Nuclear Spin
Internal emails seen by Guardian show PR campaign was launched to protect UK nuclear plans after tsunami in Japan. British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known. Internal emails seen by the Guardian show how the business and energy departments worked closely behind the scenes with the multinational companies EDF Energy, Areva and Westinghouse to try to ensure the accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the UK. Louise Hutchins, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, said the emails looked like “scandalous collusion”. “This highlights the government’s blind obsession with nuclear power and shows neither they, nor the industry, can be trusted when it comes to nuclear,” she said.
Guardian 30th June 2011 more >>
E-mails available for download.
Rob Edwards 30th June 2011 more >>
Guardian 30th June 2011 more >>
British government officials sought to play down the seriousness of the Fukushima disaster caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami to avoid derailing plans for new nuclear power stations in the UK, internal emails suggest. Just two days after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, officials contacted energy companies warning that they could not allow the disaster to dent public support for nuclear power.
Telegraph 1st July 2011 more >>
National Policy Statements
Ministers have indicated that they will consider proposals from the developers of eight new nuclear power stations to locate parts of those plants that could cause a radiological hazard outside the boundaries of the sites identified in a new energy policy document. The national policy statement (NPS) says that, while the Government expects key operational elements of plants, such as the reactor building and other elements that could cause a radiological hazard, to be located within the site boundaries, it “recognises that flexibility is required to accommodate detailed local level considerations”.
Planning Resources 1st July 2011 more >>
British Energy
Its passing is unlikely to be mourned by many, but from Friday the British Energy name will cease to exist. EDF Energy, the French group that bought the nuclear generator in 2009, is nattily renaming it EDF Energy Nuclear Generation, meaning that site signs and workwear will all have to be rebranded. A philosophical spokesman says that this important step will help bring an increased feeling of belonging for our employees.
Times 30th June 2011 more >>
Nuclear Smuggling
A quantity of uranium-235 that could be used to make a bomb and was reportedly destined for a North African country has been intercepted in Moldova. It was seized during a sting operation in which six people were arrested said Vitalie Briceag, a Moldovan Interior Ministry spokesman. The nuclear material, stored in a lead cylinder, is believed to have come from Russia and was to be sold by the gang to a North African country for 20 million (17.5 million), according to Mr Briceag. An investigation into the incident is also under way in a Western country, Mr Briceag said, a sign that intelligence agencies in the United States and Europe may have been involved in the operation after being alerted that nuclear material had appeared on the black market.
Times 30th June 2011 more >>
Energy Supplies
Britain’s green energy sector produced 27% more electricity in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year as the rapid expansion of offshore wind capacity started to bear fruit, official figures have revealed. Renewables and nuclear both increased their low-carbon output but the environmental benefits were undermined by power companies using 7% more coal.
Guardian 30th June 2011 more >>
Radwaste
The UK government has published the first annual report of its Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Programme (MRWSP), which is focused on implementing the long term geological disposal of the country’s higher activity radioactive waste. In addition the government has also published a consultation on how potential sites for geological disposal will be identified and assessed.
Waste Management World 30th June 2011 more >>
Scotland
The SNP have U-turned today, as the Energy Minister has announced the life of Hunterston B Power Station may yet be extended. Jackson Carlaw MSP, Scottish Conservative Climate Change Spokesperson, said: “This is an unexpected yet welcome U-Turn from the SNP Government. Coming after years of uncompromising anti-nuclear rhetoric I suspect it is one they will not wish to be reminded of too often.
Scottish Conservatives 30th June 2011 more >>
Alex Salmond was accused of a massive policy shift by environmental campaigners last night after the Scottish government admitted that it was perfectly open to the life extension of both Torness and Hunterston nuclear power stations. Fergus Ewing, the Energy Minister, told a debate on renewable energy in the Scottish Parliament that the two power stations could continue to generate electricity providing that the case is justified on economic and environmental grounds. He added: That case exists, and it exists because of the need for security of supply. We have always acknowledged that, although we are clearly opposed to the building of new nuclear power stations. Hunterston, in Ayrshire, is due to end operations in 2016 and Torness in 2023, but EDF Energy, which operates them, has applied for extensions. Friends of the Earth Scotland said the ministers statement was deeply disturbing and utterly disappointing. Stan Blackley, chief executive of the campaign group, said: The Scottish government should not be propping [the power stations] up in their old age, during which they will grow ever-increasingly unreliable and potentially even more dangerous. Fergus Ewings statement to the Scottish Parliament that the SNP is now perfectly open to extending the life of Scotlands nuclear power stations can only be interpreted as a significant policy shift. The SNP has always been viewed as anti-nuclear, particularly given the anti-nuclear words and activities of its politicians at all levels in recent years, and Im sure many SNP voters will feel quite misled when they learn that this is not the case any more.
Times 1st July 2011 more >>
An action plan to drive forward Scotland’s renewables revolution, and to meet this Government’s world-leading green energy targets, was launched today by Energy Minister Fergus Ewing. The Renewables Routemap outlines the necessary steps needed to capitalise on the enormous economic potential of Scotland’s green energy capacity and to meet ambitious targets, including supplying 100 per cent of electricity demand equivalent from renewables by 2020.
Scottish Government Press Release 30th June 2011 more >>
2020 Routemap for Renewable Energy in Scotland.
Scottish Government 30th June 2011 more >>
The Scottish Governments ‘Renewables Routemap’, which sets out its plans for achieving Scotlands renewables targets for electricity, heat and transport sectors, puts the power sector firmly on the right track but fails to describe the changes we need to see in heating and transport said WWF Scotland today.
WWF Scotland 30th June 2011 more >>
The Scottish government has done it again. The UK’s leading developer of renewable energy has today increased its green energy ambitions yet again, announcing a new target to supply at least 30 per cent of the country’s energy from renewable electricity, heat and transport by 2020. Scottish energy, enterprise and tourism minister Fergus Ewing unveiled a new renewables routemap outlining the steps required to meet its already ambitious targets, including a goal of supplying 100 per cent of electricity demand from renewables and 11 per cent of heat from renewables by 2020.
Business Green 30th June 2011 more >>
Sellafield
SELLAFIELDS inclusion on the list of approved sites for a new nuclear power station has been greeted by supporters as an economic and employment saviour for the area. Campaigner Martin Forwood said: This fixation on suffocating West Cumbria with all things nuclear ignores the wealth of evidence against the suitability of the proposed site and clearly has more to do with appeasing the nuclear apologists promoting the Energy Coast masterplan than ensuring a safe, economic and reliable source of electricity in the UK.
Whitehaven News 30th June 2011 more >>
Wylfa
A NEW nuclear power station on Anglesey is a step closer to reality after the area was confirmed by the UK Government as suitable for a new development. Wylfa made the list of eight sites around the UK deemed suitable by energy secretary Chris Huhne MP.
Holyhead and Anglesey Mail 29th June 2011 more >>
Torness
A swarm of jellyfish has caused the closure of two reactors at a nuclear power plant in Scotland. The plant, at Torness, uses seawater as a coolant; but the jellyfish clogged filters in the intake pipes, prompting operators to shut down the reactors until the filters could be cleared. The notion of jellyfish as nuclear reactor incapacitators isn’t without precedent. For example, in 2006, jellyfish blocked the filters at a reactor in Japan, which shut down automatically. Two years later, a similar event caused the manual shutdown of the Diablo Canyon plant in California. In 1999, the temporary jellyfish-enforced closure of a nuclear plant in the Philippines plunged 40 million people into darkness and sparked rumors of a coup d’etat.
Discovery News 30th June 2011 more >>
Herald 1st July 2011 more >>
Scotsman 1st July 2011 more >>
Express 1st July 2011 more >>
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Capital FM 30th June 2011 more >>
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Daily Mail 30th June 2011 more >>
STV 30th June 2011 more >>
Decommissioning
Until recently industrial lasers were regarded as too unreliable for use in nuclear decommissioning environments and so their usage has been limited. The advent of solid state “fibre lasers” has however now provided a truly robust and reliable industrial ‘tool’.
Whitehaven News 30th June 2011 more >>
Germany
Germany has voted to shut down all nuclear power reactors by 2022, making it the first major industrial nation to completely reject the technology since the Fukishima disaster in Japan.
Telegraph 30th June 2011 more >>
Scotsman 1st July 2011 more >>
FT 30th June 2011 more >>
Guardian 30th June 2011 more >>
Canada
The federal government’s long-awaited deal to sell off its money-losing nuclear reactor business is more like a perpetual partnership than a sale, leaving Canadian taxpayers stuck with the fiscal fall-out for years to come.
CBC 29th June 2011 more >>
Japan
Trace amounts of radioactive substances have been found in urine samples taken from children from Fukushima city, raising concerns that residents have been exposed internally to radiation from the stricken nuclear power plant 37 miles (60km) away. Tests were conducted in May on 10 children, aged between 6 and 16, by a Japanese civic group and Acro, a French body that measures radioactivity. All 10 tested positive for tiny amounts of caesium-134 and caesium-137.
Guardian 30th June 2011 more >>
Air conditioning has been switched off, office hallways are darkened and escalators have ground to a halt as a government decree to reduce power usage forces Tokyo to sweat out a hot summer.
AFP 30th June 2011 more >>
Japan is bracing itself for the hottest summer on record, leading to fears that thousands of people will die as the government limits the use of air conditioning.
Telegraph 30th June 2011 more >>
Vast swathes of farmland will now be out of use several years due to salination caused by tsunami flooding, while thousands of cattle abandoned in the nuclear evacuation zone have perished. As the nation attempts to rebuild itself following the disaster, the food industry has been hit hard by plummeting confidence in the safety of food, particularly in relation to products exported outside Japan. From spinach, mushrooms, plums and green tea to bamboo shoots, milk and fish, a total of 347 food items across eight prefectures were found to be contaminated with radiation in government tests earlier this month.
Telegraph 30th June 2011 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
The programme for implementing the reductions in the number of UK nuclear warheads, as announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), has commenced, Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has announced.
MOD Oracle 30th June 2011 more >>
The reduction in the number of nuclear warheads deployed on one of the UK’s four Vanguard class submarines, announced in a written statement by Liam Fox yesterday (29 June 2011), has been welcomed by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Ekklesia 30th June 2011 more >>
Letter from MPs and CND: The leaders of China, France, Russia, the UK and US are in Paris this week to discuss the future of their nuclear arsenals. Last year, these and over 180 other states met at the nuclear non-proliferation treaty review conference and agreed that all nuclear-weapon states must “undertake concrete disarmament efforts”. Yet the British government’s decision to develop the next generation of nuclear weapons is clearly incompatible with our commitments to disarm.
Guardian 30th June 2011 more >>
