New Nukes
A programme to build new nuclear power stations could generate 30,000 jobs – three times the number for the 2012 Olympic Games – over the coming 15 years, according to research from Cogent, but contractors warn that more needs to be done to engage the supply chain.
New Civil Engineer 31st Mar 2010 more >>
The Engineer 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Next Generation: Skills for New Build Nuclear, published today (31st March), focuses on UK skills capacity and capability to deliver a new build programme up to 2025. The report analyses the workforce required to build six twin nuclear reactor stations capable of generating 16 GWe (16 billion Watts electricity) – enough to supply 80% of current household electricity demands – by 2025.
Politics.co.uk 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Wylfa
THE Assembly Government will push for a public inquiry into the selection of a site in Wales as the UK’s next nuclear power station. Energy firm Horizon hopes to build a 3,000 megawatt station on Anglesey by 2020, creating up to 5,000 jobs. But the announcement yesterday of the £7.5bn plan immediately prompted renewed calls for a public inquiry from both the Assembly Government and anti-nuclear campaigners. Campaigners Pawb say nuclear power has been scientifically linked to an increased risk of childhood cancers and that it will take hundreds of thousands of years to dispose of the waste the site generates. Pawb spokesman Dylan Morgan, from Llangefni, on Anglesey, dismissed suggestions of widespread support on the island for the plans, calling it nothing more than a “lazy consensus” among politicians and the nuclear lobby. Mr Morgan, whose group is staging a protest against the plans for a nuclear new-build on the Menai Bridge today, said in 2007 German research raised concerns about the safety of the nuclear option. The KiKK study said children under five have more than double the risk of getting leukaemia if they live within five kilometres of a nuclear power station.
Western Mail 31st March 2010 more >>
The joint venture of RWE npower and E.ON in the UK, Horizon Nuclear Power, announced plans to site its first reactor at Wylfa on the Isle of Anglesey for commissioning ‘as early as 2020’.
Nuclear Engineering International 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Horizon Nuclear Power Ltd, a joint venture by energy firms RWE and E.on, plans to commission its first nuclear reactor at Wylfa as early as 2020, “given the right market conditions”. The company aims to apply for consent in 2012 for a nuclear facility with up to 3,300 MW of generation capacity.
Holyhead and Anglesey Mail 31st Mar 2010 more >>
The long-promised renaissance of nuclear power has materialised – just in time, we hope, to ensure that the lights won’t go out. Horizon, a joint venture between the German firms RWE and E.ON, also plans another nuclear plant at Oldbury in Gloucestershire; EDF, owned by the French state, is even further ahead with developments at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk.
Telegraph 31st March 2010 more >>
Wylfa was slated to get an application in for November 2011. Yet according to Horizon’s announcement yesterday, an application for Wylfa is only “scheduled for “2012,” a year behind their original schedule. Is it true that EDF still holds land vital to the new Wylfa project? Apparently EDF doesn’t have to sell the land it owns at Wylfa until it is granted planning permission for two new reactors at both Hinkley Point and Sizewell.
The Druid 31st Mar 2010 more >>
About 30 campaigners have held a protest over plans to build a new nuclear power plant on Anglesey.
Public News Archive 31st Mar 2010 more >>
BBC 31st Mar 2010 more >>
The head of a Lancashire-based energy giant has welcomed news that plans for Britain’s first next generation nuclear power station could be unveiled within two years. Mike Tynan, chief executive of Westinghouse UK which has its headquarters in Preston , said he believed its AP1000 reactor model would be “ideally suited” to a site for a proposed reactor in Wylfa, North Wales.
Lancashire Evening Post 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Cumbria
A public meeting is being held to discuss the possibility of storing nuclear waste underground in Cumbria. The government is looking for a site to store the UK’s higher radioactive waste, 70% of which is already kept at Sellafield. Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and the county council are currently looking at the proposals. The West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership is meeting at Workington’s Hunday Manor Hotel.
BBC 31st Mar 2010 more >>
SELLAFIELD is to get £1.5 billion over the next year from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority – and the threat of the area losing a large chunk of its NDA community support money has been averted. West Cumbria is one of four NDA priority areas to receive socio-economic support but the funding was due to be cut by half, to £5 million over the next year. Now the authority has confirmed that £10 million will stay in the kitty. “There was a strong lobby from West Cumbrian stakeholders against any reduction and this has been successful,” said an NDA spokesman. Significantly part of its £1.5 billion will go towards the completion of a new evaporator structure, described by the NDA as a vital component of the reprocessing programme which reduces the highly active liquid waste stored on site.
Whitehaven News 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Nuclear Economics
The Economic Viability of Nuclear Power in the Netherlands.
Spring Associates 30th March 2010 more >>
Aldermaston
A report from the Environment Agency to the Atomic Weapons Establishment’s Local Liaison Committee has highlighted concerns about pollution incidents caused by construction work at AWE sites. The report reveals that AWE has been issued with a Warning Letter by the Environment Agency after work at the construction site for Project Mensa, the new nuclear warhead assembly facility at AWE Burghfield, resulted in pollution of the Burghfield Brook in December 2009.
NIS 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Emergency Planning
Nuclear submarines have been using berths around the British coast despite the revelation of serious doubts about the safety of people living nearby in a secret Ministry of Defence review, seen by the Guardian. The MoD’s internal watchdog, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR), condemned the safety plans drawn up by the Royal Navy to protect coastal communities from accidents as flawed, inaccurate and outdated. The plans would fail to protect people from radioactive leaks from submarine reactors, significantly misstated the likelihood of a major accident, and in some places did not take account of the risk of collisions with cruise liners and commercial shipping, DNSR said. The revelations have prompted calls from campaigners for a ban on submarines using the berths, and fears that ports risk “indefinite contamination” from accidents. The MoD said the problems have been “addressed” but gave no details of any measures taken.
The Guardian, 31 March 2010 more >>
robedwards.com 31 March 2010 more >>
US
In a potentially controversial move, US military tech chiefs have decided to investigate the idea of using mobile nuclear reactors to provide power and synthetic jet fuel at forward bases overseas. In a request for information issued yesterday, Pentagon scientists say they would like to hear proposals for “deployable nuclear reactor technologies for the generation of electrical power and military logistic fuels (JP-8) in forward land based and maritime military operations”.
The Register 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Greenpeace took aim at a decrepit nuclear power plant on Wednesday which has leaked a carcinogenic cocktail into surrounding soil, calling on US legislators to make the firm “pay the full price of decommissioning.” The 620-megawatt facility has released tritium, cesium, manganese and zinc through its most recent leak. New Orleans-based firm Entergy operates Vermont Yankee, one of the oldest nuclear facilities in the US. In February, the state Senate voted 26-4 to not allow the plant to continue to operate past 2012, citing concerns over its safety and reliability and mistrust of the privateer.
Morning Star 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Iran
The UN’s former top nuclear watchdog said tonight that his cautious language in reports about Iran’s nuclear programme was part of a deliberate policy to keep a lid on tensions and avert a rush to war. Mohamed ElBaradei, who was director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency for 12 years before stepping down last November, pleaded with the international community to “learn the lessons” of the Iraq invasion and prevent further conflict in the Middle East.
Guardian 1st Apr 2010 more >>
Given that Washington denied all knowledge of Amiri for months after his disappearance, the State Department ought to facilitate a meeting between him and the Iranian authorities to reassure all concerned parties that Amiri has indeed defected of his own free will.
Middle East Online 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Vietnam
The USA has signed with Vietnam for increased cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Meanwhile, it has moved closer to opening nuclear trade with India with an agreement on nuclear fuel reprocessing.
World Nuclear News 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Japan
Like most countries that embraced nuclear power decades ago, Japan has soured on the technology in recent years. But prompted by worries about climate and energy security, the country’s industry ministry last week placed a big bet on a rapid expansion of its nuclear power capability.
Nature 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Climate
MPs investigating the climate change row at the UK’s University of East Anglia (UEA) have demanded greater transparency from climate scientists.
BBC 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Britain proposed a new twin-track climate deal yesterday to end the logjam which has affected international talks on global warming since the failed Copenhagen climate conference last December. In a surprise policy U-turn, the Climate and Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, announced that the Government would agree to an extension of the current international climate treaty, the Kyoto protocol – something developing countries have insisted on but which has so far been rejected by the UK and the European Union as a whole.
Independent 1st April 2010 more >>
Trident
GREENPEACE was in Staines at the weekend asking shoppers’ views on whether the Government should cut its nuclear weapons programme. Volunteers from Spelthorne and Runnymede visited Staines High Street, and asked a group of shoppers if the government should spend £97 billion on new nuclear weapons. They asked 112 people, with 105 saying no, and seven saying yes.
Staines News 31st Mar 2010 more >>
Renewables
Millions of homeowners will be offered cash payouts to generate their own electricity from roof-mounted solar panels and wind turbines, under a scheme starting today.
Times 1st April 2010 more >>
