China has begun the construction of what is being called a fourth-generation nuclear reactor. The USD476 million, 200-MW project at Shidao Bay in Shandong Province started last month said the Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Co Ltd (HSNPC).
Korean companies have been invited to bid for the construction contracts of two nuclear power plants in Poland, which will begin operating as early as 2022, according to an exclusive report in the Korean Times.
Electricite de France (EDF) hit back at those who expressed fears of technology transfer to Chinese partners expected to develop a new type of nuclear reactor “unfounded”.
As widely anticipated, Japan’s new pro-business Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) - led government has said it will allow any nuclear reactors deemed safe to be brought back on line, indicating a reversal of the previous government’s promise to move away from nuclear power by 2030.
Toshiba Corp is looking to sell part of its stake in its Westinghouse Electric atomic-power unit, according to Bloomberg. The wire service quoted Toru Ohara, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Toshiba, saying that the company was in discussions with three parties on a sale of up to 16 percent of its Westinghouse shares.
Japan's new government says it will review pans to phase out nuclear power, as part of its new economic policy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the newly-elected Liberal Democratic-led cabinet took office on Wednesday and has called for large-scale public spending to reinvigorate Japan’s recession-prone economy.
China has revealed plans to protect the country's health and environment with a state laboratory to develop technology to reduce the damage of biochemical and nuclear disasters.
A Japanese official at the COP18 climate talks in Doha has admitted that his country may back away from its target to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The target was one of the most ambitious of any industrialized country and won plaudits from environmentalists.
Several Chinese nuclear companies are looking to the public markets to raise funds for future plants following the government’s easing of halts imposed on new project following the 2010 Fukushima-Daiichi disaster in Japan.
China's nuclear power installed capacity will hit 42-GW by 2015 according to a top Chinese nuclear official. Speaking at seminar in Zhuhai Zhang Huazhu, chairman of the China Nuclear Energy Association, predicted that the country will have 41 operating nuclear power units by 2015 or a little later.
Ahead of the COP18 climate talks in Doha, Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, has announced plans to produce electricity from its first nuclear plant by 2020 and begin operating it first utility-scale solar farm by 2015.
The president and CEO of power utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO), Kim Joong-kyum, has resigned for “personal reasons” as the country’s nuclear industry is rocked by a scandal involving fake safety certificates that has already shut down several reactors.
Only days after former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam certified the Kudankulam nuclear plant as safe, the country signed an agreement with Canada to import uranium.
South Korea – one of Asia remaining true believers in nuclear power – is facing power shortages as it shuts down two reactors because of the use of uncertified parts. While the Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-woo said they were non-core parts, they were not allowed under industry certification.
China has commissioned its first experimental fast neutron reactor (also known as a fast breeder reactor) which, it is hoped, will help make better use of the nuclear fuel, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua news services
Japan's tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains a concern among Japanese regulators although it has been stabilized, according to an official speaking in Vienna this week.
Beijing this week announced it would resume construction of nuclear power plants, restarting a program that had been halted for 20 months in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.
Though it is still too early to assess the full impact of the Fukushima atomic power plant disaster, the World Nuclear Association (WNA) believes that it will have “very little impact” on global nuclear fuel markets.
China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has issued a report outlining plans to spend about 80 billion yuan (USD12.74 billion) by 2015 to upgrade the security of the country’s nuclear facilities and bring radioactive contamination control up to international standards by 2020.
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
.png "The Climate Group logo"){kind=logo}
