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Berlin - Swedish electricity giant Vattenfall admitted Thursday to additional problems at one of its German nuclear power stations, which caught fire several days ago just after a two-year refit from a previous fire. Blunders at the Kruemmel power station have turned nuclear safety into an election issue in Germany. Though neither of the fires was in the reactor itself, Vattenfall said it had also discovered at least one of the 80,000 rods of uranium inside the reactor was "defective." The defect was not connected to the shutdown of the reactor during an electrical transformer fire on Saturday. Engineers are to take the lid off the idled reactor on Friday to search for the rods, Vattenfall said. Tuoma Hatakka, chief executive of Vattenfall Europe, the German subsidiary which runs several of the 12 nuclear power stations in Germany, insisted in Berlin, "My summary is simple: Kruemmel is safe."

* Swedish govt demands explanation of nuclear problems * Swedish authority says Ringhals plant must boost safety * Says plant has not solved lingering safety concerns (Releads with Swedish government, adds Ringhals comment) By Niklas Pollard STOCKHOLM, July 8 (Reuters) - Sweden demanded on Wednesday that state-owned power utility Vattenfall provide an account of its work on nuclear safety after problems at one of its plants in Germany and security concerns at another in Sweden. The government's request was made after Swedish authorities earlier on Wednesday ordered the utility's majority-owned Ringhals nuclear plant, located south of the city of Gothenburg in south-west Sweden, to take steps to improve safety. The decision by the Nordic country's nuclear watchdog came in the wake of a failed restart of Vattenfall's nuclear plant at Kruemmel, northern Germany, which caused power outages across the city of Hamburg on Saturday.

Demonstrators cut through fences and drove farm tractors into a compound they claim is an illegally built nuclear waste dump at the village of Gorleben in northern Germany. The local resistance group, Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg (BI), reported more than 1,000 demonstrators and 30 tractors, a posting on IMC Germany had 1,000, a user of the site quoted local radio with 350, national radio 500, adding that pictures certainly didn't suggest 1,000. But adding, too: "The number's not important, it's super that a demo involving direct action followed so fast on the new revelations about the salt deposit. That generates hope! We don't need to boast about numbers - we have the better arguments, many years of resistance and have always been good for surprises like today's. Thanks to all!" The IMC post says at around noon fences were cut and people went into the waste storage compound with shovels, hammers and wheelbarrows to flatten the installations.

A leaking nuclear-waste storage site in Germany is also contaminated with several toxic substances. The problematic site in the Asse mountain range in northern Germany has been abused for several years by companies eager to get rid of toxic substances, including mercury, lead alloy and arsenic, German news magazine Stern reports. There is nearly 1,100 pounds of the notoriously poisonous metalloid arsenic in the site threatening to contaminate the groundwater.

"Germany's government was advised to move 126,000 barrels of nuclear waste from a crumbling underground storage site in central Germany to a nearby location in a bid to stop any leaks of radioactivity into groundwater. Wolfram Koenig, president of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, manager the Asse facility, made the recommendation today in Hannover, Germany. With 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of underground water leaking daily into the abandoned salt mine and eroding walls, the regulator is seeking to relocate waste from Asse before it may get mixed with water and seep back out into aquifers. "

"MORE than three quarters of French people believe the country should follow Germany and withdraw from nuclear energy, a new survey has found. The Ifop poll of 1,005 adults commissioned by the Journal du Dimanche found 77% supported a gradual shut-down of France's nuclear power plants within 30 years. A fifth of those in favour said it should happen sooner. Germany announced last month that it would shut down its nuclear plants by 2022 following safety concerns as a result of the Japanese earthquake and the Fukushima radiation leak. Nuclear represents only 22% of German electricity production, whereas France has 58 reactors that produce 73% of the country's electricity supply, making it the world's second-biggest nuclear power behind the United States. Green party Europe Ecologie-Les Verts is campaigning for a complete withdrawal and wants the Socialists to do the same before it considers a potential partnership in next year's elections. "

To judge from the bounce in German energy companies' share prices, you might think Sunday's centre-right election victory means it's springtime for nuclear power in Germany. The reality is more likely to be a longer atomic autumn before ageing reactors are laid to rest. Both the conservatives and the liberal Free Democrats want to prolong the lifetime of Germany's 17 existing nuclear plants, but not build new ones. That will still be lucrative for utilities such as RWE (RWEG.DE), E.ON (EONGn.DE>, Vattenfall [VATN.UL] and EnBW (EBKG.DE), which face an uncertain future as Europe switches to a greener energy mix and EU regulators force them to divest their grids and pipelines.

To judge from the bounce in German energy companies' share prices, you might think Sunday's centre-right election victory means it's springtime for nuclear power in Germany. The reality is more likely to be a longer atomic autumn before ageing reactors are laid to rest. Both the conservatives and the liberal Free Democrats want to prolong the lifetime of Germany's 17 existing nuclear plants, but not build new ones. That will still be lucrative for utilities such as RWE (RWEG.DE), E.ON (EONGn.DE>, Vattenfall [VATN.UL] and EnBW (EBKG.DE), which face an uncertain future as Europe switches to a greener energy mix and EU regulators force them to divest their grids and pipelines.

Pressure is growing within Nato for the removal of the remaining US nuclear weapons on European soil, and for a new doctrine for the alliance that would depend less on nuclear deterrence. The initiative is being driven by the new German government coalition, which has called for the removal of American nuclear weapons on its territory as part of a Nato strategic rethink. The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, the driving force behind the new policy, raised the issue during talks in Washington today with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Earlier this week, Westerwelle assured the Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that Germany would consult its allies on the removal of the estimated 20 nuclear weapons left on its soil.

Pressure is growing within Nato for the removal of the remaining US nuclear weapons on European soil, and for a new doctrine for the alliance that would depend less on nuclear deterrence. The initiative is being driven by the new German government coalition, which has called for the removal of American nuclear weapons on its territory as part of a Nato strategic rethink. The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, the driving force behind the new policy, raised the issue during talks in Washington today with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Earlier this week, Westerwelle assured the Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that Germany would consult its allies on the removal of the estimated 20 nuclear weapons left on its soil.

"Germany can generate 25 percent of its electricity from wind by 2020 if the government sticks to its plan of phasing out nuclear power, the nation's wind industry lobby group said. Wind turbines onshore may reach 45,000 megawatts of installed power capacity, while offshore equipment will provide another 10,000 megawatts a decade from now, BWE said today in an e-mailed statement. Germany's coalition government is debating an extension to the planned phase-out of the country's 17 nuclear power plants. Under an existing law, most of the plants will be shut down a decade from now. "

A shipment of radioactive waste from German nuclear plants arrived at a storage site on Tuesday morning after being delayed by fierce protests from nuclear activists. The demonstrations are partly in response to conservative calls for a rethink of the planned phaseout of nuclear power stations. German riot police confronted activists along the route of the nuclear waste transport. Eleven trucks carrying radioactive waste from German nuclear power stations arrived a day late at their destination, a storage site near Gorleben in northern Germany, early on Tuesday morning after thousands of anti-nuclear activists tried to stop the convoy.

Leaking nuclear waste in a storage facility in Lower Saxony has raised the temperature of the conversation over nuclear power in Germany. Conservatives say nuclear power is safe and clean, but the Left is saying, 'I told you so.' But no one knows what to do about radioactive water leaking from the mine. The Asse II salt mine, in Lower Saxony, is leaking radioactive brine. The trouble with nuclear waste is that it never goes away, German politicians are (re-)learning this week, after a status report on barrels of leaking nuclear waste in a storage facility based at a former salt rock and potash mine called Asse II in Lower Saxony

GERMANY: With a return to nuclear power set to be a key election topic next year, a leaking waste site has refocused attention on safety, writes Derek Scally . ST BARBARA has learned to be flexible in her job description. For 40 years, a statue of the patron saint of miners has watched from an illuminated shrine in the wall of the Konrad mine shaft, one kilometre underground near the German city of Braunschweig.

BERLIN, May 22 (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel will reject an application by EnBW (EBKG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) to extend the life of its Neckarwestheim 1 nuclear reactor, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Die Welt cited government sources as saying officials at the ministry believed safety standards at the plant in southern Germany were not good enough for it to stay open beyond its planned closure date of 2009.

DENVER - Fort Collins resident Marina Mayer was so overwhelmed by a unanimous Senate committee vote Thursday to tighten regulation of uranium mining in Colorado she broke down in tears. "It's very emotional for me," said Mayer who is originally from Germany. "A week after my husband and I moved to Fort Collins, we heard about what was happening with the (Nunn) mine. There was a uranium mine in Germany and after it moved out the (landowners), well, they are still trying to work out the cleanup."

Where to store Germany's nuclear waste? The issue - decades old and still unresolved - has injected controversy into campaigning ahead of Germany's federal election on 27 September. Farm residents at Gorleben in northern Germany have long opposed a proposal that salt caverns under their feet be used as the nation's long-term underground nuclear waste disposal site. Driving tractors, they have begun a week-long road trek to Berlin to press their anti-nuclear case. Equipped with a rolling kitchen, they aim to spearhead a demonstration in the capital next Saturday. En route, the tractor trekkers plan stopovers at three other sites used variously as nuclear storages and all controversial - the former Konrad iron mine near Salzgitter; Asse, a mine with water leaks near Wolfenbüttel; and Morsleben, an old salt mine near the former East-West-German border. Nuclear industry proponents accuse detractors of exaggerating the risks.

Germany's environment ministry denied approval for nuclear operator Vattenfall Europe [VATN.UL] to keep its Brunsbuettel reactor open longer, a fresh blow to operators' attemps of getting around a national closure plan. Vattenfall in May 2007 had asked to transfer 15 terawatt hours of power production quotas from its nuclear plant at Kruemmel in north Germany to Brunsbuettel, in order to lengthen Brunsbuettel's life cycle by another two-and-a-half years.

The European Union's Germany, France and United Kingdom, in association with the United States, China and Russia, (the so-called E3+3) have reportedly recently offered Iran "a range of economic and political incentives" to "return to negotiations," this time without U.S. insistence on "preconditions." What negotiations? Well, way back in November, 2004, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, (E3) undertook to negotiate with Iran on behalf of the European Union a mutually acceptable long-term agreement which would provide the EU "objective guarantees" that Iran's nuclear program was exclusively for peaceful purposes.

"AN anti-nuclear group is heading to Westminster to voice its feelings on the future of the nuclear industry. Marianne Birkby, founder of South Lakes anti-nuclear group Radiation Free Lakeland, will speak to the Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry on January 27. Three new sites in Cumbria have been identified as suitable for new nuclear power stations - Kirksanton, Sellafield and Braystones. Public consultation is currently on-going. Ms Birkby said: "The nuclear juggernaut will only be stopped by people saying no - as people are doing in Germany where 50,000 people of all walks of life, including convoys of farmers on tractors marched in Berlin opposing the proposed extension of the life of existing nuclear plants - no one in Germany is proposing new build and certainly no country in the world is proposing such a blanket nuclear sacrifice zone in such a small area as the UK government"."

On Saturday, March 12, a giant human chain, 45 km long was formed between the nuclear plant at Neckarwestheim and the seat of the regional government of Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart . 60 000 people took part in the protest in the run up to regional elections. It was the day of the meltdown of the Fukushima-plant after the earthquake in Japan... A majority against nuclear energy For decades there has been a stable and absolute majority in the polls in Germany against the use of nuclear energy. And in the last year there was a new upturn of the movement with a new generation of young activists: The mobilisations of last year against the transports of nuclear waste had been the biggest for more than 15 years. But the ruling federal government of Conservatives and Liberals ignored the demonstrations and complaints.

Bulgaria's PM, Boyko Borisov, is going to talk to his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, about the potential decision of RWE to withdraw from the Belene Nuclear Plant project. This was announced by Borisov himself on Wednesday. The German media have recently published unconfirmed information about RWE's withdrawal from the project for the second Bulgarian nuclear power plant, and Borisov's statement might be construed as a confirmation of those reports, Bulgarian analysts have remarked. In December 2008, the German energy giant RWE and the Bulgarian National Electric Company NEK sealed their partnership in which RWE was chosen to acquire 49% of the Belene NPP in exchange for a capital payment of EUR 1,275 B, a premium of EUR 550 M for NEK, and a loan of EUR 300 M for the purchase of equipment and other expenditures. According to the German media, RWE is pulling out of the Belene project because of the rising costs of the NPP construction, and because of the intentions of Merkel's new government to revive the nuclear energy in Germany.

Bulgaria's PM, Boyko Borisov, is going to talk to his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, about the potential decision of RWE to withdraw from the Belene Nuclear Plant project. This was announced by Borisov himself on Wednesday. The German media have recently published unconfirmed information about RWE's withdrawal from the project for the second Bulgarian nuclear power plant, and Borisov's statement might be construed as a confirmation of those reports, Bulgarian analysts have remarked. In December 2008, the German energy giant RWE and the Bulgarian National Electric Company NEK sealed their partnership in which RWE was chosen to acquire 49% of the Belene NPP in exchange for a capital payment of EUR 1,275 B, a premium of EUR 550 M for NEK, and a loan of EUR 300 M for the purchase of equipment and other expenditures. According to the German media, RWE is pulling out of the Belene project because of the rising costs of the NPP construction, and because of the intentions of Merkel's new government to revive the nuclear energy in Germany.