Cumbria
WINDMILLS rather than nuclear power stations will benefit under the governments new business rate system. It scuppers Copelands chances of gaining millions of pounds more through nuclear development. The coalition government wants future business rates collected from renewable energy projects to be retained in full by the relevant local authorities. Both the borough councils Labour and Tory groups say it is wrong for renewable projects to reap financial benefits over nuclear new-build, which is also regarded as green energy.
Whitehaven News 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Obituary
CON Allday, one of the leading figures in the nuclear industry, has died at the age of 91. Mr Allday was particularly well known at Sellafield as chief executive of then parent company BNFL and previously as deputy managing director of the Atomic Energy Authority. Coningsby Allday, pictured, was a principal BNFL witness at the 1977 Windscale Inquiry in Whitehaven.
Whitehaven News 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Europe
The overuse and waste of valuable natural resources is threatening to produce a fresh economic crisis, the European Union’s environment chief has warned. Janez Potočnik, the EU commissioner for the environment, linked the current economic crisis gripping the eurozone with potential future crises driven by price spikes in key resources, including energy and raw materials.
Guardian 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Japan
Tokyo Electric Power Co. may be approaching the end of its life as a private company as the cost of the Fukushima nuclear disaster drains cash and the government considers nationalizing the utility.
Bloomberg 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Japan’s nuclear crisis has turned Mizuho Nakayama into one of a small but growing number of Internet-savvy activist moms. Worried about her 2-year-old son and distrustful of government and TV reports that seemed to play down radiation risks, she scoured the Web for information and started connecting with other mothers through Twitter and Facebook, many using social media for the first time. The 41-year-old mother joined a parents group one of dozens that have sprung up since the crisis that petitioned local officials in June to test lunches at schools and day care centers for radiation and avoid using products from around the troubled nuclear plant.
ABC News 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Taiwan
In the wake of the 11 March Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan, Professor Chan Chang-chuan of National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health noted that Taiwan’s three existing nuclear plants and a fourth, the one now under construction, are located in earthquake-prone regions near the sea, which originally facilitated the transportation of nuclear fuel and construction materials but leaves the sites facing the double hazards of earthquakes and tsunamis. Chan said, “Such locations expose our reactors to a double risk.”
Market Oracle 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Submarines
Russia said it had won the battle with a raging blaze aboard a nuclear submarine on Friday by submerging the stricken vessel at a navy shipyard after hours of dousing the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats. There was no radiation leak, authorities said.
Reuters 29th Dec 2011 more >>
A massive fire engulfed a Russian nuclear submarine in an Arctic shipyard yesterday, but there has been no radiation leak or injuries, officials said.
Belfast Telegraph 30th Dec 2011 more >>
Independent 29th DCec 2011 more >>
MOD Oracle 30th Dec 2011 more >>
Scotsman 30th Dec 2011 more >>
Daily Mail 30th Dec 2011 more >>
Sky News 30th Dec 2011 more >>
BBC 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Iran
Britain and America reacted with fury at Israel’s bombing of the Osirak nuclear site in 1981, questioning the threat it presented. But ten years later, Israel’s judgment was explosively endorsed when the US felt the need to totally destroy the disabled Osirak during the largest airstrike of the Gulf War. Following years of Syrian denial and international scepticism, a secret IAEA report seen by the BBC earlier this year gave strong evidence that the site bombed in 2007 by Israel in northeastern Syria was, as the Israelis had known, a secret nuclear reactor being built with the help of North Korea. Had that site been permitted to complete its apocalyptic programme, to what use would a desperate Assad – fighting for survival and slaughtering his own people by the thousand – now be putting his weapons of mass destruction? I have seen at first hand the scepticism and accusations of exaggeration that have greeted Israel’s attempts over many years to rally the free world to confront Iran’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons. But last month’s IAEA report citing “credible and well-sourced” intelligence that Iranian nuclear weapons development is continuing sounded a note of alarm.
Jewish Chronicle 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Trident
Downing Street papers reveal that two-thirds of Margaret Thatcher’s first cabinet opposed buying the US Trident missile system and the chiefs of staff were not unanimous. But this did not stop the “Iron Lady” from going ahead with the deal behind their backs.
Guardian 30th Dec 2011 more >>
Renewables
Chris Huhne has defied the Chancellor by warning that Britain would be left behind if it turned its back on the green economy. Publishing the Governments first progress report towards meeting its renewable energy targets, the Energy Secretary has claimed that Britains green agenda is helping, not hurting, the economy. The warning follows George Osbornes speech at the Conservative Party conference in October, in which he blamed green taxes for high energy bills and for damaging industry.
Times 30th Dec 2011 more >>
Chris Huhne today revealed more evidence of the economic benefits of renewable energy as he reaffirmed the coalitions commitment to meeting EU renewable energy targets. This came as the UK published an update on progress to source 15% of all energy from renewable sources by 2020. Latest research from DECC shows that so far this financial year, companies have announced plans for almost £2.5billion worth of investment in renewable energy projects in the UK, with the potential to create almost 12,000 jobs across the country.
DECC 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Telegraph 29th Dec 2011 more >>
Investment by companies into renewable energy projects in the UK has risen sharply this year but is still well down on 2009 levels.
Independent 30th Dec 2011 more >>
Coal
An energy company listed on the London Stock Exchange is planning to spend up to an estimated $6bn (£3.8bn) building eight coal-fired power stations that could add tens of millions of tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere. Essar Energy has just brought online the first part of the 1,200MW Salaya 1 plant in Gujarat on the west coast of India and says this and other stations are needed to counter power shortages. The move comes after countries around the world met in Durban, South Africa, this month to try to hammer out a new climate change treaty to cut global CO2 emissions.
Guardian 29th Dec 2011 more >>
