New nukes
Article by Pete Roche: YESTERDAY IT was revealed that Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy will sign an agreement this week to export nuclear technology around the world. Brown hopes Britain can create a skilled labour force working in partnership with France to sell reactors around the globe, supposedly to help combat climate change. But the two leaders will be opening a Pandora’s box, which is more likely to damage the solutions to global warming.
Sunday Herald 23rd March 2008 more >>
Britain and France will announce a deal to build new nuclear power stations and export the technology worldwide during President Nicolas Sarkozy’s state visit next week, the Guardian reported Saturday.
AFP 22nd March 2008 more >>
PA 22nd March 2008 more >>
Anti-nuclear groups have expressed their disappointment at reports that the UK is poised to join France in creating new nuclear generators.
BBC 22nd March 2008 more >>
ITN 22nd March 2008 more >>
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 22nd March 2008 more >>
Ananova 22nd March 2008 more >>
An Anglo-French plan for a new generation of nuclear power stations will be unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown this week as part of a series of measures designed to forge a “fraternal” relationship between the two countries.
Sunday Telegraph 23rd March 2008 more >>
British Energy
The government has promised the European and UK utility giants circling British Energy that it will not block a takeover of the £13bn nuclear generator, in which it holds a 35 per cent stake. This opens the way for British Energy to become the latest UK independent energy company to be swallowed up – most likely by Eon or RWE of Germany, French firm EDF, or a combination of the three. A deal could be struck this summer.
Observer 23rd March 2008 more >>
But nothing is ever simple when it comes to the nuclear sector, particularly where the government is involved. If British Energy was sold in its entirety to one buyer, that purchaser would subsequently have a stranglehold on the best sites. Indeed, barring competitors from building new reactors in this way is one of the biggest attractions of buying the company. Yet this would be anathema to the government’s free-market ethos.
Observer 23rd March 2008 more >>
THE gas and electricity group Centrica is examining a £10 billion bid for British Energy (BE), the nuclear power company that last week confirmed it was in talks with potential suitors. Centrica, led by chief executive Sam Laidlaw, hopes it can provide a “British solution” to the future of British Energy, which has been evaluating partners for some months. However, senior sources at Centrica say the company may lack the firepower to see off rivals, thought to include France’s EDF, Germany’s RWE and Spain’s Iberdrola.
Sunday Times 23rd March 2008 more >>
Iran
A senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has emerged as the father of a nuclear programme that western intelligence services believe is aimed at producing a warhead capable of devastating any city in the Middle East.
Sunday Times 23rd March 2008 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
President Nicolas Sarkozy called for new limits on nuclear weapons yesterday after accepting an advanced nuclear submarine called Le Terrible into the French navy.
Belfast Telegraph 22nd March 2008 more >>
Fuel Poverty
Households face the misery of being hit by an extra £100 on their energy bills by the end of the year on top of the average increase of £128 they have already faced since Christmas, experts have predicted. The price rises will come as a particular blow to pensioners and others on low fixed incomes, who are already feeling the pinch of rising food, transport and petrol costs amid wider anxieties over the economy.
Observer 23rd March 2008 more >>
Soon after Labour came to power, the government set itself a binding target of eradicating the vast majority of fuel poverty in England by 2010, and entirely across the UK by 2018. Yet the number of fuel-poor households has been rising steadily since 2005 as oil prices – and utility bills – have increased. It is now the highest for a decade. The government faces charges of incompetence, and every time an energy group makes a big profit, howls of protest follow. Who is to blame?
Observer 23rd March 2008 more >>
Renewables
Britain is set this week to enter a new age, generating energy directly from the seas that surge around its shores. On Saturday a strange, 122ft- long contraption – looking like an upside-down windmill – will set off from the Belfast dock that built the Titanic to produce the first electricity ever brought ashore from British tides.
Independent on Sunday 23rd March 2008 more >>
Peter Fraenkel, one of Britain’s most respected pioneers of renewable energy, has been working on the idea behind the new tidal turbine for longer than 30 years and originally used the technology on the River Nile.
Independent on Sunday 23rd March 2008 more >>
Two events this week will set out very different visions of Britain’s future in an age of accelerating climate change and diminishing supplies of oil – and very different views on how this country can lead the world. On Thursday Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy will meet amid much ballyhoo in the unlikely environment of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, where they are expected to sign an agreement to build a new generation of nuclear power stations and to export the technology around the globe. And on Saturday, as we report today, a barge is set quietly to slip out of Belfast to install the world’s first-ever commercial tidal power turbine in the much more attractive surroundings of Strangford Lough.
Independent on Sunday 23rd March 2008 more >>
Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s sixth-richest tycoon, has claimed that the UK is “missing a trick” in its search for clean energy and vowed to “invest billions” in hydrogen fuel cells. Mr Prokhorov told The Independent on Sunday that the UK’s commitment to a nuclear energy programme overlooked research that suggests hydrogen technology could be a more efficient option.
Independent on Sunday 23rd March 2008 more >>
Companies
SCOTTISHPOWER moved closer to French ownership this weekend amid a series of cross-border talks that would reshape the European energy market. Electricité de France (EdF) and Spanish construction firm ACS are already targeting Spain’s biggest utility, Iberdrola, owner of ScottishPower in a deal that would see the Scottish firm come under the control of the state-owned French utility. Under the latest plans, the pair also want to buy Union Fenosa, the third-biggest Spanish utility.
Scotland on Sunday 23rd March 2008 more >>
