New nukes
POWER companies are to be offered a new range of potential sites to construct nuclear power stations in Britain. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a government agency in charge of the £70 billion-plus clean-up of the UK atomic legacy, is expected to open talks shortly. It is likely to announce in the next few weeks an invitation for utility groups to come forward with plans for using parts of its estate. The NDA has 19 sites in the UK, the largest and best known being the complex at Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast. It also owns all the Magnox power stations, which were Britain’s first nuclear power plants. All but two of these have been shut.
Sunday Times 2nd March 2008 more >>
Radhealth
Infant mortality is almost three times more likely to occur in Severn Estuary towns and villages downwind of Hinkley Point power station than inland parts of Somerset, a report says. Details of the study by Dr Chris Busby, of Green Audit, which was supported by a former director of the South West Cancer Registry, were aired last night on the BBC’s Inside Out West programme.
Western Daily Press 1st March 2008 more >>
“Infant and Perinatal Mortality and Stillbirths near Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station in Somerset, 1993-2005”, Dr Chris Busby is downloadable from: more >>
Stop Hinkley Press Release 29th Feb 2008 more >>
Iran
Iran retains nuclear weapons ambitions and there is a “strong possibility” it could be in a position to quickly make a nuclear bomb by 2015, MPs said on Sunday. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said in a report that sanctions were unlikely to persuade Iran to halt work that could be aimed at building nuclear weapons and said a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities was also unlikely to work.
Reuters 2nd March 2008 more >>
Coal
Senier civil servants have been informed by one of Britain’s biggest energy companies that it is planning a strategy to head off a Labour MP who is opposed to its controversial plans to open a new coal-fired power station, according to documents seen by The Observer.
Observer 2nd March 2008 more >>
Public Opinion
Bob Worcester, doyen of British pollsters, puts it: “The politicians are running scared of not being seen to be green enough.” And Ipsos Mori, the firm that he founded, reports that Britons are beginning to match their concern with action – with 80 per cent now recycling, two-thirds buying some organic and fairly traded products, and half buying green goods and taking steps to reduce their energy consumption at home.
Independent on Sunday 2nd March 2008 more >>
Fuel Poverty
THE heads of Britain’s biggest gas and electricity companies have been summoned to Downing Street to be told to hand over part of their multi-billion-pound profits — or face a windfall tax. The chiefs of the energy giants have been given a dressing down by Gordon Brown’s advisers in No 10, who accused them of profiteering and failing to do enough to alleviate “fuel poverty”, it was reported last night. The utility bosses have been told that unless they subsidise a scheme aimed at helping the poorest 4.5m households they could face a compulsory levy on their profits.
Sunday Times 2nd March 2008 more >>
Sunday Telegraph 2nd March 2008 more >>
