New Nukes
EDF Energy has confirmed it will continue with plans for four new nuclear reactors, including procurement of contractors to build the facilities. Chief executive Vincent de Rivaz made the statement after the governments chief nuclear inspector found there was no reason to curtail the operation of UK nuclear facilities based on the direct causes of the Fukushima disaster. But EDF Energys plans at Hinkley Point C could still be complicated by three Somerset councils which have refused to accept a proposed £100m investment in the region, including a £20m community fund. Somerset County, Sedgemoor District and West Somerset councils have yet to award planning permission for preliminary works on the site.
Energy Event 27th May 2011 more >>
Monbiot: The environment movement is needlessly polarised over nuclear power, with Jonathon Porritt only encouraging this tribalism. Can he explain why he thinks nuclear and renewables can’t co-exist?
Guardian 27th May 2011 more >>
The time to act is now. We only have this summer to build a massive public backlash against the new nuclear programme. By the Autumn, the government will have given the green light to at least ten new reactors and it will be a lot harder to fight the momentum. Kick Nuclear campaigns against the UK’s addiction to nuclear energy.
Indymedia 25th May 2011 more >>
Oldbury
One of Britains oldest working nuclear reactors, which projected it wont produce power next year in a revision of plans, is still waiting for approval to operate beyond a deadline to shut next month. The Oldbury station started in 1967 and is set to close at the end of June. It is operated by Magnox North Ltd. on behalf of the U.K.s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Reactor 1, capable of producing 215 megawatts of power, has asked to operate beyond next months deadline.
Bloomberg 27th May 2011 more >>
Campaigners against nuclear power says an accident like that seen at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan could effect Bristol. The Shepperdine Against Nuclear Energy group have created a map which shows the 30km evacuation zone which might have to be put in place if anything happened at the Oldbury nuclear plant. The group are campaigning against the development of another new reactor next to the site which will be decided on this summer.
Jack FM 27th May 2011 more >>
Dungeness
LARGE aircraft landing and taking off near Dungeness Power Station could be a nuclear disaster waiting to happen, claim airport protesters. Lydd Airport Action Group (LAAG) opened its nuclear safety case at the ongoing public inquiry into the controversial airport expansion this week. Addressing the inquiry was John Large, the first of four experts engaged by LAAG to claim that it is inherently unsafe for a regional airport to be developed beside a nuclear power station complex. Louise Barton, from the action group, said: Expansion will introduce a step change in the probability of a major nuclear accident since large aircraft, such as Boeing 737s, will be taking off and landing close to the Dungeness site. On Wednesday John Large outlined the vulnerability of the Dungeness nuclear power stations to an aircraft crash and claimed the risk of serious radiological release remains on site well beyond the decommissioning phase. But EDF energy, in a public meeting at Rye, claimed the power station could withstand a direct hit from an aircraft and not leak radiation, though it said it was not in favour of the airport expansion.
Rye and Battle Observer 27th May 2011 more >>
Chapelcross
A £1.2m project has been launched to help offset the economic impact of the closure of the Chapelcross nuclear plant in Dumfries and Galloway.Hundreds of jobs will have gone by the time the decommissioning of the site is completed in 2017. The investment package is earmarked to support and stimulate businesses in the surrounding areas. The project is being financed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority through its social economic fund. The Beyond Chapelcross scheme will be delivered by Magnox Ltd, Chapelcross in partnership with the economic development department of Dumfries and Galloway Council.
BBC 27th May 2011 more >>
G8
Only ten minutes were allocated for leaders of the G8 countries to discuss nuclear energy at the summit in Deauville, France.
World Nuclear News 27th May 2011 more >>
Radhealth
Ionizing radiation is not without danger to human populations. Indeed, exposure to nuclear radiation leads to an increase in male births relative to female births, according to a new study by Hagen Scherb and Kristina Voigt from the Helmholtz Zentrum München. Their work1 shows that radiation from atomic bomb testing before the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, the Chernobyl accident, and from living near nuclear facilities, has had a long-term negative effect on the ratio of male to female human births (sex odds). Their work is published in the June issue of Springer’s journal, Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
Medical News Today 27th May 2011 more >>
Medical News Today 27th May 2011 more >>
Companies
The long-term future of ScottishPower remained shrouded in doubt yesterday despite its parent company claiming a victory over its biggest shareholder. The construction group, ACS, owns 18 per cent of Iberdrola but Spanish regulations mean that its voting rights are limited to 10 per cent. These will be lifted in July and ACS is expected to add to its stake. A break-up could see ScottishPower, which was bought by the Spanish in 2007, sold off.
Times 28th May 2011 more >>
Japan
Residents living near Japans devastated nuclear plant have returned home for the first time since the crisis began more than two months ago.Wearing white protective suits and masks, they had only two hours to stuff their belongings into rubbish bags before leaving again. Some stole a few minutes to light incense at a makeshift shrine in Namie, one of the deserted, evacuated towns frozen in time since March 11.
Yorkshire Post 27th May 2011 more >>
Govt to reduce school ground radiation levels: Japan’s education minister says the government will strive to keep cumulative radiation levels at school grounds in Fukushima Prefecture below one millisievert per year.The government had earlier set a yearly limit of 20 millisieverts of accumulated external radiation for children taking part in outdoor activities. But parents have protested the decision.
NHK 27th May 2011 more >>
Work began to remove radioactive contaminated topsoil from 26 elementary and junior high schools grounds in Fukushima Prefecture on Friday. In one Elementary School, the top 5 centimeters or so of soil will be scraped off and replaced with uncontaminated earth.
NHK 27th May 2011 more >>
Typhoon Songda is getting to Japan. The ZAMG predictions show spread of radioactivity all over Japan.
ZAMG 26th May 2011 more >>
The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds forecast due to a powerful typhoon moving Saturday toward disaster-affected areas of northeastern Japan, according to the plants operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. Heavy rain has been forecast for the areas from Sunday to Monday due to the seasons second typhoon, Songda, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. TEPCO has for the last month been spreading anti-scattering agents around the troubled Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings to prevent radioactively contaminated dust from being carried into the air and sea by rain and wind. But some of the reactor buildings have been left uncovered after they were damaged by hydrogen explosions following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. TEPCO plans to launch the work to put covers on the destroyed buildings in mid-June.
Japan Today 28th May 2011 more >>
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on May 26 proposed co-hosting an international conference on nuclear power safety in the latter half of 2012.
Asahi 28th May 2011 more >>
A group of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency on a fact-finding mission into Japans worst nuclear accident inspected on Friday the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant in northeastern Japan. Tokyo Electric Power Co said that the IAEA team examined the surviving diesel generator, which helped the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors to achieve a stable state of cold shutdown. The IAEA team, led by Mike Weightman, the head of Britains Nuclear Regulation Office, are scheduled to deliver their findings at a ministerial meeting on nuclear safety to be hosted by the IAEA from June 20 to 24 in Vienna. A summary of the teams draft report is expected to be handed to the Japanese government on Wednesday, a day before the team members leave Japan.
Japan Today 28th May 2011 more >>
Japan’s richest man, Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Japanese telecom company, Softbank, wants to kick-start large solar power plants in tsunami-hit areas of eastern Japan.
PV-tech 25th May 2011 more >>
Nuclear Cartel – ties between the government and the nuclear industry have become so intertwined that public safety is at threat. Inspections are too lax, and anyone who criticizes the status quo can find themselves out of a job.
Der Spiegel 27th May 2011 more >>
Greenpeace Germany released a couple of John Large Reports yesterday (in English) and accused TEPCO and the Japanese Government and international atomic agencies of carrying out a policy of disinformation which is dangerous and irresponsible. No-one would lie without a reason, says Shaun Burnie, a Greenpeace nuclear expert. The illusions and concealments of TEPCO and the continuous declarations of the International Atomic Energy Agency all serve only one purpose: They want the people to believe that atomic energy is controllable even after the catastrophic disaster at Fukushima. But this is a dangerous illusion.
Greenpeace Germany Press Release 26th May 2011 more >>
Fukushima Interim Status Report – Summary.
Greenpeace Germany 26th May 2011 more >>
Update on the Nuclear and Radiological Situation.
Greenpeace Germany 26th May 2011 more >>
See also: Incident, Developing Situation, and possible eventual outcome at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants.
Greenpeace Germany 26th May 2011 more >>
Environmental group Greenpeace on Thursday slammed Japan’s “continued inadequate response” to the nuclear disaster at a power plant after new data showed seaweed radiation levels 50 times higher than official limits.
Common Dreams 27th May 2011 more >>
Japan’s Chubu Electric Power Co said on Friday that a lawsuit seeking a permanent shutdown of its Hamaoka nuclear plant had been filed by residents who live near the controversial facility south of Tokyo. The utility shut the Hamaoka nuclear plant indefinitely in mid-May until it can be better defended against the type of massive earthquake and tsunami in March that crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima Daiichi plant. The temporary shutdown of the plant came after an unprecedented request by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who cited the risk that the plant, which is about 200 km southwest of Tokyo, would be hit by a major earthquake.
Reuters 27th May 2011 more >>
Germany
The seven oldest of Germanys 17 nuclear power stations will not go back into operation when a three-month safety review finishes in June, the countrys federal and state environment ministers agreed on Friday. The decision, announced after a meeting of the 17 ministers, is the first in a series of rulings about the phase-out of nuclear power in Germany, culminating in a final parliamentary vote to be held the first week of July.
FT 27th May 2011 more >>
Germany’s ethics commission will submit in its concluding report to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right government a phase-out of nuclear power by 2021 at the latest.
Reuters 27th May 2011 more >>
One man dared to challenge the legal basis of the moratorium. He was Jürgen Grossmann, the boss of RWE, a big German power company that generates a quarter of its output from nuclear plants. He is a doughty warrior for a non-alarmist energy policy and, at 2.03m tall, a highly visible one. But his cause seems doomed. He argues that until other forms of low-carbon energy improve, Germany will need nuclear power to meet its greenhouse-gas targets. The country aims to get 35% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 and 80% by 2050. That could be hard.
Economist 26th May 2011 more >>
Microgeneration
This week’s Micro Power News includes news that Berwickshire Housing Association is are aiming to become the first housing association in the UK to develop a three turbine wind farm where all profits will go towards building affordable houses; A £54 million contract to enable solar power across 9,000 properties in Wales; a Wind Co-operative in Fife which plans to offer locals the chance to own a stake in the windfarm with a possible return to members of 10 per cent and Scottish whisky producers planning to use their distillery by-products in a project to produce electricity, in a £60.5 million biomass/feeds combined heat and power plant.
Microgen Scotland 27th May 2011 more >>
