IPC
The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) has released an updated timetable for applications for permission to build new nuclear power stations in Britain, which includes Wylfa B on Anglesey by Horizon Nuclear Power.
Anglesey Today 5th Deb 2010 more >>
Oldbury
Bristol campaigners are protesting today against a planned Nuclear Power Station for Oldbury. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) are meeting at Thornbury Leisure Centre to discuss the development. Residents of Oldbury, Shepperdine, Rockhampton, Nupdown and Thornbury will be congregating outside in a silent protest, to show that they have “no voice” in the planning decision.
Jack FM 6th Feb 2010 more >>
Cumbria
The Lake District National Park Authority and Cumbria County Council are in agreement that Sellafield is now the ‘preferred option’ for proposed new nuclear build. On Wednesday, January 27, Radiation Free Lakeland gave evidence in Westminster before the Energy and Climate Change Parliamentary Select Committee. Our message to the committee: No site in Cumbria is ‘suitable’ for new build – especially not Sellafield. Any money available needs to be focussed on minimising the dangers that currently exist. Such an approach would ensure job security for nuclear workers for decades into the future and would also be aimed at avoiding the blight to other industries, such as agriculture and tourism, that would be caused by a contamination incident. Despite the volatile nature of the existing nuclear wastes, the industry has been given an indemnity by Government which allows it to operate with pitiful public liability insurance of £140m or the same insurance that 28 exhibitors are required to have in order to attend the County Show.
Carlisle News and Star 5th Feb 2010 more >>
County councillors in Cumbria have said they will oppose plans to build a nuclear power station on greenbelt land close to the Sellafield site. They said the site at Braystones and Kirksanton was not viable as they were not convinced the benefits would outweigh the costs.
New Civil Engineer 4th Feb 2010 more >>
An MP has demanded promises from Gordon Brown that necessary changes to planning to allow new nuclear build and investment into west Cumbria will go ahead. Copeland MP Jamie Reed said answers were needed to ensure more investment, bringing future jobs and a boost the local economy would happen. Speaking in Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour MP said: “The Prime Minister will be aware he is the only political leader to support nuclear new build in this country, what certainty can he give my constituents and the supply chains in my constituency that he will make the necessary changes to the planning system to enable them to invest with confidence and certainty.”
Carlisle News and Star 5th Feb 2010 more >>
Sizewell
Job advert for Site Preparation Engineer.
Indeed 5th Feb 2010 more >>
Torness
SCOTTISH homes could face power cuts after a nuclear reactor “tripped” at Torness Power station and had to be shut down. Reactor One at the plant in East Lothian went down unexpectedly on Monday afternoon and is set to be out of commission for weeks. The reactor supplies more than half-a-million households and the National Grid has admitted that it cannot rule out power cuts as a result. Locals said alarms rang and white smoke billowed from the nuclear plant following the breakdown. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said the breakdown was down to a generator transformer, and added that the cause of the incident was now under investigation.
Scotsman 6th Feb 2010 more >>
Sellafield
There are few places in England that would make the construction of a seemingly ordinary concrete-shell building an extremely difficult logistical task. The top of Ben Nevis perhaps, or maybe even a tight site in the City of London. But arguably neither would prove as challenging as the one that is being built at Sellafield home of the world’s first commercial nuclear power station and site labelled by Greenpeace “the most hazardous place in Europe”. But none of these concerns have put off contractor Costain’s team at the Cumbrian site for Evaporator D. This new structure will process nuclear waste known as highly active liquor (HAL) a very concentrated source of radioactivity, which can pose a significant radiological hazard.
New Civil Engineer 4th Feb 2010 more >>
Low Level Waste
A SITE visit will take place at west Cumbria’s former opencast mine before a decision is made by councillors on plans to turn it into a low-level radioactive waste dump.
Carlisle News and Star 5th Feb 2010 more >>
Iran
Iran’s foreign minister has said it is closing in on a deal with world powers over its nuclear programme. In Germany, Manouchehr Mottaki said a deal to send enriched uranium overseas in exchange for nuclear fuel could be reached in a “not too distant future”.
BBC 6th Feb 2010 more >>
Guardian 6th Feb 2010 more >>
Iran Q&A
BBC 4th Feb 2010 more >>
Iran has been using delaying tactics instead of taking action to resolve the dispute over its nuclear programme, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Friday.
Yahoo 5th Feb 2010 more >>
France
French energy giant EDF and nuclear specialist Areva said on Friday they had reached an agreement on used nuclear fuel management after the state stepped in to mediate fraught talks. The two state-controlled firms — whose chief executives are locked in a public spat — were on Jan. 20 given a two-week deadline by the French government to resolve their differences over how to apply a 2008 framework agreement on nuclear waste. The two companies said in a statement on Friday they would sign a contract covering transportation, treatment and recycling of used nuclear fuel before the end of March. The agreement reached by the two groups lays out conditions for applying the framework agreement of Dec. 19 2008, which set out a partnership covering treatment-recycling of used fuel, and reprocessed fuel fabrication, the firms said.
Reuters 5th Feb 2010 more >>
Areva
French engineering group Areva is hoping that a new business structure will help it to strengthen its position in both the nuclear and renewable energy markets. The state-owned group, which recently lost out to a South Korean consortium in a major tender to build nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, is creating six business groups centred around its nuclear and renewable energy activities, and says that a simpler operating structure will increase its commercial effectiveness.
Modern Power Systems 5th Feb 2010 more >>
Argentina
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy has been signed between Russian state nuclear company Rosatom and Argentina’s Ministry of Federal Planning, Investment and Services.
World Nuclear News 5th Feb 2010 more >>
Carbon Emissions
Public sector greenhouse gas emissions rose by 6.25% in 2008 despite overall UK emissions falling by almost 2%, analysis of government figures showed today. While sectors such as energy supply, agriculture, transport, businesses and industrial processes saw emissions drop, the public sector saw emissions rise from 9.6m tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e) to 10.2 MtCO2e. Housing was the only other sector with growing greenhouse gases, with emissions from domestic heating rising from 81.8 to 84.4 MtCO2e, or 3.1%.
Guardian 6th Feb 2010 more >>
Renewables
It costs £12,500 to install solar cells on your roof, but new tariffs should give you a return of at least £25,000. So what’s the catch? There isn’t one.
Guardian 6th Feb 2010 more >>
