Most Germans Oppose Nuclear Power Phase-Out

CIVIL NUCLEAR

File image of a German nuclear power plant

Radioactive water leak at Japanese nuclear plant
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 15 - Radioactive water has leaked at a nuclear power plant in western Japan spraying four workers, but it had no effect on their health, the plant's operator said Monday. "There was no external leakage either, and there was no radioactive effect on the environment," Kansai Electric Power Co. said in a statement. The accident occurred Sunday afternoon at the company's plant in the seaside city of Takahama, some 480 kilometers (300 miles) west of Tokyo. About 370 liters of water with traces of a radioactive substance leaked through the flow meter of a primary coolant system during a regular inspection, the statement said. The leakage was collected into a holding tank for waste fluid. "A test showed there was no radioactive effect on the health of the four workers," the statement said.

by Staff Writers
Berlin (AFP) Jan 14, 2007
Sixty-one percent of Germans canvassed in an opinion poll published on Sunday oppose the government's plans to abandon the use of nuclear power by 2020. They do not believe that it is wise to close the country's 17 nuclear power plants until alternative sources of renewable energy have been developed, said the poll conducted by the Forsa Institute for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Only 34 percent of respondents said they favoured a rapid nuclear power phase-out, the institute said.

An ongoing debate about the feasibility of closing Germany's nuclear power plants, which produce about a third of the country's energy, has intensified as a result of the oil transit row between Russia and Belarus.

After the dispute saw Russia shut down its main oil pipeline to Europe last Monday, Merkel remarked: "It shows that we should think carefully about the consequences of shutting down our nuclear energy reactors."

Economics Minister Michael Glos said a review of the nuclear phase-out plan was "urgent and necessary".

Germany's previous government under Gerhard Schroeder, a coalition of his Social Democrat SPD and the environmentalist Green parties, took the decision to shut the nuclear plants by 2020.

Merkel's left-right power-sharing coalition has agreed to honour the phase-out timetable. Though it remains controversial, it is considered unlikely that the Social Democrats will allow a policy reversal.

"At least for the current legislative period, there will be no change," Merkel said in a radio interview broadcast on Sunday.

earlier related report
Finnish Government Opens Door For More Nuclear Power
Helsinki (AFP) Jan 5 - Finnish Trade and Industry Minister Mauri Pekkarinen said Friday that Finland may have to build a sixth nuclear power station in order to meet environmental targets. "In the EU we have very ambitious new targets to decrease our CO2 emissions by 30-35 percent. It's very difficult to manage these challenges without utilizing nuclear power. This is the reality," Pekkarinen told AFP.

"We have to have the doors open for nuclear power plans and to increase the use of renewable energy and bio-energy," he said.

Finland is currently in the process of building a fifth nuclear reactor. It is expected to be operational by 2010 or 2011.

Pekkarinen, a member of the ruling agrarian Centre Party, had in the past opposed the construction of a sixth nuclear reactor.

The share of renewable resources in primary energy in Finland is currently about 25 percent. Pekkarinen said he believed that this share could grow in 20 years to 40 percent.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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CIVIL NUCLEAR

Czech Republic's Temelin Nuclear Reactor Back On Stream

Prague, Czechoslovakia (AFP) Jan 07, 2007
A Czech nuclear reactor that has been criticised in neighbouring Austria for saftey reasons was reconnected to the national grid Sunday after being temporarily shut down for routine tests, the news agency CTK reported. The number one reactor of the nuclear power station at Temelin was closed down Saturday as part of once-monthly tests since the middle of last year.

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