North Korea
World powers are expected to impose sanctions on North Korea today, even as American officials announced that it would never be possible to prove that the Stalinist state had carried out a nuclear test.
Telegraph 14th Oct 2006
The US last night refused to confirm that North Korea had joined the nuclear club, despite the discovery of a gas consistent with a nuclear blast in the atmosphere close to where Pyongyang claimed it had detonated a device on Monday.
Guardian 14th Oct 2006
A U.S. government source has told CNN on Friday it has preliminary evidence that radioactivity was detected from a North Korean test site, suggesting an October 9 nuclear test had in fact taken place.
Reuters 14th Oct 2006
A country with just one nuclear weapon does not blow it up in a cave. This is the first point Kim Jong-II wanted to make to the world: he has several nukes at his command and is unpredictable enough to use them. Those who sniggered at the failure of his previous missile test are not laughing now; North Korea is being taken deadly seriously as a country which may be mad enough to trigger the first nuclear war.
The Business 13th Oct 2006
The United Nations will pass a watered-down package of sanctions this morning, aimed at punishing North Korea for its reported nuclear test after China and Russia resisted a more robust response.
Independent 14th Oct 2006
Twelve months ago it seemed the west’s nuclear confrontation with North Korea had reached an unexpectedly happy ending. Then the US treasury department stuck its oar in. In a deal brokered by China on September 19 2005, Kim Jong-il’s regime pledged to give up its atomic weapons, abandon existing nuclear programmes and rejoin the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it had repudiated in 2003.
Guardian 14th Oct 2006
New nukes
Letter: Most of the radioactivity in high-level waste is intolerable for a very long time. All one has to do is look at the extraordinary steps the pro-nuclear lobby agrees must be done to confine such harmful by-products to see how insane the pursuit of nuclear power is when compared to increasing energy efficiency and pursuing renewables.
Scotsman 14th Oct 2006
Nuclear waste from a new generation of atomic power stations poses an ‘intolerable’ health and safety risk to the capital, a report commissioned by the Mayor of London has found.
EDIE 13th Oct 2006
24Dash 13th Oct 2006
The US Department of Energy (DoE) is to award some $8 million to three companies to perform engineering studies and develop a pre-conceptual design to guide research on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). The DoE’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will make awards and will issue a contract to Westinghouse for the pre-conceptual design of the NGNP, and will later issue contracts to Areva and General Atomics to perform complimentary engineering studies in the areas of technology and design tradeoffs, initial cost estimates and selected plant arrangements.
Nuclear Engineering International 13th Oct 2006
Protest
In its heyday in the eighties, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was able to mobilise 400,000 people for a rally in Hyde Park. The end of the cold war saw the organisation’s influence wane and membership slump. But now, in the wake of the government’s commitment to replace the Trident nuclear system and rising tension over North Korea and Iran, CND is claiming renewed support and a resurgence of interest. Today in a university hall in Bradford, CND gathers for its annual conference, with new members signing up every week and new branches being launched.
Guardian 14th Oct 2006
THIRTEEN Quakers are planning to blockade a nuclear base at the end of the month. The members of the Society of Friends, who meet in Bush Road, Wanstead, will attempt to obstruct access to the nuclear-carrying submarine base Faslane, near Glasgow. They will join several other groups as part of the Faslane 365 campaign, set up to put the Government under pressure to shut down its nuclear weapons.
Epping Guardian 13th Oct 2006
Shoreham Herald 13th Oct 2006
EDINBURGH students were to set up camp today outside the Faslane naval base on the Clyde. They are taking part in a year-long blockade today and tomorrow.
Edinburgh Evening News 13th Oct 2006
Emergency Planning
SELLAFIELD’s emergency site siren got stuck and sounded an alarm for 30 minutes during the latest national exercise to deal with a serious radiation incident. And according to David Moore, chairman of Sellafield’s independent health and safety watchdogs, it could have lulled local people into a false sense of security, putting them at risk from radiation doses if it had been a real incident.
Whitehaven News 12th Oct 2006
