1) USA: Reprocessing and Fast Reactors
3) E-PRTR Regulation Published
6) Power Meets Kyoto - Energy and Environment in the EU 25? - VGB PowerTech Journal 1/2-2006
The Bush administration has reversed the nuclear "open fuel cycle" policy of the Carter era.
In the context of a 250 M$ "Global Energy Nuclear Partnership" (GENP) reprocessing of civilian nuclear fuel shall also be offered to third countries.
A licensing process for a fast "Advanced Burner Reactor" (ABR) is going to be initiated. A prototype plant of 100 to 150 MWe is planned to be in operation by 2014.
The other partner countries of GENP are Russia, China, Japan, France and the UK.
http://www.gnep.energy.gov/
The proposal of the European Commission for REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), agreed by the Council in December 2005, is currently under examination by the European Parliament (EP). It is expected that Parliament and Council will reach final agreement in the second reading, which is scheduled for the second half of 2006.
Updated information including the results of a study on the assessment of the impact of REACH on the environment and human health as well as on an environment fact sheet: "REACH - a new chemicals policy for the EU" can be found on the website of EU.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/chemicals/reach.htm
On 4 February 2006 the "Regulation (EC) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register and amending Council Directives 91/689/EEC and 96/61/EC" was published. According to this regulation operators of installations where certain activities - listed in the annex of the regulation - are taking place (e.g. thermal power stations and other combustion installations > 50 MW (th) as well as installations for the recovery of disposal of hazardous waste receiving > 10 tonnes per day (for disposal of non-hazardous waste: > 50 tonnes per day)) have to report releases to air, water and land for certain pollutants if specified threshold values are exceeded. Further, off-site transfers of hazardous respectively non-hazardous waste exceeding 2 tonnes per year respectively 2000 tonnes per year have to be reported. Also the off-site transfers of certain pollutants in waste water destined for waste-water treatment has to be reported if threshold values are exceeded.
Already in 2000 there was the EPER-decision for reporting the emissions of certain pollutants to air and water. Compared to EPER (50 pollutants) there are now 91 pollutants to be considered; the number of activities to be taken into account rose from 56 to 65. The threshold values generally are the same as in EPER; the value for dioxines/furanes is 0.0001 now instead of 0.001 kg/a. New compared to EPER is also the consideration of releases to land and the transfer of waste. Also new is the reporting obligation for diffuse sources where such information exists and has already been reported by the Member States (e.g. emissions from residential combustion and traffic). In contrast to EPER (triennial) the reports have to be delivered annually; the first reporting year is 2007.
http://www.prtr.de/index.php?main=dokumente/umsetzung_prtr/umsetzung_prtr.htm
In the area of conflict between the high-precision measurement technology and mathematical procedures of validating the accurate determination of the insecurities in measurements are in the discussion field of the experts for a long time.
The Working Panel "Acceptance and Control Tests" will evaluate the application of VDI 2048 (determination of the insecurity in measurements on acceptance tests) for power plants as an emphasis in its activities.
At present discussions with external experts and the responsible standardization committees are led for examining a co-operation at least for subsections of the complex topic.
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_ak_18.html
Since 2002 WINKRA belongs to Essent. From January 2006 on, this became also clear in the name of the Company. WINKRA is now Essent Wind Deutschland GmbH. Simultaneously all wind power activities of the company have been integrated under the roof of Deutsche Essent GmbH in Düsseldorf. Therewith Essent reveals that wind force will belong to the strategic core activities in the future.
http://www.essent.de/essent/deutsche_essent/deutsche_essent/uber_essent/windenergie/index.html
Main topics of the January/February issue are:
Perspectives for Power Generation in Germany and Europe, VGB Congress 2005, News from the Industry, Events.
Abstracts of all articles are available here:
http://www.vgb.org/current_issue.html
The technical Scientific Report "Analysis of Unavailability of Thermal Power Plants 1995 - 2004 is now available in English language too. It completed the statistical evaluation of the report of the Availability of Power Plants for the same time period which is availabel in German language too.
http://www.vgb.org/shop/product_info.php/products_id/436