7 August 2008

New Nukes

Nuclear build programmes overseas are facing difficulties, but Lord O’Neill remains sanguine about the UK’s plans for new reactors. “It is important those mistakes are made elsewhere,” Lord O’Neill remarks slyly, striving to separate the difficulties in the French and Finnish nuclear-build sectors from the excitement slowly bubbling on the home front. But neither he – chairman at the Nuclear Industry Association – nor anyone can tell what problems the UK may face as it moves towards construction of a new fleet of reactors.

CNPlus 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Bernard Ingham: It might have been convenient for the Government, owning 35.2 per cent of BE, to have gone on holiday with the EdF takeover completed. But it is most certainly not “a hammer blow to Gordon Brown’s deluded nuclear ambitions”, as the eternally deluded Greenpeace puts it. After all, not a single reactor system will be licensed for use in Britain for at least a couple of years. And you can’t have a public inquiry into a new power station (which Greenpeace will try to delay endlessly) until you have something to licence. So keep your hair on.

Yorkshire Post 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Letter: Shame on you, George [Monbiot] You are selling out to the nuclear lobby. Indulging in the “niceties of liberal debate” shows profound ignorance of the power struggles being waged, and how your influence will now be turned against any radical green agenda. The nuclear option is a betrayal of future generations: it is unsafe, undesirable and unaffordable. With enough dynamic leadership we can power up from renewables.

Guardian 7th Aug 2008 more >>

Sellafield

Workers at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria are to be balloted for strike action after talks aimed at solving a pay dispute broke down. Officials from the GMB and Prospect unions, representing 10,000 workers, met management on Wednesday to try to break the deadlock.

BBC 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Pendle Today 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Whitehaven News 7th Aug 2008 more >>

Chapelcross

PERMISSION has been granted to de-fuel all four reactors at the Chapelcross nuclear plant. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) gave the site near Annan the go-ahead to start a three-and-a-half year programme to remove all fuel. It is the latest step in the decommissioning of Chapelcross, which was built in 1959.

Dumfries and Galloway Standard 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Finland

Greenpeace has raised objections to the underground disposal of highly radioactive wastes from the new Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power unit. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Greenpeace says that the nuclear power industry has plans to create a new underground disposal facility at the Olkiluoto site for the ““super waste” spent fuel that will be created by the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power unit. Posiva Oy, a company responsible for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel, has proposed doubling the size of the current repository to accommodate waste from new plants. According to Greenpeace, once the underground repository is sealed in a hundred years, nearly 90% of its radioactive contents will be comprised of waste from new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) facilities. The group says that the spent fuel from these plants is hotter and more contains more radioactive materials than waste from older plant types. In addition, it is more brittle and would dissolve more easily into the groundwater supply in the event of a leak.

YLE 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Iran

The deputy head of the UN nuclear agency has arrived in Tehran for talks on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.

BBC 7th Aug 2008 more >>

Iran should face “punitive” measures after failing to respond to an international package of incentives that sought to defuse the crisis over its nuclear ambitions, the US said yesterday.

Guardian 7th Aug 2008 more >>

Telegraph 7th Aug 2008 more >>

The United States and its European allies have rejected Iran’s latest letter on its suspect nuclear program and now plan to seek new UN Security Council sanctions, US media reported Wednesday.

Africasia 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Wednesday that despite Iran’s ambiguous response to an offer of incentives to halt its uranium enrichment there was “potential” to the ongoing dialogue with Tehran.

Interactive Investor 6th Aug 2008 more >>

On July 18, 2008 The New York Times published an article by Israeli-Jewish historian, Professor Benny Morris, advocating an Israeli nuclear-genocidal attack on Iran with the likelihood of killing 70 million Iranians – 12 times the number of Jewish victims in the Nazi holocaust:

Middle East Online 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Poland

Europe’s largest copper miner KGHM is considering building a nuclear power plant and forming an investment fund as a way to diversify its business. KGHM estimates the power plant may cost up to 10 billion euros ($15.5 billion) and is likely to be part of the company’s new strategy prepared by new management. KGHM, whose largest shareholder is the Polish treasury, was not immediately available for comment.

AFX 7th Aug 2008 more >>

India

A powerful Democrat on Wednesday warned the Bush administration that its landmark civil nuclear deal with India could be jeopardised by pushing an international nuclear regulatory body to give India exemptions that would breach US law. Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, said it was “incomprehensible” that Washington would push for exemptions to nuclear rules that did not comply with the Hyde Act, the legislation that authorised the administration to negotiate the nuclear deal.

FT 7th Aug 2008 more >>

North Korea

George Bush says North Korea must live up to its promise to end its nuclear weapons programme.

ITN 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Japan - Hiroshima

The Mayor of Hiroshima yesterday urged the next US president to support a proposed ban on nuclear weapons as Japan marked the 63rd anniversary of the atomic blast that obliterated the city and killed 140,000 people.

Herald 7th Aug 2008 more >>

Sixty-three years have passed. The survivors of Hiroshima continue to testify to the horrific consequences of that day and the casualties that

continue to the present. At the same time, nuclear arsenals have made quantum leaps in quantity and effects. More nations possess such weapons

today - enough to extinguish the world.

Japan Times 6th Aug 2008 more >>

EDITORIAL: To help ensure that these abhorrent, indiscriminate weapons are never used again, it is vital that we pass on the memories of these horrific events to future generations and strive to abolish all nuclear weapons. But unfortunately, efforts to abolish such arms are making little progress. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty recognizes the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China as nuclear-weapons states. But outside the NPT

framework, India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and Israel is believed to have them.

Japan Times 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Prominent American scholars and analysts are worried that memories of the attacks are fading, but they still offer guarded optimism about a future free of nuclear arms. As a whole, these experts, in recent interviews in the United States, painted a realistic view about the future direction of the world, a direction characterized by the U.S.-led antiterrorism campaign following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and limited success in ending North Korea’s

nuclear ambitions.

Japan Times 6th Aug 2008 more >>

Climate

The UK should take active steps to prepare for dangerous climate change of perhaps 4C according to one of the government’s chief scientific advisers.

Guardian 7th Aug 2008 more >>

Peak oil

The price rises we see today are a warning that fossil fuel extraction cannot happen fast enough to support economic growth. And though the coming recession will cut demand, this will be to the benefit of the climate, rather than consumers.

Guardian 7th Aug 2008 more >>

Coal

Letter from Royal Society: consent must be given to new coal-fired power stations only on condition that operating permits are withdrawn if they fail to capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. This will send a clear signal to develop a technology that can play a major part in helping to meet UK and global energy needs without risking dangerous climate change.

Guardian 7th Aug 2008 more >>