British Energy
Letter: The looking-glass world of nuclear policy: British Energy, which owns most of the country’s nuclear power stations, is about to be sold to the French group EDF for £12bn; the British government controls 35% of British Energy and is keen to sell its stake to raise funds … to replace its stockpile of nuclear warheads
Guardian 31st July 2008 more >>
The much-delayed sale of British Energy to a French Government-dominated utility could finally arrive tomorrow, neatly coinciding with figures from the buyer, EDF. Or it could be next week. This one has been dragging on so long that there were serious concerns that it would arrive too late to allow the creation of a new generation of nuclear plants before the existing ones start to be shut down in less than a decade.
Times 31st July 2008 more >>
EDF the world’s largest owner of atomic power stations, may sell U.K. nuclear sites to gain approval for the purchase of BE two people with knowledge of the talks said.
Bloomberg 31st July 2008 more >>
NDA
Letter: Contrary to your headline (Nuclear clean-up industry in chaos, July 24), this is simply not the case. The Department for Business and NDA took steps to secure additional funding on a prudent basis, pending resolution and endorsement by the National Audit Office, of a complex, long-term accounting issue. This was successfully resolved by the NDA finance team and approved by the NAO. The additional funding was not required and returned to HM Treasury. The NDA ended the financial year with savings of £110m against approved budget, all of which will be ploughed back into decommissioning. Despite widely recognised and reported volatility of income from ageing plant, the NDA has in each year of operation remained within budget and created efficiency savings.
Guardian 31st July 2008 more >>
Nuclear Lab
GOVERNMENT minister John Hutton says that a national laboratory to be developed at Sellafield will be at the cutting edge of nuclear research.
Whitehaven News 30th July 2008 more >>
Nuclear Waste
OUTSPOKEN Tory Cumbrian MP, David Maclean, claimed the Cumbria was “fifth poorest county” in Europe in his Commons speech, before the summer break. He also spoke out in favour of Cumbria being the future home for an underground nuclear dump. He stated he would support nuclear on condition the county escaped any more wind farms.
Whitehaven News 30th July 2008 more >>
Letter: The new nuclear build programme will, I believe, have a minimal effect on West Cumbria. The high cost of interconnection to the national grid undermines the economic case of building one here and even if one were to be, it would bring typically only 200 permanent jobs. The new-build stations will have the latest water cooled reactors, designed and built by overseas companies with spent fuel storage facilities capable of holding the lifetime discharges. I completely fail to see where the suggested 16,000 new jobs come from. What I can see, is the Energy Coast being more to do with a deal being done with government to site the nation’s nuclear waste disposal facility here in West Cumbria. Once we agree to host this facility, the waste is here forever and will continue to come for the lifetime of the industry. West Cumbrians have to ask themselves is a £20bn handout a good deal? I compare the Energy Coast with the king’s suit of clothes, everyone says “isn’t it grand” but I see the king in the “altogether” – am I the only one?
Whitehaven News 30th July 2008 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Letter from Kate Hudson: George Monbiot presents a strong analysis of the nuclear hypocrisy of many governments, our own included (Comment, July 29), but it is now vital that Britain plays a positive role in ensuring real progress is made towards multilateral disarmament.
Guardian 31st July 2008 more >>
The servicing of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent is set to be privatised as part of a review of the armaments base on the Clyde. Almost half of the 540 jobs at the Royal Navy Armament Depot Coulport, where Trident warheads are stored and loaded on to nuclear submarines, could be taken over by the private sector after a Ministry of Defence review of the base.
Herald 31st July 2008 more >>
It was established four decades ago at the height of the Cold War when relations between the West and the former Soviet Union were on a knife-edge. The Royal Navy took over a remote 1000-acre site on the shores of Loch Long in Argyll, amid some of Scotland’s most beautiful countryside, for use as a base where Britain’s nuclear submarines would be armed. The Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport, on the Rosneath peninsula, opened in 1966. Two years later Britain’s first Polaris nuclear submarine patrol left from the base sparking a surge of protests that continue today.
Herald 31st July 2008 more >>
Dounreay
A small army of robots is being increasingly deployed in the clean-up of a Scottish nuclear complex. Like Wall-E, the star of the new Pixar animated film, the machines are tackling man-made waste. The real-life robots have been working in highly radioactive areas of Dounreay in Caithness in the Highlands.
BBC 30th July 2008 more >>
BOSSES at Dounreay are calling on workers to help maintain the site’s improved performance on both radiological and industrial safety.
John O Groat Journal 30th July 2008 more >>
SCOTLAND’S environment regulator has given a boost to plans to build a new low-active nuclear dump at Dounreay. The £110 million scheme earmarked for ground adjoining the former fast-reactor complex is being fought by residents of the small adjoining settlement at Buldoo. But the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on Wednesday gave notice of its conditional backing for the development.
John O Groat Journal 25th July 2008 more >>
Chapelcross
The Chapelcross nuclear plant has been given formal permission to start the three-and-a-half-year defuelling of its four reactors. It is the latest step in the lengthy process to decommission the Dumfries and Galloway power station.
BBC 30th July 2008 more >>
China
Shandong Nuclear Power along with Westinghouse Electric and its consortium partner The Shaw Group, have broken ground on the Haiyang nuclear power facility in Shandong Province of China, one month earlier than scheduled. The Haiyang facility will house two nuclear plants, each deploying Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor. Excavation for the first of the two plants will take approximately three months to create a hole 12m-deep that will house the nuclear reactor and turbine buildings.
Energy Business Review 30th July 2008 more >>
Iran
Iran will continue its nuclear “path”, the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted yesterday, just days before a deadline set by world powers for Tehran to accept a deal that could defuse the dispute over its nuclear programme.
Guardian 31st July 2008 more >>
Reuters 30th July 2008 more >>
Finland
A small fire at the construction site for a new nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto, western Finland, spread to two floors of the reactor building, before it was put out, plant operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said on Wednesday. ‘A small amount of contruction materials had caught fire,’ TVO said in a statement, and added the fire was noticed at around 2:00 a.m (2300 GMT) and it was put out four hours later.
Money AM 30th July 2008 more >>
Coal
Climate change activists yesterday occupied the proposed site for Britain’s first coal-fired power station in 30 years, claiming the development will cause huge damage to the environment if it goes ahead. More than 150 protesters descended on the site near the village of Kingsnorth in Kent ahead of next week’s Camp for Climate Action, which is expected to attract thousands of environmentalists.
Guardian 31st July 2008 more >>
Paul Golby: Protesters at our coal plant are deluded if they think renewables alone can serve Britain’s needs.
Guardian 31st July 2008 more >>
Energy Policy
Energy policy in Britain has been a mess for as long as anyone can remember, and shows few signs of getting better. With customers facing swingeing increases in fuel bills, the consequences of years of neglect – and of living high on the hog of cheap North Sea oil – are coming home to roost in the most uncomfortable of circumstances, further squeezing already stretched disposable incomes.
Independent 31st July 2008 more >>
Letter from Centre for Policy Studies: The scale of the Government’s failure should be laid bare in the light of spiralling energy prices and the likelihood of six million households facing fuel poverty by Christmas. Since 1997 there have been seven Labour energy ministers who between them have produced three contradictory Energy White Papers which have categorically failed to prepare and encourage new and varied baseload power supplies for the future. Since 1997 the UK has seen the construction of over 12 GW of new gas-fired power stations. There have been no new nuclear or clean-coal stations built over this period. The gas price is connected to the high oil price; this in turn affects the cost of the electricity these gas-fired stations produce. The majority of the gas used by them will be imported.
Independent 30th July 2008 more >>
