Oldbury
After more than 40 years project workers at Oldbury have devised a safer and more efficient method for handling the nuclear waste. The waste will now be mixed with concrete and then poured into a container before being transported to a Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) in Cumbria. Bosses at Oldbury claim the new method will save taxpayers £800,000 in nuclear clean up costs.
Gloucestershire Gazette 16th Oct 2009 more >>
Rosyth
DUNFERMLINE AND West Fife MP Willie Rennie last night called on the government to “think again” about “dumping” nuclear submarines at Rosyth. There are still seven decommissioned subs at the dockyard and Mr Rennie has expressed his concern at discovering plans have been mooted to shortlist the site as part of the submarine dismantling project (SDP).
Dundee Courier 17th Oct 2009 more >>
AP1000
After U.S. regulators raised safety concerns about the design of a new Westinghouse nuclear reactor, a company that owns part of Westinghouse said on Friday it did not expect a delay in certification of the reactor design. Shares of Shaw Group Inc , a construction and engineering company based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, fell nearly 10 percent Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, a day after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Westinghouse it had some safety concerns about the AP1000 shield building.
Interactive Investor 16th Oct 2009 more >>
Russia/ Iran
Just how far is the Obama administration prepared to go in its misguided attempt to befriend the Kremlin? First, it caved in to Russian pressure and cancelled the missile defence shield planned for Eastern Europe. Now it is prepared to turn a blind eye to Moscow’s somewhat cavalier attitude to the rule of law and respect for human rights. The Russians, who have spent the past decade developing an important strategic dialogue with Tehran, were deeply embarrassed by the revelation that Iran had secretly developed a second uranium enrichment plant at Qom. Consequently, the US delegation was delighted to see the Russians giving the Iranians a hard time in Geneva about their oversight. This also led the other nations represented at the talks – including Britain – to conclude that Moscow might now be more amenable to supporting a new round of UN sanctions against Tehran, in the event that they are deemed necessary. But the Russians had clearly had a change of heart by the time Mrs Clinton arrived in Moscow this week. Far from hearing support for the kind of “crippling” economic sanctions that Mrs Clinton believes are warranted if Iran refuses to freeze its nuclear programme, she found herself subjected to a lecture by Mr Lavrov, who argued that further sanctions could prove counter-productive, and that what was needed was more time for the negotiating process to take its course.
Telegraph 16th Oct 2009 more >>
US
The Florida Public Service Commission on Friday agreed to let the state’s two largest utilities collect more than $270 million from ratepayers next year as a down payment to develop new nuclear plants expected to come online in the next decade.
Interactive Investor 15th Oct 2009 more >>
Coal
Britain’s first carbon capture and storage demonstration plant will be built at Hatfield in Yorkshire, thanks to a 180m award from the European Union. The funds, announced today, will be matched by the UK government. The money has been awarded to Powerfuel Power for a 900MW coal-fired electricity plant that could start operating as soon as 2014. The company will use “pre-combustion” CCS technology, which removes carbon dioxide from the coal before it is burned, and then pipes it to be buried in an offshore gas field 100 miles away. Pre-combustion CCS should trap more CO2 than post-combustion techniques.
Guardian 17th Oct 2009 more >>
