A British company has been closed down after being caught in an apparent attempt to sell black-market weapons-grade uranium to Iran and Sudan. Anti-terrorist officers and MI6 are now investigating a wider British-based plot allegedly to supply Iran with material for use in a nuclear weapons programme. One person has already been charged with attempting to proliferate ‘weapons of mass destruction’.
Observer 10th June 2007 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2099634,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11
Russia
President Vladimir Putin of Russia seemed to be going through a similar moment of self-deceiving nostalgia when he warned the West last week that he would return to the former practice of targeting his country’s nuclear weapons on European cities.
Sunday Times 10th June 2007 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_portillo/article1909853.ece
Iran
Iran has condemned a G-8 warning that it could face more sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.
Guardian website 10th June 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6697968,00.html
IRAN has threatened to launch a missile blitz against the Gulf states and plunge the entire Middle East into war if America attacks its nuclear facilities.
Sunday Times 10th June 2007 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1909896.ece
New nukes
Letter from Roger Helmer MEP: Bob Ball tells us (Mailbox, May 26) that “nuclear power shouldn’t be on the agenda”, but faced with pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, no option should be discounted.
Leicester Mercury 9th June 2007 http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=132938&command=displayContent&sourceNode=132547&contentPK=17518333&folderPk=77483&pNodeId=132438
New Zealand
On the 20th anniversary of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear legislation, the country’s politicians have called for a southern hemisphere wide nuclear-free zone and for an end to investment in nuclear weapons.
Monsters and Critics 9th June 2007 http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/news/article_1315462.php/New_Zealand_politicians_stoke_anti-nuclear_activism
Oldbury
BOSSES at Oldbury nuclear power station have launched a top level inquiry into last week’s blaze which has once again put the “dinosaur” atom plant out of action.
Thorbury Gazette 5th June 2007 http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/latestnews/thornburynews/display.var.1447541.0.probe_into_nuclear_station_fire.php
Submarines
HMS Astute, the Royal Navy’s first new type of nuclear submarine in nearly two decades, launched on Friday, is a bit of a beast. It is 318ft long, weighs 7,400 tonnes, and contains a nuclear reactor that could power 10,000 homes. It is a “hunter-killer”, remaining undetected while it sneaks up on other subs or protects ours. But it has other tricks up its sleeve: it can, for example, fire Tomahawk cruise missiles or sit offshore and intercept mobile-phone calls.
Sunday Times 10th June 2007 http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article1908897.ece
Decommissioning
The first training centre in the South West to equip workers with the skills to decommission nuclear power stations has opened at Cannington.The centre was officially opened by Bridgwater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger who said it was an excellent example of industry and education working together.
Bridgwater Times 9th June 2007 http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=150644&command=displayContent&sourceNode=150640&contentPK=17507975&folderPk=84814&pNodeId=150649
Radhealth
NEW ALLEGATIONS about the cancer risks from radioactive contamination of the Solway Firth are putting pressure on the cabinet secretary for health, Nicola Sturgeon, to release statistics kept secret by the NHS. Campaigners claim that children living near the Dumfries and Galloway shoreline are twice as likely to contract leukaemia as those living further inland. They blame sea pollution from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria and from the firing of depleted uranium shells at a military range near Kirkcudbright. In scientific critiques passed to the Sunday Herald, Richard Bramhall from the Low Level Radiation Campaign and Chris Busby from Green Audit attack an NHS study from last year for missing the link. It failed to take account of the distorting effect of inland contamination from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, they say.
Sunday Herald 10th June 2007 http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1460572.0.sturgeon_pressed_to_release_secret_nhs_cancer_files.php
Nuclear Waste
A decaying Russian nuclear dump inside the Arctic Circle is threatening to catch fire or explode, turning it into a “dirty bomb” that could impact the whole of northern Europe, including the British Isles. Experts are warning that sea water and intense cold are corroding a storage facility at Andreeva Bay, on the Kola Peninsula near Murmansk. It contains more than 20,000 discarded fuel rods from nuclear submarines and some nuclear-powered icebreakers. A Norwegian environmental group, Bellona, says it has obtained a copy of a secret report by the Russian nuclear agency, Rosatom, which speaks of an “uncontrolled nuclear reaction”. John Large, an independent British nuclear consultant who has visited the site, told The Independent on Sunday: “The nuclear rods are fixed to the roof and encased in metal to keep them apart and prevent any reactions from occurring. However, sea water has eroded them at their base, and they are falling to the floor of the tanks, where inches of saltwater have collected.
Independent on Sunday 10th June 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2640425.ece”; echo(makeClickableLinks($text)); ?>
