THORP
NUCLEAR material has been shipped from Cumbria to Russia to be turned into a new fuel. Uraniam has been exported from Sellafield’s Thorp reprocessing plant, where it was being stored. Although stored at the West Cumbrian nuclear complex, the substance is actually owned by Thorp’s customers in Germany and the Netherlands. The shipment, made last week, is the eighth of its kind from Sellafield.
Whitehaven News 31st Dec 2009 more >>
Sellafield
JUST over 12 months ago, Sellafield passed into the hands of Nuclear Management Partners, a consortium of American, French and British companies. The deal was said to be on the same financial scale as the 2012 London Olympics, with the potential to have a massive impact on both Sellafield’s operations and on West Cumbria’s economy for the next 50 years. Nuclear Management Partners were handed the reins in November 2008, five months after the consortium won the bid to land a lucrative contract from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. It is worth around £1.3 billion a year (but with a potential bonus of up to £50 million a year, depending on results).
Whitehaven News 30th Dec 2009 more >>
Low Level Waste
PLANS to bury radioactive waste on the former Keekle Head opencast coal site have reached a critical stage. Detailed plans for the creation of the proposed low level radioactive waste disposal site have been submitted for planning approval to the county council although its policy-making Cabinet has already made it clear that it has serious reservations. Endecom UK Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of French recycling and resource management company SITA UK, handed the application to Cumbria County Council just before Christmas, after saying its plans had received support during public exhibitions and presentations.
Whitehaven News 30th Dec 2009 more >>
Oldbury
PEOPLE living near the proposed site of a new nuclear power station are becoming increasingly concerned about the visual impact of the development. Members of the Shepperdine Against Nuclear Energy (SANE) have released a mock-up image of what the Severn Vale could look like if a new station was built. The photo, which has been posted on the campaign group’s online blog, shows how four cooling towers could look from Grovesend Road in Thornbury.
Gloucestershire Gazette 31st Dec 2009 more >>
Hinkley
ENERGY giant EDF’s proposals to base hundreds of construction workers, a park and ride and freight store Cannington village will swamp and “traumatise” the community, an action group has warned. About 400 people have joined the Save Cannington Action Group, and they devised their own proposals. They include a radical alternative to EDF’s proposed bypass – which aims to take construction traffic to and from the planned Hinkley C nuclear power station. The group’s dedicated access road would cut across the Levels, north of Bridgwater.
This is Somerset 31st Dec 2009 more >>
PEOPLE in North Somerset only have until January 8 to comment on National Grid plans for a 400,000 volt power line in the district. The company has planned the line to connect a proposed new power station at Hinkley Point C with a substation at Avonmouth following a request from EDF Energy.
Weston and Somerset Mercury 31st Dec 2009 more >>
Ireland
The British Government’s announcement that it intends to build ten new nuclear power-stations is not good news for us in Waterford, according to County Councillor Joe Conway. He pointed out this week that that one of the proposed sites, Wylfa on the island of Anglesea in Wales, was a mere seventy miles away. And, he added, the very first one scheduled to be built by EDF Energy was at Hinkley on the Bristol Channel, was a mere 150 miles from Dunmore East.
Munster Express 31st Dec 2009 more >>
Israel
Letter: It is now over 23 years since Vanunu revealed the true extent of Israel’s nuclear capability – still too often ignored when peace in the Middle East is discussed. He has no secrets or information that could harm Israel, except the truth of his original evidence, which he courageously refuses to apologise for releasing or to withdraw.
Guardian 1st Jan 2010 more >>
Lithuania
Lithuania Thursday shut down its Soviet-era nuclear plant under an EU deal in a move set to drive up electricity prices amid an economic crisis and leave it counting on ex-master Moscow for power.
AFP 31st Dec 2009 more >>
Interactive Investor 31st Dec 2009 more >>
South Asia
India and Pakistan today exchanged lists of nuclear facilities as part of an accord which prohibits them from attacking each other’s nuclear installations. India’s External Affairs Ministry said the lists were exchanged through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad. The two countries have routinely exchanged lists every January 1 since 1992 under an agreement signed in 1988. They have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.
Wales Online 1st Jan 2010 more >>
Green New Deal
Adair Turner, the outspoken head of the City regulator, believes that, whichever party wins the next election, the government should embark on a tax and spend programme to green the economy and create jobs. On the World Tonight programme, Turner will also tell Andrew Simms, of the New Economics Foundation, that when it comes to investing in the low-carbon and energy-saving technologies of tomorrow, the government may have to take a direct role because the market cannot be relied upon to deliver what is needed. Turner’s ideas chime with those of the NEF, which, with other campaigners, has been calling for a “Green New Deal”, to push huge investments into renewables and energy-saving technologies, which it says would create thousands of jobs and boost tax receipts, as well as saving billions of pounds in imports of carbon energy sources, such as coal and gas.
Guardian 1st Jan 2010 more >>
In 2009, the global recession had a greater impact than all the diplomatic efforts that ended in the Copenhagen flop: energy production hadn’t declined on such a scale since 1981, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Here are five economic reasons for the world to become slightly greener in the coming year (just a few of them could be wishful thinking) High oil prices, low gas prices, more subsidies for clean energy, the possibility of a carbon tax on imports and higher carbon prices.
Telegraph 1st Jan 2010 more >>
