first to admit that this project is behind its ambitious original schedule and has been open about the entire process … This experience means that when AREVA begins construction of its next reactor, which we hope will be a U.S. EPR™ reactor in the United States, AREVA and its project teams will have completed several others internationally, giving us the experience, insight, and workforce to put us ahead of the game. Poor Finland, if only they'd waited a little longer, someone else would have been the test subject. As it is, France and China are also lined up for experimentation. Using the project management experience and incorporating lessons learned in Finland, AREVA's EPR™ reactors in France and China are on a much tighter schedule than their respective predecessors."

Six Greenpeace activists Monday boarded a ship carrying French-made steam turbines bound for a new nuclear power station in Finland, the environmental group said. The protestors climbed on board the Happy Ranger as it made its way through the Fehmarn Belt strait between Denmark and Germany and unfurled banners including one which read "Nuclear madness, made in France". Greenpeace wants construction halted on a third-generation nuclear reactor currently being built at Olkiluoto, in southwest Finland, by the French company Areva.

Six Greenpeace activists Monday boarded a ship carrying French-made steam turbines bound for a new nuclear power station in Finland, the environmental group said. The protestors climbed on board the Happy Ranger as it made its way through the Fehmarn Belt strait between Denmark and Germany and unfurled banners including one which read "Nuclear madness, made in France". Greenpeace wants construction halted on a third-generation nuclear reactor currently being built at Olkiluoto, in southwest Finland, by the French company Areva.

France's Areva (CEPFi.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) submitted a claim to the Finnish government on Monday to search for uranium in northern Finland, the company said. Areva Resources Finland said in a statement the exclusive, 5-year exploration claim was for a 108 sq km (41.7 square miles) parcel of land lying mostly in the municipality of Ranua in Lapland, 750 km north of Helsinki.

The OL3 European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) project, under construction at Olkiluoto, Finland, is seen by the nuclear industry as the blueprint for a new generation of reactors they'd like to see being built all over the world. Already well behind schedule and way over cost, serious problems were uncovered two days ago in the primary coolant pipes, only a week after documents leaked to Finnish media revealed that designs for the most vital and fundamental part of this untried and untested nuclear reactor - the safety systems - are still not yet in place.

Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva said Thursday it would file a construction licence application in 2012 to excavate the world's first final repository of nuclear waste in bedrock. Reijo Sundel, the managing director of Posiva, said construction was slated to begin in 2014, with commissioning scheduled for 2020. The repository in Olkiluoto in western Finland is to be used to store about 12,000 tonnes of spent fuel.

Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva said Thursday it would file a construction licence application in 2012 to excavate the world's first final repository of nuclear waste in bedrock. Reijo Sundel, the managing director of Posiva, said construction was slated to begin in 2014, with commissioning scheduled for 2020. The repository in Olkiluoto in western Finland is to be used to store about 12,000 tonnes of spent fuel.

The much-hyped "Renaissance" of atomic power has taken three devastating hits with potentially fatal consequences. The usually supine Nuclear Regulatory Commission has told Toshiba's Westinghouse Corporation that its "standardized" AP-1000 design might not withstand hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. Regulators in France, Finland and the UK have raised safety concerns about AREVA's flagship EPR reactor. The front group for France's national nuclear power industry, AREVA's vanguard project in Finland is at least three years behind schedule and at least $3 billion over budget. And the Obama Administration indicates it will end efforts to license the proposed radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. After more than fifty years of trying, the nuclear industry has not a single prospective central dump site. "If history repeats itself as farce, then the nuclear power industry represents the most incompetent jester of all time," says Michael Mariotte of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service. It "seems intent on repeating every possible mistake of its failed past-from promoting inadequate, ever-changing reactor designs to blowing through even the largest imaginable budgets. If the computer industry followed the practices of the nuclear industry, we'd still be waiting for the first digital device that could fit in a space smaller than a warehouse and cost less than a family's annual income."

The much-hyped "Renaissance" of atomic power has taken three devastating hits with potentially fatal consequences. The usually supine Nuclear Regulatory Commission has told Toshiba's Westinghouse Corporation that its "standardized" AP-1000 design might not withstand hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. Regulators in France, Finland and the UK have raised safety concerns about AREVA's flagship EPR reactor. The front group for France's national nuclear power industry, AREVA's vanguard project in Finland is at least three years behind schedule and at least $3 billion over budget. And the Obama Administration indicates it will end efforts to license the proposed radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. After more than fifty years of trying, the nuclear industry has not a single prospective central dump site. "If history repeats itself as farce, then the nuclear power industry represents the most incompetent jester of all time," says Michael Mariotte of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service. It "seems intent on repeating every possible mistake of its failed past-from promoting inadequate, ever-changing reactor designs to blowing through even the largest imaginable budgets. If the computer industry followed the practices of the nuclear industry, we'd still be waiting for the first digital device that could fit in a space smaller than a warehouse and cost less than a family's annual income."

"A new nuclear energy power station must not be built in the Pyhäjoki region in Finland's northern Ostrobothnia because of the rich bird population in the area, according a statement by BirdLife Finland on Friday. According to BirdLife, the area has a diverse population of birds and is part of an important migratory path for large birds, which would suffer from the construction of a nuclear power plant. BirdLife is also concerned about the local nature and feels that plans to build the new power station neglect the importance of wildlife. The government has presented a new nuclear power station construction permit to Finnish utility Fennovoima, but the company has yet to decide whether to build the station in Pyhäjoki or Simo, in northern Finland."

Finland, August 2008 - Confidential documents obtained by Greenpeace reveal that basic safety procedures have not been followed in the construction of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) Olkiluoto 3 (0L3) in Finland. Greenpeace is calling for an immediate end to construction work on the reactor. Independent nuclear safety expert Dr. Helmut Hirsh [1] has reviewed the documents and concluded that the safety violations are "a clear case of bad practice and an indicator of bad safety culture", and give "reason for serious concern regarding the resistance of the reactor building of OL3", increasing the risk associated with external events like earthquakes, blast waves from explosions or missile impact.

Opponents of nuclear power from Finland and farther afield are to set up camp in Eurajoki next week, the Finnish Society for Nature and Environment said in a statement Tuesday. Finland's fifth nuclear power station is being built at Olkiluoto in Eurajoki.

Safety concerns may halt construction of a new nuclear facility in Finland, posing questions about the viability of the next generation of European Pressurised Reactors destined for the UK Finland's nuclear regulatory body may halt construction of the country's new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) amid 'great concern' over key safety systems. The concerns will be echoed in the UK, where the Government hopes to have the first of four new EPRs built by 2017. A major selling point of the new generation nuclear reactors had been their safety systems, a vital consideration as they will produce more radiation than current reactors. Doubts over the safety of Olkiluoto 3, being built on an island off western Finland, were raised by the director general of STUK, Finland's radiation and nuclear safety authority.

Poor planning has led to rising costs and huge delays for a nuclear reactor going up in Finland, the country's biggest-ever construction project, officials have said. The plant on the island of Olkiluoto in western Finland, to be run by Finnish nuclear power company TVO, was meant to start production this summer. But it is now not expected to open for another three years and Finnish authorities cannot hide their disappointment with Areva-Siemens, the Franco-German contractor running the building operations.

A nuclear reactor being built in Finland to the same design expected to be used in Britain is running three years behind schedule. Its developers, Areva, the French nuclear energy group, and Siemens, of Germany, had hoped it would start generating electricity yesterday. The reactor, in Olkiluoto, western Finland, is set to be the world's most powerful nuclear reactor, with a generating capacity of 1,600 megawatts - enough to power a city of 1.6 million people, or nearly one third of Finland's 5.5 million population. However, it is running three years late and is vastly over budget, beset by design delays, water-logged concrete and faulty pipes. EDF, the French state-owned energy group, has said that it will build at least four of the so-called EPR reactors - a new design - in the UK. The first, expected to be at Hinkley Point in Somerset, is slated to enter service in 2017 to help to plug a looming gap in Britain's energy supplies.

"Govt picks TVO, Fennovoima to build new nuclear reactors * Says no to utility Fortum * Says aims to make Finland electricity self-sufficient Finland's government granted on Wednesday a permission to utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) and consortium Fennovoima to build new nuclear power stations, but rejected Fortum's (FUM1V.HE) application. "We are giving a strong signal to the industry that it is worthwhile to invest in Finland. Granting one (nuclear reactor) permission is not enough," Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of the Economy, told a news conference."

Model for new UK reactors reveals damaging disagreements between Finland and French contractors From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the warehouse by the offices on Finland's Olkiluoto island, site of what should have been the world's first modern nuclear reactor. But inside, stacked on five kilometres of shelving, are 160,000 documents. "If a valve for the reactor is changed, it comes in a small box and a van full of documents," complains Jouni Silvennoinen, project director for Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), the Finnish utility that ordered the plant from the Franco-German consortium Areva-Siemens. The paper mountain helps explain why the reactor, which should have cost €3bn (£2.72bn) and been working this year, will now miss its revised completion date of mid-2012 and will cost at least €5.3bn. In the latest delay, Finland's nuclear safety regulator halted welding on the reactor last week and criticised poor oversight by the sub-contractor, supplier and TVO.

Model for new UK reactors reveals damaging disagreements between Finland and French contractors From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the warehouse by the offices on Finland's Olkiluoto island, site of what should have been the world's first modern nuclear reactor. But inside, stacked on five kilometres of shelving, are 160,000 documents. "If a valve for the reactor is changed, it comes in a small box and a van full of documents," complains Jouni Silvennoinen, project director for Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), the Finnish utility that ordered the plant from the Franco-German consortium Areva-Siemens. The paper mountain helps explain why the reactor, which should have cost €3bn (£2.72bn) and been working this year, will now miss its revised completion date of mid-2012 and will cost at least €5.3bn. In the latest delay, Finland's nuclear safety regulator halted welding on the reactor last week and criticised poor oversight by the sub-contractor, supplier and TVO.

"Yesterday we brought you more of the continuing and farcical story of the state of the art European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) being built by AREVA at Olkiluoto in Finland. The many, many diverse delays incompetence in the project have led to it being (at the time of writing) four years behind schedule and 2.3 billion euros over-budget. It's not just in Finland, however, where the reactor that was supposed to relaunch the nuclear 'renaissance' is struggling. In the UK, where the EPR - along with the Westinghouse AP1000 - is being evaluated for possible construction there, the government's Health and Safety Executive has said its design assessment process will miss its June 2011 deadline. More information is required from the reactor vendors in a number of areas: fault studies, fuel design and electrical systems for AP1000; and mechanical engineering, environment and fuel design for the EPR. For both reactors the HSE wants more information on structural integrity as well as higher active waste and used fuel management."

A nuclear power plant under construction by the Franco-German Areva-Siemens consortium in Finland will be further delayed to mid-2012, utility TVO said on Tuesday. "The Areva-Siemens Consortium, the turn-key supplier of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant unit, has now confirmed TVO´s earlier estimation that the Olkiluoto 3 unit will not be completed until 2012," TVO said in a statement.

France's Areva (CEPFi.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) took an unspecified provision for delays to a next-generation nuclear reactor project in Finland on Friday but the setback failed to dent a sharp rise in profits amid fears over high oil prices.

Areva, a French nuclear construction company, said this week that its project to build the world's most powerful reactor remained mired in delays and was over-budget by 2.3 billion euros, or about $3.3 billion. The price tag of the plant in Olkiluoto, Finland - the first of a fleet of so-called evolutionary power reactors that Areva foresees building in coming years - was about $4.3 billion in 2003 and costs have steadily increased. The reactor was meant to have gone online early this summer but Areva no longer is committing to any dates for its completion. Patrice Lambert de Diesbach, an energy analyst with CM-CIC Securities in Paris, said the latest developments were "bad news" for Areva and "should be sanctioned by the market."

Areva, a French nuclear construction company, said this week that its project to build the world's most powerful reactor remained mired in delays and was over-budget by 2.3 billion euros, or about $3.3 billion. The price tag of the plant in Olkiluoto, Finland - the first of a fleet of so-called evolutionary power reactors that Areva foresees building in coming years - was about $4.3 billion in 2003 and costs have steadily increased. The reactor was meant to have gone online early this summer but Areva no longer is committing to any dates for its completion. Patrice Lambert de Diesbach, an energy analyst with CM-CIC Securities in Paris, said the latest developments were "bad news" for Areva and "should be sanctioned by the market."

Finnish authorities dismissed talk Sunday that the Arctic Sea was bearing a cargo of nuclear material, as Russia and NATO joined forces in an international hunt for the missing vessel. Jukka Laaksonen, head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, said firefighters conducted radiation tests on the ship -- last reported off Cape Verde -- at a port in Finland before it began a voyage full of intrigue.

In a devastating pair of financial reports that might be called "The Emperor Has No Pressure Vessel," the New York Times has blazed new light on the catastrophic economics of atomic power. The two Business Section specials cover the fiasco of new French construction at Okiluoto, Finland, and the virtual collapse of Atomic Energy of Canada. In a sane world they could comprise an epitaph for the "Peaceful Atom". But they come simultaneous with Republican demands for up to $700 billion or more in new reactor construction. The Times's "In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble" by James Kanter is a "cautionary tale" about the "most powerful reactor ever built" whose modular design "was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build" as well as safer to operate. But four years into a construction process that was scheduled to end about now, the plant's $4.2 billion price tag has soared by 50% or more. Areva, the French government's front group, won't predict when the reactor will open. Finnish utilities have stopped trying to guess. Finnish inspectors say Areva allowed "inexperienced subcontractors to drill holes in the wrong places on a vast steel container that seals the reactor." The Finns have also cited Areva for "the attitude or lack of professional knowledge of some persons."