New Nukes
Nuclear power is back in favour, at least in government circles. The UK has plans for a fleet of new nuclear reactors, Sweden has reversed its decades-old ban on nuclear power and an increasing number of countries are expanding their nuclear generating capacity. With table of world reactors.
Guardian Data Blog 14th Aug 2009 more >>
Global interest in introducing nuclear power is on the rise, with ground being broken for the largest number of reactors in decades last year, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported. According to the IAEA’s Year in Review 2008, while no new reactors came online last year, construction started on 10 new sites, the largest number in any one year since 1985, bringing the total number being built to 44.
EGov Monitor 14th Aug 2009 more >>
Wylfa
Workers at Anglesey Aluminium have voiced shock and disappointment after the company announced it will cease its smelting work at the plant next month. Anglesey Council leader Clive McGregor said he hoped there would be better news in three to four years time with “potentially” a new power station being built (to replace the Wylfa nuclear power station which is due to close next year).
BBC 14th Aug 2009 more >>
BBC 13th Aug 2009 more >>
Daily Post 14th Aug 2009 more >>
ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners might cheer the comments by Welsh environment minister Jane Davidson on nuclear power, but her remarks will be met with despondency elsewhere, not least on Anglesey. As we report today, smelting at Anglesey Aluminium will definitely halt by the end of September. That is a hammer blow for the island. It makes the remaining jobs, including the 500 or so at Wylfa all the more vital to hold on to. A new nuclear power station to replace the current one, which will be decommissioned next year, is now even more important. This is hardly the day then, for islanders to learn that Jane Davidson has been stoking up her opposition to nuclear energy with a letter to energy minister Lord Hunt. She’s demanding a public inquiry into plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors citing safety concerns over the radioactive waste produced. The hostile policy towards nuclear energy of the Welsh Assembly Government which is led, we should remember, by a Labour/Plaid coalition, puts it on a collision course with the Labour government at Westminster which sees nuclear power as an intrinsic part of future energy strategy.
Daily Post 14th Aug 2009 more >>
ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners yesterday praised Welsh environment minister Jane Davidson for demanding a public inquiry into a new generation of reactors over safety concerns.
Holyhead and Anglesey Mail 14th Aug 2009 more >>
Iran
David Clark has a fine piece in today’s Guardian rightly arguing that the option of military action against Iran should be taken off the table. Many of those who advocate pre-emptive strikes do so because they assume that a nuclear-armed Iran would immediately attempt to incinerate Israel.
New Statesman 14th Aug 2009 more >>
China
Deputy director of China’s National Energy Administration Sun Qin has been appointed as the country’s nuclear agency chief. Sun replaced Kang Rixin, general manager of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), after he was sacked following alleged ‘grave violations of discipline’, sources with the Central Committee of China’s Communist Party said Friday.
Irish Sun 14th Aug 2009 more >>
Coal
Coal production in Britain has increased sharply after a surge in new opencast coal mines, undermining the government’s claim to be a world leader on combating climate change. Dozens of opencast coal mines have been authorised by ministers and local councils across the UK, reversing a decade-long decline in coal production in Britain and often against intense local opposition. The rise prompted condemnation from leading Nasa climate scientist Prof James Hansen. He said boosting coal production would undermine the UK’s position on climate change. “[The] UK will be a joke. It is moral turpitude, depravity, to build more coal-fired power plants or open coal mines, knowing what we know now,” he said. “It was one thing to dig coal when we didn’t know the consequences, but quite another thing today.”
Guardian 15th Aug 2009 more >>
Climate
The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama’s climate change strategy, according to campaigners.
Guardian 15th Aug 2009 more >>
