Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)
More than 50 of Britain’s biggest energy projects, including wind farms, power stations, gas storage sites and high-voltage transmission lines, could be fast-tracked through the planning system under powers handed to the Government today. In the biggest shake-up to Britain’s planning regime in 60 years, the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), formally came into existence this month. Its goal will be to slash the time needed to secure planning consent for projects considered to be of national importance from as long as seven years to less than a year.
Times 1st Oct 2009 more >>
EDF
Great that EDF is listening to informed opinion. They are set to pay John Hutton, the energy minister, a pretty penny once he steps down from parliament to tell them what’s what. Chris Patten too. But some voices are just better to listen to than others. And so it was that Tom Burke – a former executive director of Friends of the Earth; special adviser to Michael Heseltine, Michael Howard and John Gummer when they were environment secretaries; and co-founder of Third Generation Environmentalism – found himself in May booked to speak at a series of debates at all three party conferences; and then, last month, found himself unbooked again. The events were sponsored by EDF. The company, having agreed to his appearances, appears to have thought better of the idea.
Guardian 1st Oct 2009 more >>
Sizewell
Five people charged in connection with a protest at Sizewell B nuclear power station were yesterday acquitted in court on a legal technicality. Lowestoft Magistrates’ Court had heard how a group of four women and one man had chained themselves together, blocking an approach road to workers, on July 24 last year. The power station went into a full lock down as a result of the protestors’ actions.
East Anglian Daily Press 29th Sept 2009 more >>
World Passports 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Lowestoft Journal 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Stop Nuclear Power Press Release 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Wylfa
THE final curtain falls on nearly 40 years of smelting today as the power is pulled at Anglesey Aluminium. The end of the contract with Wylfa power station today was a ticking time bomb and even a £48m sweetener from the UK and Welsh Governments couldn’t stop the metal giant blasting a hole in the Anglesey economy.
Daily Post 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Dounreay
ENGINEERS in the UK, Germany and the US are currently working on the best method to retrieve a cocktail of highly-radioactive and toxic sludge from a makeshift waste dump at Dounreay. Now that the unlined rock shaft has been isolated from the surrounding environment, the focus has turned to recovering its noxious contents. While the first batch is not due to be taken out before 2017, preparations have started to design the plant and the method of extracting, assaying and packaging the 1500 tonnes of debris.
John O Groat Journal 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Vulcan
THE Caithness economy is facing a new blow with workers at Vulcan now resigned to the plug being pulled on the nuclear submarine test base in 2014.
John O Groat Journal 23rd Sept 2009 more >>
Scotland
THE Scottish Government has been challenged to increase its spending on energy efficiency by £100 million a year. Liberal Democrat MSP Iain Smith yesterday said that it was “no longer tolerable” to waste energy – particularly in the midst of a recession. He spoke out on the issue as MSPs debated a report on Scotland’s energy future by Holyrood’s economy, energy & tourism committee. Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald criticised the Scottish Government’s policy which rules out nuclear energy. He said: “By getting those big choices wrong we run the risk of an approach to energy policy which is unbalanced from the start.”
Scotsman 1st Oct 2009 more >>
Areva
According to a report in The Times Online, Inside a cavernous factory in the French steel town of Chalon-sur-Sa ne, technicians are welding a giant drum that will one day form the heart of a Chinese nuclear reactor. Once finished, the 500-tonne steam-generating unit being built by Areva, the French nuclear energy group, will be loaded on to a barge and floated down the river to Marseilles for export.
Nuclear Street 29th Sept 2009 more >>
Companies
Engineering and project management firm AMEC is to pursue opportunities for nuclear new build in India with a new partner, Hindustan Construction Co. Limited (HCC). The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at bringing their collective design, safety and project management experience to new civil nuclear projects.
Modern Power Systems 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Radhealth
Radiation left over from 100-year-old experiments by Ernest Rutherford, the father of modern nuclear physics, is not responsible for a cluster of deaths at Manchester University, a report has concluded.
Guardian 1st Oct 2009 more >>
Iran
The official Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation is a 40% shareholder, with French state-owned nuclear conglomerate Areva, in Sofidif, a uranium-enrichment joint-venture company operating in Europe.
Guardian 1st Oct 2009 more >>
The UN’s chief weapons inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said today he had seen “no credible evidence” that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, rejecting British intelligence allegations that a weapons programme has been going on for at least four years. The claims and counter-claims came on the eve of a potentially decisive meeting in Geneva between diplomats from six world powers and an Iranian delegation about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Guardian 1st Oct 2009 more >>
John Pilger: Obama’s “showdown” with Iran has another agenda. The media have been tasked with preparing the public for endless war.
New Statesman 1st Oct 2009 more >>
Senior diplomats from Britain and other leading world powers are meeting Iran’s chief negotiator in a fresh attempt to persuade the Tehran regime to come clean about it nuclear programme.
Ananova 1st Oct 2009 more >>
Iran says it views talks on its nuclear programme with six world powers which begin in Geneva today as an “opportunity and a test”. The United States has commented that “an extraordinarily difficult process” is starting, with more meetings likely. Washington has said big powers will pursue harsher sanctions on Iran if the new dialogue fails.
Independent 1st Oct 2009 more >>
The West will give Iran until the end of the year to prove its nuclear programme will not be used to manufacture weapons.
Telegraph 1st Oct 2009 more >>
British intelligence has disputed an American assessment that Iran has not resumed work building a warhead for a nuclear weapon.
Telegraph 30th Sept 2009 more >>
Italy
The USA and Italy have signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement, opening the door of the Italian market to US suppliers of nuclear technology and services.
World Nuclear News 30th Sept 2009 more >>
