In this issue

All those who follow the news in the nuclear sector regularly – and you are most probably among them - know that it is subject to ups and downs. While there have been many downs in the past, this last quarter can definitely be counted as an ‘up’, and the articles in this issue of ENS News convey this. Our reports on the following subjects come to mind especially in this context:

• a recent cost comparison performed for the (UK) Royal Academy of Engineering;

• a Euratom loan for the completion of Cernavoda 2; and

• nuclear has not been excluded from the EU emissions trading scheme post-2012.

This is not the end of the good news. Sweden, Japan and the USA have also provided encouraging headlines. In Sweden, Ringhals has applied for uprates on two of its reactors. The Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate has confirmed that the 600 MW lost with the closure of Barsebäck could be compensated by uprates of the country’s remaining 11 reactors. If this is carried out, Sweden would actually be replacing nuclear with nuclear. Not bad for a country that vowed to close the nuclear option almost 30 years ago.

In Japan, Chubu Electric Power Company's Hamaoka-5 nuclear power reactor achieved first criticality on 23 March. In addition, Kansai Electric Power Company seems to be poised to proceed with the use of MOX fuel in two of its reactors and Fukui prefecture has approved the construction of two new reactors at Japan Atomic Power. In the USA, plans for constructing a new reactor appear to be firming up with a definite, short-term timetable for licence application (2008) and decision (2010).

These headlines have also been commented on in other nuclear news publications. The rest of this spring issue is devoted to topics close to our concerns as a European Society grouping nuclear specialists: the latest developments concerning the Generation IV International Forum, news from the EU Institutions and reports on the conferences organised by the ENS. We hope you will find this issue both interesting and enjoyable.

UK study: New nuclear plants will be cheapest power option

In a report published on 10 March 2004, the UK's Royal Academy of Engineering revealed that electricity from offshore wind farms, currently Britain's most viable renewable energy source, will cost at least twice as much as that from conventional sources.

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Fission & fusion: a view from Sirius, by Bertrand Barré, ENS president

All too often, a very destructive controversy simmers between the proponents of fusion and the advocates of fission who, seen from Sirius, are both parts of the same community, the nuclear energy specialists.

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Spain hosts ENS Young Generation Network meeting, by José Luis Perez and Manuel Martin of Jueves Nucleares

For the first time, Spain was the location for the ENS’s Young Generation Network (YGN) Board Meeting, which coincided with the start of the ENS nuclear communicators’ conference, PIME 2004, in Barcelona on 8 March. Hospitality was the watchword for members of ‘Jóvenes Nucleares’, the Spanish Nuclear Society’s (SNE’s) Nuclear Young Generation Committee, who took on the lion’s share of all the work involved in organising both the meeting and the technical visit on the preceding Saturday.

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Join the celebration of youth

Hosted for the first time in North America, the International Youth Nuclear Congress – IYNC – is going to make Toronto the place to be on 9-13 May.

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Listening to others: a personal view, by Andrew Teller, ENS society manager

PIME - the ENS’s annual conference for nuclear communicators from all over the world – offers ample opportunity for new insights, and stimulating discussion among colleagues. My talk with a brand engineering specialist at this year’s event, in Barcelona in March, was particularly noteworthy. It set me thinking about who we are, as a community – and, if what he said is anything to go by – this was not a moment too soon!

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ENS High Scientific Council appointments

The ENS’s High Scientific Council (HSC) – its think-tank comprising scientists of high repute – has recently appointed two additional members to its ranks.

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