N. Korea
China has signalled its reluctance to hold five-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions in Malaysia next week, if the reclusive communist state refuses to meet.
Reuters 22nd July 2006
Waste Transport
ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners yesterday revealed detailed timetables for the trains that carry nuclear waste across Britain, triggering alarm that terrorists could exploit the information. The report, from Greenpeace, includes details of more than 1,000 nuclear transports through the UK every year, including journeys through the centre of Edinburgh and other Scottish population centres.
Scotsman 22nd July 2006
Lancashire Evening Post 22nd July 2006
Nuclear Weapons
Addicted to the nuclear option – an essay by William Keegan.
Observer 23rd July 2006
New Nukes
Letter from Keith Allot – head of Climate Change at WWF-UK: THE Prime Minister’s obsession with new nuclear power has led to an energy review which offers few concrete policies to deliver progress towards a truly sustainable energy future. We need to take action to make renewables and energy efficiency work “with a vengeance”, to use Tony Blair’s phrase. The government’s continued dalliance with new nuclear power is a massive distraction from delivering a truly sustainable energy future.
Scotland on Sunday 23rd July 2006
78% of Mail readers have voted in favour of a new nuclear station at Sellafield.
North West Evening Mail
Utilities
FRANCE’S EdF is one of three companies which has bid for an option to buy British Energy’s £2bn ($3.7bn, E2.9bn) Eggborough coal-fired power station.
The Business 23rd July 2006
Decommissioning
Services group Serco has teamed up with US construction giant Bechtel to bid for a slice of the £70bn UK nuclear decommissioning market. The move could lead to an offer for British Nuclear Group (BNG). Confirmation of Bechtel’s involvement in the consortium will be controversial. The US company helped set up the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the state-run body that will set the terms of BNG’s sale and start handing out decommissioning contracts this autumn.
Independent on Sunday 23rd June 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article1191863.ece
Bechtel, the secretive family-owned construction firm, has been dubbed ‘the working arm of the CIA’. Headed by Riley Bechtel – part of the fourth generation of the family to lead the group – it was the first firm the US government turned to when it awarded contracts to rebuild Iraq. It is also the British government’s favourite contractor, advising the Treasury on nuclear energy as well as working on the Channel Tunnel rail link, the Jubilee line and the West Coast Main Line rail upgrade.
Observer 23rd June 2006
CoRWM
BRITAIN’S burgeoning nuclear waste stockpiles should be entombed in rocks at least 1,000ft underground to prevent them contaminating the earth for future generations, according to a report from government advisers. The study by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management will be published next week. Britain has about 470,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste stored in surface tanks.
Sunday Times 23rd June 2006
