THORP
BRITISH Nuclear Group officials yesterday denied reports that Sellafield’s Thorp reprocessing plant is to face a further delay in reopening. The Independent newspaper claimed on Saturday that it will be at least the summer before the troubled section of west Cumbria’s Sellafield complex would again be operational because of further technical problems. But a BNG spokeswoman denied that the summer was a target and said Thorp remained on track to open at the beginning of the new financial year in April.
Carlisle News and Star 28th Dec 2006
North Korea
South Korea on Friday termed North Korea a grave threat, a further sign of the deepening chill in relations between the two since Pyongyang’s nuclear test nearly three months ago.
Reuters 29th Dec 2006
Nuclear Weapons
Britain, under a Labour government, considered ditching its nuclear deterrent as a way of making crucial savings to help pave the way for an International Monetary Fund-backed rescue package during the sterling crisis of 1976, according to previously secret documents.
FT 29th Dec 2006
Times 29th Dec 2006
BBC 29th Dec 2006
Daily Mail 29th Dec 2006
MP Peter Viggers has taken part in the debate over whether to replace Britain’s nuclear weapons.
In the House of Commons, the Tory said: ‘I ask the prime minister to reassure us that he truly understands the philosophy of deterrence, which is complicated and tough.
Portsmouth Today 28th Dec 2006
Magnox Reactors
The world’s oldest operating nuclear reactors will be taken out of action on Sunday when British Nuclear Group (BNG) closes Dungeness A and Sizewell A. The reactors, which have been producing electricity for 40 years, are being decommissioned partly because increased safety inspection demands will render them no longer cost effective. Their lives have also been shortened because a reprocessing plant at Sellafield, which is necessary to make their spent fuel safe, is itself due to close in a few years.
Times 29th Dec 2006
Iran
Letter from Ambassador: Iran is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and has categorically rejected development, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons on ideological and strategic grounds, while on December 11 the Prime Minister of Israel appeared to admit that his country had nuclear weapons, although his aides later denied this.
Times 29th Dec 2006
Capenhurst
MEMBERS of the public are being given the chance to have their say on the radioactive waste disposal practices of the British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd (BNGSL) site at Capenhurst. One of the site’s regulators, the Environment Agency, is responsible for setting conditions for the safe discharge and disposal of radioactive waste from the operations and is currently reviewing the authorisations held by BNGSL.
Ellesmere Port Pioneer 28th Dec 2006
Freedom of Information
Maurice Frankel says the FoI Act was an achievement its creators are trying to undermine.
Independent 28th Dec 2006
