The first reactor at the 1.8 billion dollar Qinshan II station was plugged into the national grid nearly seven weeks ahead of schedule, the China Daily said.

A second 600 megawatt reactor at the plant in the Haiyan district of Zhejiang province will come on stream in the coming months, the paper quoted an industrial source as saying.

The Qinshan project is mainly Chinese but the local engineers were backed up by French company Framatome, the source said.

Chinese engineers should be able to build on the Qinshan experience to make 1,000 megawatt reactors in the future, power station director Li Yongjiang was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

China's two other nuclear plants are the 300-megawatt Qinshan I and a 2,000-megawatt station in Daya Bay, in southern Guangdong province, which was built in partnership with French companies.

Seven more are under construction: three at Qinshan in collaboration with French and Canadian businesses, two at Ling'ao in Guangdong with French firms Framatome and EDF and two Russian reactors for the Tianwan station in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

The first reactor at Ling'ao is expected to be up and running in the next few months.

Disputed Czech N-Plant To Restart
Prague (AFP) April 18, 2002 - A disputed and glitch-plagued Czech nuclear plant is to restart in the next few days, after a nearly two-month shutdown to fix the latest technical problems, a spokesman said Thursday.

The Soviet-built Temelin plant, which has triggered fierce protests notably in neighbouring Austria since it first fueled up in October 2000, was shut down on February 24 in theory for about a month.

Spokesman Vaclav Brom said the sole working reactor at the plant would be started up again "over the weekend or at the start of next week." He admitted that there was a new problem with seals on the nuclear reactor's secondary circuit.

Temelin is barely 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the border with Austria, which voted against nuclear power in a 1978 referendum.

Despite being upgraded with security systems by US giant Westinghouse, the plant's entry into commercial operation has been delayed by repeated technical and political problems.

Neighbouring Austria has demanded extra security and environmental guarantees before the plant comes fully on stream and Berlin has also attacked the plant.

EU Stands Firm Over Ageing Bulgarian N-Plant
Sofia (AFP) April 11, 2002 - The European Commission insisted Thursday that Bulgaria must shut down four ageing reactors at its sole nuclear power plant by 2006, rebuffing protests and proposals by Sofia to delay the closures.

European Energy and Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio pointed out that Bulgaria had signed an accord with the EU linking the closure of the Kozloduy plant reactors to the start of EU entry talks.

"We will not accept any state in the EU which has reactors which do not have the level of safety required by EU standards," she told a press conference in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

The Soviet-built power plant at Kozloduy, in northern Bulgaria, provides 45 percent of the impoverished country's power.

But in 1999 Sofia agreed to close the two oldest reactors at the plant by 2003 as a condition for starting EU membership talks.

This year the government is due to conclude negotiations on shutting down two others reactors. Brussels wants them closed by 2006, while Sofia wants to keep operating them until 2008-10.

"Bulgaria reached an agreement on this subject with 15 EU member states and thanks to its signature on this accord membership negotiations were opened," said de Palacio.

"The position of the EU is clear: units 3 and 4 must be closed by 2006 at the latest," she added.

The commissioner's comments came hours after nearly 3,000 people protested in Sofia Thursday against the closure of the Kozloduy reactors.

"Why?" and "Without its nuclear plant Bulgaria is naked," were among banners carried by the demonstrators, who called for a referendum on the issue.

A Bulgarian non-governmental organization has collected 500,000 signatures over the past month calling for a referendum on the issue.

"It is a choice between cheap energy and expensive energy, between an increase in prices and the growth of the economy, between dignity and humiliation," said the petition's organizer, Aleksander Karakachanov.

De Palacio also rebuffed a suggestion by President Georgi Parvanov that the reactors 1 and 2 could be modernized and then re-started after being closed down this year. Such a proposal "is not reasonable," she said, adding that the two reactors "must be closed."

According to an opinion poll by the Mediana institute published Thursday, 55 percent of Bulgarians believe that the EU's insistence on closing down the Kozloduy reactors is "motivated by economic interests."

Barely three percent believe Brussels wants to close them down for safety reasons, the poll said.

Bulgaria To Build New Reactor On Danube
Sofia (AFP) April 6, 2002 - Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said Saturday Bulgaria would build a second nuclear plant at Belene on the Danube, allowing it to shut down four Chernobyl-era reactors in line with an EU demand.

Brussels is demanding the closure of the four oldest reactors at the Soviet-built Kozloduy plant, originally built in the 1970s, as a condition for Bulgaria's European Union application.

Kozloduy currently produces 45 percent of the country's energy.

Saxe-Coburg said the government would ensure the new plant would operate in a reliable and secure manner.

It is expected the construction work of four 1000 megawatt reactors, will last three years.

Construction of the plant began in 1987 but stopped in 1990 after the collapse of Bulgaria's communist regime.

"All of the agreements between Bulgaria and the EU must respected... we must not betray the national interests in the matter of nuclear energy," Saxe-Coburg said, taking into account a significant number of Bulgarians opposed to the closure of the reactors at Kozloduy.

In order to be invited to begin EU membership talks in 1999, Bulgaria agreed to close down by 2003 the oldest Kozloduy units, 1 and 2, which began operating in the mid-1970s and produce the cheapest energy in the Balkans.

But at the same time it accelerated a modernization process of units 3 and 4, whose closure date is to be set this year.

Under the 1999 accord, Bulgaria was offered 200 million euros (176 million dollars) in aid from 2000-2006, although half of this will be confirmed by the European Commission after an agreement on the closure date for units 3 and 4 at Kozloduy.

The EU has demanded that they be shut down by 2006, but Bulgaria hopes to keep using the units until between 2008 and 2010.

"This immense project will assure Bulgaria's independence when it comes to energy," the prime minister said, adding the country would continue to be the primary source of energy in the Balkans.

Armenian Reactor Closure By 2004 Unrealistic
Moscow (AFP) April 6, 2002 - A senior Armenian official rejected a European Union recommendation that Yerevan should close down a nuclear power plant by 2004, arguing that the plant could remain in operation until 2016, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday.

Yerevan has signed an agreement with the European Union (EU) to close down its atomic power station at Metzamor, seen as potentially dangerous because of its location in an earthquake zone, by 2004, but there are concerns that the country may not now honour that commitment.

Vardan Movsesian, head of the country's energy regulation committee, said Friday it would be "unrealistic" to close the power plant down as its level of reliablity was still high.

"According to my information, the plant's resources will ensure its operation until 2016," he told Interfax.

The official also rejected as insufficient a proposed EU loan of 100 million euros (88 million dollars) to pay for mothballing the plant and creating alternative energy sources.

Last month Armenian President Robert Kocharian said he wanted to shut down the Metzamor plant, but insisted a decision about a closure date could only be taken "in parallel" with the search for viable alternative sources of energy for Armenia.

He said the decision would be based "not just based on Armenia's international commitments ... (but) on the interests of Armenia itself."

International experts have also expressed concern about operational safety at the ageing station.

Armenia has no fossil fuel of its own, and closing Metzamor would make it reliant on potentially unreliable gas imports from Russia through a pipeline that would have to cross Georgia.

Movsesian said the idea of building a new power plant was relevant, but this would cost between 600 and 1,200 million dollars.

The Metzamor plant was built between 1977 and 1980 and comprises two VVER-440 reactors, Interfax noted.

The plant was shut down shortly after the 1988 earthquake, but this provoked a severe energy crisis and the government restarted one of the power units in November 1995.

The plant, which Russian specialists have said can guarantee accident-free operation until 2016, produces 40 percent of Armenia's power.

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