Tim Probert, Power Engineering International
Some mixed news for the European nuclear power industry this week.
Bulgaria is suffering particularly badly from the economic crisis and it now looks like the proposed 2 x 1000 MW, EUR4bn nuclear plant at Belene, developed by Russia’s AtomStroyExport in collaboration with state utility NEK, RWE, Areva and Siemens, might be canned by its newly-installed, cash-strapped government.
There have been severe doubts about the controversial Belene project from day one. More than a dozen major banks, including Citibank, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, turned down funding for the project as it was deemed that building untested Russian reactors in an area prone to large earthquakes was simply too risky.
More positive news comes from Italy and the UK, who are somewhat in the vanguard of the nuclear renaissance. Enel and France’s EDF have created a 50-50 joint venture, ‘Sviluppo Nucleare Italia (Italy Nuclear Development)’, to construct at least four of Areva’s European Pressurized Water reactors.
Meanwhile in the UK, a report commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown recommended that the UK adopts a more interventionist approach to ensure it triples its nuclear output by 2030.
Incidentally, PennWell has launched a new nuclear power show – Nuclear Power Europe – which will be co-located with POWER-GEN Europe on 8-10 June 2010 in Amsterdam. If you are interested in attending or submitting a conference paper, please click here.
