Finland « nuclear-news

A futuristic film studies nuclear wastes

Film – Tribeca Review: Into Eternity, Cinematical, by Christopher Campbell Apr 29th 2010 What will the inhabitants of Earth be like over the next 100,000 years? Will they even be human, or some other civilization of animal or alien being? These questions are at the heart of Into Eternity, a beautiful and extremely fascinating Danish documentary about ONKALO, the ambitious nuclear waste repository near Olkiluoto, Finaland, which will bury thousands of tons of spent uranium from a local power plant in an extensive underground tunnel system…..In an eerie narration, Madsen addresses future viewers, whether or not they will understand his English-spoken warnings and questions, urging them not to curiously venture into the tunnels as if it were an archaeological find, like the Egyptian pyramids.

Tribeca Review: Into Eternity – Cinematical

April 30, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Finland, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Finland to add new renewable energy

“This addition of renewable energy is equivalent in scale to three big nuclear power plants.”

Finland Announces Plans to Use More Renewable Energy Greenfudge.org, by Arkisaeo, 23 Apr 2010 Finland announced plans to step up and meet EU requirements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions this week.The EU requirement is to raise the share of renewable energy to 38% of energy consumption by 2020. In order to meet this goal, Finland must raise renewable energy production by 38 terawatt hours. How do they plan to reach this goal?…… Finland also plans on adding wood-based and wind energy systems, plus increasing the use of biofuels and heat pumps. Continue reading →

April 24, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Finland, renewable | antinuclear, nuclear, renewable energy, renewables | Leave a comment

Finland govt wants renewable energy boost, not new nuclear plants

Minister: Finland does not need new nuclear plants, Google News hosting, (AFP) – 20 April 2010, HELSINKI — Finland does not need three new nuclear plants to secure its future energy needs, the minister who is preparing a government proposal on the subject said in an interview published on Monday. Continue reading →

April 20, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Finland, politics | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, reactors, renewable energy | Leave a comment

Olkiluoto nuclear plant – a shining example of folly of nuclear costs

ENERGY: Nuclear Does Not Make Economic Sense Say Studies Australia.to 14 February 2010 by Julio Godoy
“…….Actually, there is a new nuclear power plant that serves as a warning example of the risks involved in such a project: the nuclear power plant of Olkiluoto 3 in Finland, under construction since 2004.

Although the plant was supposed to have started delivering electricity in May 2009, its completion was postponed several times in the past two years. Continue reading →

February 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin | 1 Comment

Ship board anti-nuclear protest

Greenpeace boards reactor equipment ship( Google News AFP) – 17 Nov 09 COPENHAGEN — Six Greenpeace activists Monday boarded a ship carrying French-made steam turbines bound for a new nuclear power station in Finland, Continue reading →

November 18, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, Finland, politics | antinuclear, AREVA, France, nuclear, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

The myth of France’s ‘nuclear solution’ to climate change

French Nuclear Madness won’t save the climate Baltic Sea, 7th Space International 16 Nov 09 — Today six activists from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise boarded the cargo ship Happy Ranger in the Fehmarn Belt between Denmark and Germany. The activists are carrying banners reading “Nuclear Madness, made in France”. Continue reading →

November 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, Finland, spinbuster | antinuclear, AREVA, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

Olkiluoto III nuclear plant delayed indefinitely

Date of completion for Olkiluoto III nuclear plant still anybody’s guess HELSINGIN SANOMAT 20 Oct 09
– “……….yet another delay in the construction of the third nuclear facility in the Olkiluoto site.
This latest announcement moves once again the completion date for the Olkiluoto III project to the unforeseen future. Continue reading →

October 20, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radioactive | Leave a comment

“New generation” nuclear renaissance is just not happening

Problems Plague Launch of ‘Safer’ Next-Generation Reactors

SPIEGEL ONLINE By Dinah Deckstein, Frank Dohmen and Cordula Meyer Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan. 15 Oct 09

The executives of electric utilities worldwide are dreaming of a renaissance in nuclear power. But problems with a new, state-of-the-art reactor in Finland suggest that this is unlikely to happen. The industry’s alternative strategy is to modernize older plants to drastically extend reactor lifetimes. Continue reading →

October 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

AREVA threatening Finland’s TVO company over nuclear reactor fiasco

The Nukes of (legal) Hazard: Areva threatens work stoppage at Finnish nuke
Climate progress 1 Sept 09
Escalating a dispute between the companies as to who is to blame for the schedule slippage, Areva said Monday it will not proceed with work on the delayed Olkiluoto nuclear reactor project in Finland until Finnish utility TVO makes unspecified changes to the project.Areva, the French government-owned nuclear giant, made that disclosure in a financial statement for the first half of 2009.

Ouch. That is from Energy Daily (subs. req’d). The Financial Times story begins:

The financial risks of nuclear power were cast into sharp relief on Monday as Areva, the French state-owned group, revealed new provisions on its troubled Finnish reactor project that virtually wiped out interim operating profits.

Double ouch!

The ongoing saga between Areva and Finland is now more like an episode of Desperate Housewives than a sitcom,

The Nukes of (legal) Hazard, Episode 5: Areva threatens work stoppage at Finnish nuke « Climate Progress

September 5, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs | Leave a comment

Finland’s nuclear plant: more delays, cost overruns

More Delays at Finnish Nuclear Plant
The New York Times. September 2, 2009, By James Kanter
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.”

The problems faced by Areva are important a time when the nuclear power industry is promising to build safer and more reliable reactors than during the last building boom in the 1960s and early 1970s. …………………………

So far there are few signs of a breakthrough in Finland.

Areva said this week that it would not begin work on the final stages of the reactor until the Finnish utility agreed to a new set of proposals and modifications.

More Delays at Finnish Nuclear Plant – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

September 3, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

AREVA going to court over Finland nuclear reactor runaway costs

areva-medusa1 Areva’s half-year results yesterday night brought new information about the Olkiluoto-3 EPR nuclear fiasco:

– The cost-overrun is now estimated at 2.3 billion EUR, while the original price offered to decision makers back in 2002 was 2.5 billion, and price contracted in 2005 was 3.2 billion EUR. The estimated final cost at the moment thus reached 5.5 billion EUR! (And there is still long way to go, with construction only half-way through!)

– Areva is taking its Finnish customer, TVO, to arbitrary court to claim those additional costs from them, although it was a fixed price, turn-key contract (a good lesson for future Areva customers about its habits).

– Areva now even threats to suspend construction works until TVO agrees to modified contracts.

Their original press package that inludes recorded audio and detailed presentation (58 slides) can be found here:

http://www.areva.com/servlet/finance-en.html

September 2, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland

Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland By Rob Broomby BBC World Service, 10 July Olkiluoto, Finland

When it is finished, Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor will be the biggest the world has ever seen, the excavation site alone is the size of 55 football fields.

It was to have been a pilot project for bigger, better, cleaner, Generation III reactors, which would lead the charge back to nuclear power in a continent which had gone cold on atomic energy after the accidents at Chernobyl and Thee Mile Island.

But hopes of an early nuclear dawn on the Baltic coast are fading – the May start up date came and went and the OL3 is now not expected to begin pumping out electricity until 2012 – three years later than planned and about $2.4bn dollars (1.7bn euros) over budget.

The soaring cranes tell the tale: this project is far from complete.

There have been a string of problems starting with the concrete, then the welding.

Now, the safety regulator is questioning the designs for the reactor’s nerve centre – the Instrumentation and Control system……………………..

Even Philippe Knoche, Areva’s chief operating officer, admits things have not been going well.

“It’s no secret that Areva is losing money on this project,” he tells me……………………………..the EPR could be struck-off the list of reactor designs approved for use in the UK, a devastating blow to the French company and the British nuclear programme.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland

July 10, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs | Leave a comment

Olkiluoto in Finland

EPR’s problems run in the nuclear family

Greenpeace 27 June 09 “…………………………….Areva’s supposedly state-of-the-art, third-generation European Pressurized Reactor.

To recap, currently just two EPRs are being built in the world right now – one at Olkiluoto in Finland and one in Flamanville in France. Both have been beset by long-running construction problems, schedule and cost overruns, and all-round hilarious ineptitude and controversy.

The predecessor of the EPR, its parent if you like, was the Framatome N4 of which France has four. The N4 had problems of its own which sound all too familiar………………..

Design-related problems? Delays in commissioning? Cracked welding? N4 and EPR could be identical twin brothers, not father and son. Has nothing been learned? Nothing at all? We’ve heard this story before. Areva are remaking their own disaster movie.

Olkiluoto in Finland

June 26, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, radioactive | Leave a comment

Nuclear renaissance hits trouble

Nuclear renaissance hits trouble
James Kanter The Age June 21, 2009 The cracks are showing in the latest atomic showpiece, writes James Kanter.AS THE world fights climate change by seeking cleaner sources of energy, governments would do well to consider this cautionary tale of a new-generation nuclear reactor site.The massive power plant under construction on the Finnish island of Olkiluoto was supposed to be the showpiece of a nuclear renaissance. The most powerful reactor built to date, its modular design was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build. And it was supposed to be safer, too.But after four years of construction and thousands of defects and deficiencies, the reactor’s €3 billion price tag ($A5.2 billion) has climbed at least 50 per cent. And while it was meant to be finished this northern summer, Areva, the French company building it, is no longer willing to say when it will go online……………………….

Areva has acknowledged that the cost of a new reactor today would be as much as €6 billion, double the price offered to the Finns. Areva announced a steep drop in earnings last year, which it blamed mostly on mounting losses from the project.

In addition, nuclear safety inspectors in France have found cracks in the concrete base and steel reinforcements in the wrong places at the site in Flamanville. They also warned the utility building the reactor that welders working on the steel container were not properly qualified.

On top of such problems come the recession, weaker energy demand, tight credit and uncertainty over future policies, said Caren Byrd, an executive director at the global utility and power group at Morgan Stanley in New York.

“The warning lights now are flashing more brightly than just a year ago about the cost of new nuclear,” she said.

Nuclear renaissance hits trouble

June 21, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Finland | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, radioactive | Leave a comment

Cost Overruns at Finland Reactor Hold Lessons

In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble

By JAMES KANTER

The New York Times May 28, 2009

OLKILUOTO, Finland — As the Obama administration tries to steer America toward cleaner sources of energy, it would do well to consider the cautionary tale of this new-generation nuclear reactor site.

The massive power plant under construction on muddy terrain on this Finnish island was supposed to be the showpiece of a nuclear renaissance. The most powerful reactor ever built, its modular design was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build. And it was supposed to be safer, too.

But things have not gone as planned.
After four years of construction and thousands of defects and deficiencies, the reactor’s 3 billion euro price tag, about $4.2 billion, has climbed at least 50 percent. And while the reactor was originally meant to be completed this summer, Areva, the French company building it, and the utility that ordered it, are no longer willing to make certain predictions on when it will go online…………………………Most of the new construction is underway in countries like China and Russia, where strong central governments have made nuclear energy a national priority…………………………….resistance is mounting. In April, Missouri legislators balked at a preconstruction rate increase, prompting the state’s largest electric utility, Ameren UE, to suspend plans for a $6 billion copy of Areva’s Finnish reactor…………………………Areva has acknowledged that the cost of a new reactor today would be as much as 6 billion euros, or $8 billion, double the price offered to the Finns.