Nuclear consultation
An academic observer of Britain’s nuclear consultation has said that information given to the public was biased and incomplete, casting fresh doubt on whether the the government has followed a court ruling to present both sides of the argument. Paul Dorfman, senior research fellow at the National Centre for Involvement at the University of Warwick, said the exercise 12 days ago in nine cities around Britain was designed to come up with a popular mandate to proceed with nuclear power.
Guardian 20th Sept 2007 more >>
Independently, 20 senior academics too have come forward and will be writing to government with similar reservations. They say the consultations were deliberately skewed by linking nuclear to fears about climate change – because the government knew past research had shown it’s the only way to get people to accept nuclear, albeit reluctantly. And they say the participants were misled. An inconvenient truth about nuclear – that it can only make a small contribution to reducing the UK’s overall CO2 emissions – was buried.
Channel 4 News 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Greenpeace has made a formal complaint to the Market Research Standards Council. The complaint concerns public polling conducted by Opinion Leader Research in September 2007 at a number of deliberative public consultations on nuclear power. The polling constitutes an important part of the government consultation on nuclear power, ordered by Justice Sullivan in the High Court in February. A previous consultation was deemed unlawful due to its biased nature.
Greenpeace UK website 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Cardiff today plays host to one of a series of stakeholder events being held to capture the views of green groups, energy companies, businesses, consumer groups, unions, faith groups and academics on the future of nuclear energy.
GNN 19th Sept 2007 more >>
SERA launches a series of lectures, challenging the use of nuclear technology, with the inaugural lecture in Manchester Town Hall on 4th October by Dr Helen Caldicott.
Labour Net 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Burghfield
Britain’s nuclear bomb factory has been struggling to remedy as many as 1,000 safety defects uncovered by the government’s official watchdog. And it has only been allowed to remain open because the Ministry of Defence says the work it does is vital. The remarkable and, until now, secret story of the serious problems being faced by the nuclear weapons complex at Burghfield in Berkshire is revealed in 12 internal reports released by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) to New Scientist under freedom of information law.
New Scientist 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Dungeness
Craig Sams, founder of Green and Blacks says Dungeness nuclear power station makes him wake up at night in a sweat. Everything that we do to make our local environment better can be ruined by one nuclear accident. It’s just five miles away and built on a shifting shingle beach so I won’t really sleep easy until it’s decommissioned – along with all the others around the world.
Guardian 20th Sept 2007 more >>
Finland
A British worker fell 8 metres at the Okiluoto 3 construction site and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.
World Nuclear News 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Iran
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, today publicly criticised the UN’s atomic watchdog and called for diplomacy with “teeth” to end Iran’s nuclear plans. But amid divisions in Washington on what approach to take, Ms Rice sought to tone down recent talk of war. While repeating that “all options” remained on the table – a reference to military action – Ms Rice said: “The diplomatic track can work but it has to work both with a set of incentives and a set of teeth.”
Guardian website 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Sky News 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Japan
A fire broke out on Thursday morning on the roof of the quake hit Kashiwasaki-Kariwa nuclear plant. Reports said there was no radiation leak.
Mathaba 20th Sept 2007 more >>
Reuters 20th Sept 2007 more >>
Israel
Egypt and Syria today urged the UN nuclear watchdog to pass a resolution condemning Israel for possessing nuclear weapons.
Interactive Investor 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Italy
Sogin, the Italian state-owned company charged with the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in Italy and abroad, said it is interested in making international alliances to strengthen its position in the nuclear decommissioning and services sector abroad.
Interactive Investor 19th Sept 2007 more >>
India
The Indian government and its communist allies said on Wednesday they had constructive talks to resolve their row over a nuclear deal with the United States but more negotiations were needed to try and find a solution. Their comments came after a second meeting of a panel formed to address concerns of the left parties, whose opposition to the historic deal has destabilised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s coalition and triggered fears of early general elections.
Reuters 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Politics
THE Liberal Democrats must abandon their long-standing opposition to nuclear power and not rule out replacing existing nuclear power stations on a like-for-like basis, an Oldham Euro-MP has said. Speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, Chris Davies said options needed to remain open in the fight against climate change.
Oldham Evening Chronicle 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Carlisle News and Star 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Ming Campbell has published a dossier of policies on which the party has a distinctive position including ID Cards, nuclear power, university tuition fees and the Iraq war. But attempts yesterday to turn the spotlight on to the dividing lines in British politics were eclipsed by renewed jockeying for position among pretenders to the Liberal Democrat crown.
Independent 20th Sept 2007 more >>
Winfrith
MAJOR advances were made during 2006-2007 on decommissioning the old nuclear site at Winfrith. An annual report by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority said: “There are now no longer any high-hazard nuclear facilities on the Winfrith site.”
Dorset Echo 19th Sept 2007
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Ofgem
Regulator Ofgem should focus on fighting climate change after successfully marshalling British power and gas market competition over the last decade, according to government advisory body the Sustainable Development Commission. Ofgem, which has focused on ensuring affordable and secure energy supplies since market opening in the 1990s, should pay more attention to cutting carbon emissions and nurturing renewable energy, the SDC says in a report on Wednesday.
Reuters 19th Sept 2007 more >>
FT 19th Sept 2007 more >>
Sustainable Development Commission website 19th Sept 2007 more >>
The Sustainable Development Commission has called on the UK energy regulator to drop charges that threaten Scotland’s renewable power industry.
Scotsman 19th Sept 2007 more >>
SDC says increasingly decentralised electricity systems such as envisaged for London, and already operating in Woking Southampton and Leicester, require improved distribution systems to allow for two way flow of power.
SDC Ofgem Report 19th Sept 2007 more >>
