Copenhagen
The United Nations Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Copenhagen is something we’ve only mentioned in passing here on Nuclear Reaction. That said, along with all the other negotiations, Greenpeace and many other organisations and people have been working hard at the conference to prevent nuclear energy being included in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Greenpeace Nuclear Reactions 17th Dec 2009 more >>
Over a dozen NGO’s participating in the international ‘Don’t Nuke the Climate’ campaign presented government delegates with a giant postcard and 50,000 signatures calling for a nuclear free climate agreement. The NGOs were joined by prominent green figures including two former Environment Ministers of France, Yves Cochet (French MP), and Corinne Lepage (MEP); MEP, International alter-globalization movement leader Jose Bove, and MEP’s Yannick Jadot, Claude Turmes, Margrete Auken , Italian MP’s Angelo Bonelli, Roberto della Seta and Francesco Ferrante. Speaking on behalf of the ‘Don’t Nuke the Climate’ campaign Charlotte Mijeon of Sortir du Nucleaire France said “ We are here to present the signatures we have collected in the last couple of months for a nuclear free climate agreement”.
Get Noticed Online 18th Dec 2009 more >>
Despair is not acceptable, but it may be inevitable. Social democrats are the world’s optimists, knowing human destiny is in our own hands if we have the will to change. Leave pessimism to the world’s conservatives, ever fearful of the future and yearning for a better yesterday. But today optimism feels impossible. The chance of world leaders preventing a more than 2C increase in temperature looks vanishingly small.
Guardian 19th Dec 2009 more >>
Nuclear Costs
Letter Dr Gerry Wolff :Nuclear power is not cheaper than wind power (report, December 11). The Nuclear Subsidies report from the Energy Fair group shows how the cost of nuclear power is disguised by several subsidies. Without those subsidies, the price of nuclear electricity would rise to a level that would make nuclear power deeply unattractive to investors.
Telegraph 15th Dec 2009 more >>
Bradwell
A BRENTWOOD councillor has slammed county hall bosses for the lack of consultation over a proposed new nuclear power station at Bradwell. David Kendall, Lib Dem Essex County Councillor for Brentwood South, wants the county council to put pressure on the Government to role out a public consultation to all Essex residents.
Brentwood Weekly 17th Dec 2009 more >>
Hinkley
VILLAGERS in Cannington have added their voice to growing concerns about proposals for off-site developments to support a third nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. Williton residents and those living in Shurton and Burton have already spoken out, fearing their lives will be blighted by the proposed Hinkley C and the infrastructure needed to support the construction workers that will go with it. Now the non-political Save Cannington Action Group has called on Hinkley C developer EDF to scrap its current plans and go back to the drawing board.
West Somerset Free Press 11th Dec 2009 more >>
PEOPLE in Williton will be given the chance to air their views on controversial proposals for a 200-bed hostel and 350-vehicle park and ride facility at a public meeting in the village. Local parish councillors are staging the event on January 4 in a bid to gauge the feeling in the community before submitting their formal comments to French company EDF Energy, which wants the development for construction workers for a proposed nuclear power station at Hinkley Point.
West Somerset Free Press 18th Dec 2009 more >>
WILLITON is being urged to stand firm and reject controversial proposals that would see a 200-bed hostel and 350-vehicle park and ride facility built on one of two green field sites in the village. EDF Energy wants the development on land to the west behind Mamsey House residential care home or to the east on fields beyond Catwell for construction workers for the nuclear power station it hopes to build at Hinkley Point. But local businesswoman Rebecca James, who owns a 17th century country house B and B and holiday home at the end of Catwell, said people should not be under the impression that they had to accept the development on either site. A pre-application consultation document published by EDF makes it clear the company would be prepared to use compulsory purchase powers if negotiations with landowners fail.
West Somerset Free Press 4th Dec 2009 more >>
COMMUNITIES destined to be living under the shadow of the proposed Hinkley C nuclear power station are demanding compensation for the blight it will put on their lives and properties. The tiny hamlets of Shurton, Burton and Knighton are likely to be among the most seriously affected by the construction of the planned twin reactor unit, with the impact continuing when the development is up and running.
West Somerset Free Press 4th Dec 2009 more >>
HUNDREDS of people attended public meetings to have their say on proposals for a corridor of pylons near Burnham, which it is claimed could be a blot on the landscape. The Weekly News has reported how campaigners have started a petition on Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s website against the plans to connect the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point to the electricity transmission system in Avonmouth. National Grid has put forward two possible routes for the electricity pylons, one of which would see them pass through East Huntspill and on to Mark and Wedmore. Opponents claim the pylons would ‘scythe’ through areas of outstanding natural beauty, leave homes at risk of flooding, create a blight on the landscape, and lower property prices.
Bridgwater Mercury 17th December 2009 more >>
Placard-waving protesters are to march through the streets of Yatton to object about plans by the National Grid to erect a new 400,000-volt power line through the village. Scores of concerned residents are expected to attend the protest march on Saturday organised by the campaign group Yatton Against Pylons (YAP). The march will leave Horsecastle Chapel at Horsecastle Farm Road at 10am and go up the High Street to the village precinct. The protest march comes after National Grid revealed plans to create a new overhead 400,000-volt power line from Bridgwater to Avonmouth to bring electricity from the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point on to its transmission network.
Western Daily Press 18th Dec 2009 more >>
£1.9 BILLION. That’s the cost of putting cables under the Bristol Channel, as revealed this week by National Grid. The firm, which has faced fierce opposition to its plans for 37 miles of 400kv pylons from Hinkley Point to Avonmouth, published the figure after coming under pressure from the region’s MPs.
Somerset Mercury 18th Dec 2009 more >>
Oldbury
Letter: Thank you for Lynne Hutchinson’s piece on Dr Ian Fairlie’s talk in Oldbury last week about a recent study sponsored by the German government into the incidence of childhood leukaemia near German nuclear installations. The study provoked public outcry and media debate in Germany because it indicates that increased risks of childhood leukaemia are very large; are unequivocally linked to proximity to nuclear reactors; appear to extend as far as 70 km from the nuclear reactors, and are accepted by the German Government, which has decided NOT to build any more nuclear reactors in that country.
Bristol evening Post 14th Dec 2009 more >>
Heysham
Anti-nuclear campaigners in Cumbria have hit out at what they claim is misinformation being promoted by the Department of Energy and Climate
Change on Heysham. The government recently launched a consultation on the building of new nuclear power stations, which will run until 22 February 2010. Three sites for proposed new plants are in west Cumbria while the Heysham ‘consultation’ was held on 30th November at Lancaster Town Hall. The full transcript of the meeting can be found on the Department of Energy and Climate Change website. Despite government assurances on display in Lancaster that arrangements exist or will exist for the long term management of radioactive waste generated by Britain’s civil nuclear program, those claims have now been challenged by experts on the issue.
Get Noticed Online 18th Dec 2009 more >>
Cumbria
A TRAIN lobby group says the proposed new nuclear power stations for Cumbria will mean a major boost for rail traffic in the county. The Furness Line Action Group claims rail rather than road improvements should be the priority if one or more nuclear power stations is built.
NW Evening Mail 18th Dec 2009 more >>
PUBLIC meetings are to be held next month into the three West Cumbrian sites nominated for possible nuclear new-build – but people have to register to attend first.
Whitehaven News 18th Dec 2009 more >>
Nuclear Research
The University of Manchester’s Dalton Institute is to receive over £8 million of investment from the Government to support the civil nuclear industry, in a deal announced this week by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson as part of the government’s plans to create a low carbon economic area in the Northwest.
Manchester Mule Dec 2009 more >>
Letter: THE Green Party recognises an urgent need for job creation in the recession and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre will provide skilled jobs for Rotherham and South Yorkshire. However, we must express disappointment over years of government inaction which has failed to exploit the natural energy our island has in abundance. June 2008 saw the publication of the Green New Deal, outlining clean solutions to climate change which could quickly create tens of thousands jobs in a recession. That was followed by the first Green New Deal conference in Sheffield in February 2009.
Sheffield Star 15th Dec 2009 more >>
Letter: As senior members of the US nuclear physics community, we are writing to register our dismay and disbelief at the recent funding decisions that will have catastrophic long-term consequences to the field of nuclear physics in the UK and worldwide. These cuts will do dramatic and irreversible harm to the university groups that depend upon grant funding. The UK nuclear science effort is simply world class. To list but two examples: its scientists belong to leading groups developing technologies that will have enormous impact in medical imaging applications, and they have many leadership roles in large international projects. Given the level of funding this field receives compared with other advanced nations, this is a record that should be celebrated and encouraged, not cut so severely.
Times 19th Dec 2009 more >>
France
France, which gets 85% of its electricity from nuclear power, has long been proud of the system’s reliability and its benefits to French consumers, who pay some of the lowest electric rates in the world. But the system also has shortcomings, as became evident this week when a cold snap sent electricity demand soaring. RTE, the state-controlled electricity distribution network, is warning of possible blackouts in some regions because of unseasonably cold temperatures. “The electrical system is strained,” the group said in a release on Dec. 16. Although France frequently exports surplus power to neighboring countries, in recent days it has had to import from Germany.
Business Week 16th Dec 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran is preparing to operate an advanced centrifuge capable of doubling or tripling its output of enriched uranium, the head of the country’s nuclear programme said yesterday. Ali Akbar Salehi, director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, said the machinery at the nuclear plant in Natanz, where uranium is currently being enriched, would be updated.
FT 19th Dec 2009 more >>
Canada
The government of Saskatchewan has said it will continue to support and enhance uranium mining and nuclear research but will not support plans for a nuclear power plant in the Canadian province for the time being.
World Nuclear News 18th Dec 2009 more >>
Australia
Australians prefer renewable energy over nuclear.
Renewable Energy Focus 18th Dec 2009 more >>
Japan
The construction of two nuclear reactors in the Japanese town of Kaminoseki has been delayed by at least two years as a result of strong resistance from the locals.
ICM 18th Dec 2009 more >>
UAE
The United States and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday brought into effect a deal to cooperate in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In a ceremony at the State Department, US and UAE officials exchanged diplomatic notes bringing into force the Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation, which was negotiated under previous president George W. Bush.
Middle East Online 18th Dec 2009 more >>
Renewables
A £100 billion project to erect up to 5,000 giant wind turbines around the coastline of Britain will take a big step forward next month when winning bidders to build nine offshore windparks will be announced. The Crown Estate, which owns the UK seabed and is administering the auction, is preparing to announce the consortiums for the sites on January 6, The Times has learnt.
Times 19th Dec 2009 more >>
