New Nukes
The renewable energy industry is concerned that the government has spent thousands meeting nuclear lobbyists. Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money have been spent on special meetings between ministers and the nuclear industry in Britain, prompting allegations the government is giving the sector an unfair advantage over renewables. In response to a Freedom of Information request from consultant and anti-nuclear campaigner David Lowry Decc said that it had costed three external meetings with the NDF in 2010, spending £3,910 in March, £2,820 in July, and £1,416 in October.
Guardian 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Hinkley
A CALL for plans to build a new nuclear power station 15 miles off South Wales to be opposed has been rejected by Vale of Glamorgan councillors. The planned development at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, has sparked safety concerns about the impact it could have on South Wales, particularly if there were an accident or a terrorist attack.
South Wales Echo 4th Nov 2010 more >>
Smuggling
The dark netherworlds of nuclear smuggling still pose a terrible danger to us all. Terrorists are seeking nuclear weapons and the materials to make them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take a Manhattan Project to make a crude nuclear bomb – numerous government studies have warned that a sophisticated terrorist group might pull it off, if they could get enough nuclear material. And with bits of highly enriched uranium (HEU) continuing to show up in the hands of hustlers and smugglers, the obvious question is: of which iceberg are we seeing the tip?
Guardian 8th Nov 2010 more >>
HIGHLY ENRICHED uranium that could be used to make a nuclear bomb is on sale on the black market along the fringes of the former Soviet Union, according to evidence emerging from a secret trial in Georgia. Two Armenians, a businessman and a physicist, have pleaded guilty to smuggling highly enriched uranium into Georgia in March, in a lead-lined package on a train from Yerevan to Tbilisi.
Irish Times 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Guardian 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Independent 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Telegraph 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Germany
Police wielding batons have clashed with protesters who disrupted the passage of a train carrying nuclear waste from France to Germany. The train is returning German nuclear waste for storage after it was treated in France. The train was stopped in northern Germany by activists abseiling from a bridge over the railway tracks. Officers used batons and pepper spray on hundreds of protesters trying to sabotage the tracks and the activists retaliated by throwing firecrackers.
BBC 7th Nov 2010 more >>
ITN 7th Nov 2010 more >>
ABC News 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Euro News 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Scotsman 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Irish Examiner 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Independent 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Telegraph 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Video of Caen action.
Sortir du Nucleaire 6th Nov 2010 more >>
Right now in Germany we are witnessing an unprecedented mass mobilization against radioactive waste and against the operational extension of 17 nuclear reactors in the country by an average of 12 years. This anti-CASTOR (Cask for Storage and Transport of Radioactive material) mobilization is the largest Germany has seen, and includes both the young and the old, farmers and politicians, environmental and youth groups. It is truly a grassroots movement, united behind one goal: saying ‘Nein Danke’ -’No thank you’ – to nuclear energy.
Greenpeace 7th Nov 2010 more >>
Pakistan
China plans to supply Pakistan with a fifth nuclear reactor, according to Pakistani government officials.
FT 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Iran
Iran has informed Ankara it is ready to hold talks in Turkey with the six world powers on its controversial nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday.
Middle East Online 7th Nov 2010 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Anglo-French nuclear co-operation agreement: NIS briefing. Under the terms of a new treaty Britain and France intend to collaborate on nuclear warhead technology for the next 50 years. The agreement, announced by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, commits the two nations to undertake a joint programme of co-operation on nuclear weapon technology at a new hydrodynamics research facility at Valduc in France and a joint Technology Development Centre at the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston.
NIS 7th Nov 2010 more >>
Do we have to wait, hope and whistle a plaintive tune until North Korea stows away its missiles and Iran stops playing deadly games? Or are we merely killing time? Ask questions like these and immediately you’re dealing with the old cold war balances of deterrence (aka mutually assured destruction). Obama – for all his new rhetoric – comes from that old world too. “As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary.” But whom does he need more than 9,000 warheads to deter?
Guardian 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Test Veterans
A judge has ordered the release of top secret documents that could bring justice to Britain’s nuclear bomb veterans.
Lawyers believe the papers could be the “smoking gun” that proves military chiefs knew they were sending servicemen to their deaths when they made them watch atomic blasts 50 years ago. But in an extraordinary clash between the Government and the judiciary, defence secretary Liam Fox has refused to give them up. Judge Hugh Stubbs ordered the disclosure during a tribunal hearing to decide if 16 vets and their widows should receive a war pension. But MoD lawyers said they had been instructed “not to comply”.
Daily Mirror 7th Nov 2010 more >>
CCS
Gas plants will be eligible for the government’s £9bn carbon capture demonstration programme, Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary, will announce tomorrow. The programme had only been open to coal plants, which in future will be required to fit the technology to capture and store emissions rather than release them into the atmosphere.
Guardian 8th Nov 2010 more >>
Renewables
Orders for offshore wind turbines in Britain will slump next year, threatening to halt the industry’s recent growth and the expected creation of up to 10,000 “green economy” jobs.
Analysts are forecasting a 93% drop in the installation of new offshore windfarms in 2013 compared with the previous year. As orders for cables, foundations and other equipment are typically made two to three years ahead of the project being completed, the slowdown will start to bite among UK suppliers next year.
Guardian 8th Nov 2010 more >>
The electricity meter was changed last week because the old one had been running backwards. This phenomenon had originally caused consternation on a sunny day in summer when workmen, sent by the electricity suppliers to renew the earthing system, wanted to call the police. Only a consultation with head office persuaded them this was not a felony but a 1970s-style meter responding to output from a new set of solar panels on the roof. The panels were exporting electricity to the grid.
Guardian 8th Nov 2010 more >>
One of the things for which Britain is justly famous is its lush, green, spectacularly beautiful countryside. One of the things for which Britain is not at all famous is its endless sunshine. Put these two basic facts together and you might reach one obvious conclusion: that any taxpayer-funded scheme to carpet that unspoilt landscape in solar panels in order to generate electricity at nearly three times the market cost is bound to end in disaster.
Telegraph 8th Nov 2010 more >>
