High-level EU activity in nuclear power underpins uranium projects

Currently active on an interesting uranium project in Hungary, WildHorse Energy (WHE) notes that “with rising concern about global warming and the need to reduce CO2 emissions, many countries in the European Union (EU) are considering introducing nuclear power to their energy mix, or increasing its share of their energy sources. Security of supply is a major issue in the EU, and WHE’s Pecs project offers a potentially large scale ‘local’ uranium source for Hungary and the EU as a whole.”

Major developments in Europe include:
In Finland, construction is now under way on a fifth, very large reactor which will come on line in 2011

France is building a similar 1,600 MWe unit at Flamanville, for operation from 2012

Romania’s second power reactor started up in 2007, and two further units are expected to commence construction soon

Bulgaria is about to start building two 1,000 MWe Russian reactors at Belene

Poland is planning some nuclear power capacity but initially is likely to join a joint project in Lithuania, with Estonia and Latvia

In Switzerland, the capacity of its five reactors has been increased by over 12%

Spain has a program to add 810 MWe (11%) to its nuclear capacity through upgrading its nine reactors by up to 13%

Sweden is uprating the Forsmark plant by 13% (410 MWe) over 2008-10 and Oskarshamn-3 by 21% to 1,450 MWe

The UK is moving towards a decision on an extensive nuclear power plant construction program.

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