Nuclear power

Bulgaria's government approved Wednesday plans to add a new reactor at its Soviet-era nuclear power plant at Kozloduy, effectively ditching another project to build a new plant at Belene.

The visit of Eximbank USA President Kimberly Reed to the Cernavoda nuclear power plant on Tuesday will materialize in project implementation options for reactors 3 and 4, which Nuclearelectrica will submit to its shareholders' approval as soon as possible, Cosmin Ghita, CEO of the energy producer, told a press conference on the plant's platform.

Ljubljana – Slovenia is to sign a memorandum of understanding on strategic civilian nuclear cooperation with the US. The document expresses the desire of both countries for deeper bilateral strategic ties, which would improve energy security, increase prosperity and strengthen political and economic ties, the Slovenian government has said.

The construction works for the first nuclear power plant of Turkey is continuing as planned and its first unit will start operations in 2023, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez has said.

"In Akkuyu, things are running as planned," Dönmez said during a webinar organized by Sabancı Üniversity's Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate (IICEC) yesterday.

The Romanian government on Tuesday asked the state company Nuclearelectrica, which runs the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, to terminate negotiations with its Chinese partner China General Nuclear Power Corporation, GCNPC, on the construction of nuclear reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavoda. 

The fire in the forest area around the Chernobyl NPP is extinguished, but it will continue to smolder for several days, TASS reported, quoting the head of the Ukrainian State Emergency Management Agency.

A huge forest fire in Ukraine that has been raging for more than a week is now just one kilometer from the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant and poses a radiation risk, Greenpeace Russia warned on April 13, citing satellite images.   

Ukraine's Emergency Situations Service said it was still fighting the fires, but that the situation was under control.   

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts has completed a review of long term operational safety at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Romania. The Pre-SALTO (Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation) review mission was requested by the plant's operator, Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica SA.

The United Arab Emirates said on Monday that it had licensed a reactor at its nuclear power plant in Barakah, the first in the Arab world, and that it would start operating in the "near future".

Japan made significant changes in the safety standards of nuclear power reactors due to the severe disaster in Fukushima in 2011 when a nuclear power plant damaged by a tsunami caused serious environmental problems.