New Nukes
“No Need for Nuclear” – a new campaign to prevent the building of new nuclear power stations, has produced a new leaflet. Available here:
Stop Hinkley August 2010 more >>
Nuclear Waste
A West Cumbrian Councillor has proposed that Allerdale should withdraw from the dodgy process designed to force Cumbria into “geological disposal” of nuclear waste.
The new government like the last is desperate to have been seen to have solved the problem of nuclear waste – to pave the way for new nuclear build.
Indymedia 21st Aug 2010 more >>
Aldermaston
Health and safety practices at Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston in Berkshire are under intense scrutiny just weeks before it is expected to be granted permission for a multibillion-pound facility to conduct a new generation of radioactive tests. A serious fire in the base’s explosives area last month, which resulted in local residents having to be evacuated and left one member of staff injured, has focused attention on AWE’s safety record at a critical time. Peter Burt, director of the Nuclear Information Service (NIS), an independent group, claimed the fire could have caused a “domino effect” of explosives igniting each other. “It seems that we came within a hair’s breadth of everyone’s nightmare scenario,” Burt said. An analysis of monthly health and safety records, published by AWE, has prompted the NIS to call for planners to think twice before approving Project Hydrus, a major new research facility that will turn Aldermaston into a global leader in the production of thermonuclear weapons.
Observer 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
India
The Indian and Japanese foreign ministers have held talks on a civil nuclear co-operation agreement. The Japanese minister, Katsuya Okada, said the decision to start negotiations had been one of the toughest he had ever had to make.
BBC 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
Iran
IRAN began fuelling its first nuclear power plant yesterday amid fears it is seeking an atomic bomb.
Daily Star 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
Daily Mail 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
Scotland on Sunday 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
Independent on Sunday 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
A war of words has broken out between Israel and Iran after the Islamic Republic began loading fuel into its first nuclear power plant.
ITN 21st Aug 2010 more >>
While President Obama enjoys his sixth vacation of the year, at the exclusive playground of America’s liberal elites at Martha’s Vineyard, the United States’ most dangerous state-based adversary on the world stage is celebrating the opening of its first nuclear reactor, the Russian-built power plant at Bushehr. Although purportedly for civilian purposes, there can be no doubt that this is a huge leap forward for Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, with US officials acknowledging Iran is just “12 months from a nuclear weapon.” Earlier this week, Tehran announced it was building 10 uranium enrichment plants in protected mountain strongholds, and on Friday the Iranian regime ominously test-fired a new surface to surface missile, with an undisclosed range.
Telegraph 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
Germany
European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said German energy companies should hand over to the state at least half their profits accrued from extending the life of nuclear power stations. He was speaking in an interview with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung Saturday as German bosses and economic figures have lashed out at a government proposal to tax nuclear energy production.
EU Business 21st Aug 2010 more >>
Renewables
The marine sector can rejuvenate Scotland’s manufacturing industry – but it needs the right skills and investment.
Scotland on Sunday 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
Peak Oil
Speculation that government ministers are far more concerned about a future supply crunch than they have admitted has been fuelled by the revelation that they are canvassing views from industry and the scientific community about “peak oil”. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is also refusing to hand over policy documents about “peak oil” – the point at which oil production reaches its maximum and then declines – under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, despite releasing others in which it admits “secrecy around the topic is probably not good”.
Observer 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
Climate
The Royal Bank of Scotland has provided nearly £13 billion-worth of funding to many of the companies blamed for causing global warming since it was bailed out by the taxpayer two years ago. The figures, revealed today by the Sunday Herald, are the first authoritative and detailed account of the bank’s controversial financing of the world’s ‘dirty’ oil and gas industries. According to figures from the financial information company Bloomberg, RBS has directly loaned nearly £3.6 billion to fossil fuel companies since the bailout on October 13, 2008. At the same time, the bank has helped raise equity finance worth £9.3 billion.
Sunday Herald 22nd Aug 2010 more >>
