25 July 2010

New nukes

Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, reveals in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph today that he plans a radical expansion of Britain’s existing stock of wind turbines. Despite the distress that their presence can cause, he advocates a substantial increase in the number of wind farms, in particular at the off-shore location of Dogger Bandonyk in the North Sea. At the same time, he has made clear that there will be no government subsidies for new nuclear power stations.

Telegraph 25th July 2010 more >>

Oldbury

Oldbury Site Stakeholder Group meeting 28th July 2010. There will be an update on the site’s current operations and activities and full reports from Joe Lamonby, Oldbury Site Director and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. There will also be information from the site’s regulators, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and the Environment Agency.

My Thornbury 25th July 2010 more >>

Dounreay

A ROBOT the size of a small bulldozer is to sieve through the seabed off Dounreay to collect radioactive particles that have caused concern for more than quarter of a century. The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) will be lowered from a barge anchored 550 yards off the Caithness complex later this month. Specialist staff will control its movements using an umbilical cable and are expected to cover 31 acres, an area the size of 17 football pitches, in the first of three summer campaigns.

Scotsman 24th July 2010 more >>

Nuclear Weapons

The KGB planted bugs to eavesdrop on John Profumo’s pillow talk with Christine Keeler, according to newly released top-secret files.

The topless showgirl and model’s KGB lover also persuaded her to question Profumo, Britain’s Minister of War, about Britain’s nuclear arsenal, the files reveal.

Mail on Sunday 25th july 2010 more >>

Nuclear Submarines

Britain’s troubled £4 billion programme to build a fleet of new nuclear-powered submarines has been hit by a safety bungle that may have left thousands of people in danger. Emergency plans for responding to an accidental leak of radioactivity from a submarine under construction at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria have been condemned as inadequate by the government’s safety watchdog. As a result, BAE Systems, the company that is building the new Astute class of submarines destined for the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, has been ordered to rerun an emergency exercise. This could cause further delays to the submarine building programme, critics say.

Sunday Herald 25th July 2010 more >>

India

Rather than standardize on just one reactor platform, the Indian approach is to invite a wide range of nuclear participants from overseas to supplement its indigenous development of heavy water and fast breeder platforms.

Nuclear Engineering International 23rd July 2010 more >>

Burma

Fears that Burma’s military leaders may be in the early stages of building nuclear weapons has been spaked by satellite images.

Sunday Express 25th July 2010 more >>

Iran

Iran has launched a nuclear fusion program.

Reuters 24th July 2010 more >>

BBC 24th July 2010 more >>

Korea

North Korea has threatened to use its nuclear weapons as the US and South Korea prepare for war games exercises in the Sea of Japan.

Metro 24th July 2010 more >>

The United States and South Korea began military drills off the Korean peninsula in defiance of threats from North Korea that it would respond with a “nuclear deterrent”.

Sunday Telegraph 25th July 2010 more >>

Solar

This month, the Italian utility Enel unveiled “Archimede”, the first Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in the world to use molten salts for heat transfer and storage, and the first to be fully integrated to an existing combined-cycle gas power plant. Archimede is a 5 MW plant located in Priolo Gargallo (Sicily), within Europe’s largest petrochemical district. The breakthrough project was co-developed by Enel, one of World’s largest utilities, and ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development.

Guardian 22nd July 2010 more >>

Renewables

The UK government will be urged this week to green the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) so that nearly £200 billion can be invested in wind farms, electric cars and high-speed rail networks over the next decade.A report to be published tomorrow will urge ministers not to scrap plans for public investment in a new environmentally-friendly bank. Instead, campaigners say, they should transform RBS into a vehicle for backing clean technology across the world. The report was written by a former PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant, James Leaton, for two groups campaigning to cut climate pollution, the World Development Movement (WDM) and Platform.

Sunday Herald 25th July 2010 more >>

Mr Huhne, one of the leading Liberal Democrats in the cabinet, used an interview with The Sunday Telegraph to speak out in favour of harnessing both onshore and offshore wind power in comments likely to alarm Conservatives and place further strain on the coalition.

Sunday Telegraph 25th July 2010 more >>