New nukes
George Monbiot: John Hutton claims that new nuclear power stations will generate not only the energy we need, but also 100,000 new jobs. When and how? Here, or in France? Northumberland county council has just revealed that it is spending £3.6m on one new roundabout. A staggering waste of public money? No, “it will both attract new jobs to the town [Haltwhistle] and secure existing employment”.
Guardian 1st April 2008 more >>
Letter from Prof Barry Jones: John Hutton’s speech on the prospects for nuclear power had all the hallmarks of New Labour government hype. A good-sounding figure – 100,000 new jobs – has clearly been plucked out of the air, unencumbered by any serious analysis, and the “critical planning period” of two years lacks any substance.
FT 2nd April 2008 more >>
Ann Link: Will Sarkozy let Brown put nuclear waste in France? French industry could then build new plants in the UK.
Guardian 29th March 2008 more >>
Sellafield
The Thorp nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield has restarted commercial operations three years after it was closed following a radioactive leak – a development that should ease the funding crisis at the government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant, or Thorp, at the nuclear complex in west Cumbria, is a large source of income for the owner NDA, which is responsible for cleaning up the UK’s nuclear reactor sites and dealing with radioactive waste.
FT 2nd April 2008 more >>
Renewables
Leonie Greene: Once again the renewables industry is dismayed to learn from the Guardian about the government’s negotiating position in Europe on the 2020 renewable energy targets (Britain seeks loophole, March 29). Quite rightly Europe has decided the UK will get the most ambitious target because of its wealthy economy and its poor performance to date. Not only is it against the EU principle of a level economic playing field for other poorer countries to make more substantial investments in renewables, it is also critical that the UK makes the right investment decisions now about how our energy infrastructure, much of which now requires replacement.
Guardian 1st April 2008 more >>
Energy Efficiency
Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, will claim today that profiteering energy companies will be required to spend nearly £1bn a year over the next three years to help individuals fight climate change, twice the amount required under previous schemes.
Guardian 2nd April 2008 more >>
Israel
Israel has admitted for the first time that an air strike in Syria last year was aimed at a nuclear facility built with assistance from North Korea. The Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun cited sources at the Japanese foreign ministry for its report of a meeting between Ehud Olmert, the prime minister of Israel, and Yasuo Fukuda, his Japanese opposite number. Mr Olmert is reported to have admitted that Israel carried out the bombing last September and that the target was a nuclear-related facility built using technical assistance from Pyongyang.
Telegraph 2nd April 2008 more >>
Germany
Germany’s economy minister Michael Glos plans to call on the European Union to loosen the country’s emission targets, taking account of its planned nuclear-power phase-out, Handelsblatt said, citing a document it obtained. In a letter to German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel, Glos invoked the example of Sweden, which was granted more lenient carbon dioxide emission targets by the EU in the early 1990s because it abandoned nuclear power generation, the paper said.
AFX 2nd April 2008 more >>
Pakistan
Pakistan’s disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan termed his detention as “irrational” in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday, and said he hoped the new government would free him soon. Khan was put under house arrest by President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad after an investigation was launched in late 2003 and he confessed on television in early 2004 to passing nuclear secrets and materials to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
Reuters 2nd April 2008 more >>
The Afghan government says it has evidence that nuclear waste from Pakistan was dumped in Afghanistan during the reign of the Taleban.
BBC 1st April 2008 more >>
Companies
Engineering contractor Fluor’s power group has received several nuclear certificates of accreditation and authorization from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, placing the company in the top tier of engineering, procurement and construction firms capable of developing nuclear projects worldwide.
Energy Business Review 1st April 2008 more >>
French nuclear power group Areva, in consortium with URS’s Washington Division, Studsvik UK and Serco Assurance, has signed a five-year contract to manage and operate the UK’s low level nuclear waste repository located in West Cumbria in northwest England.
Datamonitor 1st April 2008 more >>
The UK Atomic Energy Authority has outlined a new corporate structure in a response to increased competition within the international nuclear decommissioning industry. UK Atomic Energy Authority, which comes under the Department for Business and Enterprise, is setting up a series of subsidiaries to take on different aspects of its work. Central to the reorganisation is the creation of a new wholly owned subsidiary called UKAEA, which will be based on the group’s existing business division and which will focus on nuclear decommissioning and environmental management. UK Atomic Energy Authority has brought in financial advisers to look at all options for UKAEA, including privatisation. In addition the UK Atomic Energy Authority team at Dounreay will become a separate company, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, which will hold the licence to decommission the site under UKAEA management.
Guardian 2nd April 2008 more >>
Italy
Italy should seek to build nuclear plants in neighbouring countries facing the Adriatic Sea like Albania or Montenegro to meet energy demand in the medium term, said Giulio Tremonti, expected to become economy minister if the centre-right coalition wins the elections.
Interactive Investor 1st April 2008 more >>
