Areva
Areva, which part-controls Sellafield and wants to be at the forefront of Britain’s atomic renaissance, is set to lose its chairman within the next seven days in what would be the latest of a series of blows to befall the French nuclear engineering group. The shake-up at the top could not come at a worse time for Areva, which is already nursing 3.5bn (£3.2bn) of net debt and needs a further 14bn to meet ambitious expansion plans at a time when it is parting company with one of its major investors, Siemens of Germany. Areva is also fighting to stem a public relations disaster at Olkiluoto, in Finland, where the first nuclear plant under construction in Europe for nearly 30 years is running three years behind schedule.
Guardian 4th Apr 2009 more >>
British Energy
Centrica and EDF are thought to be at loggerheads over the planned sale of 25% of British Energy.
Press and Journal 4th Apr 2009 more >>
Keith Lough spends his days running a pioneering coal-seam gas business, Composite, away from the public gaze. But not so long ago, in a past life, he spent three years in the full glare of publicity. As finance director of British Energy, Lough played a key role in trying to extricate the nuclear generator from the crisis the company faced when falling power prices combined with the firm’s peculiar birthright to devastating effect in 2002.
Herald 4th Apr 2009 more >>
Nuclear Waste
VT Nuclear Services has announced it will build a supply of nuclear waste drums at its DEVA plant. The manufacturing facility, in Chester Gates Business Park, Dunkirk, will make the drums for safe long term storage of nuclear waste for the Dounreay Cementation Facility.
Chester Standard 3rd Apr 2009 more >>
Nuclear Accidents
Eminent European and American Oncologists gathered today to discuss the state of EU/US preparedness in the case of a nuclear incident. Prof. Ray Powles chaired the meeting organized by the Nuclear Accident Committee (NAC) of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT). He raised the alarm that the threat of a nuclear-related incident is real and terrorist activity from disaffected groups is broadening. Participants questioned whether the medical community was ready.
Medical News Today 3rd Apr 2009 more >>
Chapelcross
The first container carrying spent nuclear fuel rods has left the Chapelcross plant in southern Scotland. Over the next three years it is expected about 300 similar journeys will be undertaken to remove 38,000 spent rods in total.
BBC 3rd Apr 2009 more >>
Three Mile Island
A story by a witness at Three Mile Island is being brought to the public in detail for the first time — and this version of what happened during that time, supported by a growing body of other scientific evidence, contradicts the official U.S. government story that the Three Mile Island accident posed no threat to the public. “What happened at TMI was a whole lot worse than what has been reported,” Randall Thompson told Facing South. “Hundreds of times worse.” Radiation releases from the plant were hundreds if not thousands of times higher than the government and industry have acknowledged — high enough to cause the acute health effects documented in people living near the plant but that have been dismissed by the industry and the government as impossible given official radiation dose estimates. Dr Steve Wing said last week: “I believe this is very good evidence that releases were thousands of times greater than the story we’ve been told,” he said. “As we think about the current plans to open more nuclear reactors, when we hear — which we hear often — that no one was harmed at Three Mile Island, we really should question that.”
Common Dreams 3rd Apr 2009 more >>
IN THE push to build new nuclear power plants, safety assessments may be biased and concerns ignored. So say nuclear analysts on the 30th anniversary of the worst reactor accident in US history. “Among the lessons of Three Mile Island is that nuclear power is least safe when complacency and pressure to expedite are highest,” Peter Bradford, who was a member of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at the time of the Three Mile Island meltdown, warned US senators at a hearing last week. He is now a director for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington DC. Critics are concerned that a forthcoming NRC assessment of public health risks from nuclear accidents will paint an overly rosy picture. The study will not factor in accidents considered to have a less than a 1-in-a-million chance of happening per year, for example.
New Scientist 3rd Apr 2009 more >>
Canada
The province of Saskatchewan, home to much of the world’s uranium reserves, would be a good place to build Western Canada’s first nuclear reactor, according to a report released Friday by a government advisory panel.
Interactive Investor 3rd Apr 2009 more >>
Iran
US officials are considering whether to accept Iran’s pursuit of uranium enrichment, which has been outlawed by the United Nations and remains at the heart of fears that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capability. As part of a policy review commissioned by President Barack Obama, diplomats are discussing whether the US will eventually have to accept Iran’s insistence on carrying out the process, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons- grade material.
FT 4th Apr 2009 more >>
North Korea
North Korea said it would launch its controversial rocket “soon” as regional powers deployed warships and trained satellites on the communist country to monitor what they suspect will be a long-range missile test.
Telegraph 4th Apr 2009 more >>
Nuclear Warship
Sailors are warned to keep their distance as one of the world’s biggest nuclear warships sails into the Solent. MoD police boats will patrol an 820ft exclusion zone around the 1,000ft long USS Theodore Roosevelt, which will be anchored one mile out to sea off Stokes Bay from tomorrow until Wednesday 8. Usually anti-radiation tab-lets are issued to schools across Portsmouth whenever a nuclear ship arrives in port, but the military have told Portsmouth City Council there’s no need, because the ship’s distance from the shore means risk is minimal.
Portsmouth News 4th Apr 2009 more >>
There have been 14 collisions involving British nuclear submarines since 1988 and 237 fires on board the fleet of vessels, the government has revealed.
BBC 3rd Apr 2009 more >>
Disarmament
Mr Obama said: “Even with the Cold War now over, the spread of nuclear weapons, or the theft of nuclear material, could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet. This weekend in Prague I will lay out an agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.”
Scotsman 4th Apr 2009 more >>
Guardian 4th Apr 2009 more >>
Independent 4th Apr 2009 more >>
Obama has hit the right note by reminding Europeans of the idealist, non-nuclear streak in America – a tradition he best represents. There are few more idealist aspirations in Europe than a commitment against the spread of nuclear weapons.
Scotsman 4th Apr 2009 more >>
Nothing of substance has changed – the core differences between Nato and Russia remain. But the tone of the dialogue has changed and that does matter. Instead of winding each other up, the two most important nuclear powers are finding ways to talk about each other in less belligerent ways.
Guardian 4th Apr 2009 more >>
