Iran
As yesterday’s United Nations deadline for the shelving of the Iranian nuclear programme came and went, Iran continued defiantly to spin centrifuges and spin out talks. And, despite bullish rhetoric from George Bush about “consequences for Iran’s defiance”, there is little that he or anyone else can do about it. Iran will continue to claim that it is developing nuclear technology to keep the lights on, while many others (not just the US and Israel) claim Iran’s real goal is to acquire nuclear weapons. A history of lies and evasion on this subject from the country which, after all, holds the second-largest oil reserves in Opec, does not bode well.
Herald 1st September 2006
Western powers were last night preparing crippling sanctions against Iran after it ignored a deadline to abandon its suspected efforts to build a nuclear bomb. The sanctions proposals, agreed with Britain, France and Germany, will be presented to the UN security council within days. The move comes as United Nations nuclear inspectors concluded that Teheran had ignored yesterday’s deadline to halt uranium enrichment, a key step in the manufacturing of hydrogen bombs.
Telegraph 1st September 2006
IRAN, oozing defiance, refused to budge “an inch” in rejecting demands to halt uranium enrichment as it snubbed yesterday’s UN Security Council deadline to suspend nuclear work.
Scotsman 1st September 2006
FT 1st September 2006
Times 1st September 2006
Guardian 1st September 2006
BBC 31st August 2006
SO, what now? Iran has defied the United Nations order to stop its most controversial nuclear work. It looks as if there will be a fudge by the European Union, dragging the US along behind. At yesterday’s deadline, which was supposed to be the climax of this long-running stand-off, Europeans blinked first. Germany and Italy, in particular, have taken the view that more talks would be preferable to sanctions, even at the cost of blurring the force of the UN Security Council demand. That has played into the hands of Russia and China, who never much wanted sanctions. It has left the US, Britain, and France, who favoured an immediate move to sanctions, frustrated on the sidelines. Why the change since the aggressive brinksmanship of early this summer? Lebanon, in a word. In the strained attempts to muster a UN force to keep the peace between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, few want to pick a new fight with Tehran. Iran has accurately gauged the limited appetite for confrontation among its adversaries and divided them.
Times 1st September 2006
BNFL Privatisation
British Nuclear Fuels has said it is reconsidering its decision to sell British Nuclear Group, its clean-up division, in several parts following a bid worth up to £400m from Fluor, the US engineering company, for the whole of BNG.
FT 1st September 2006
Engineering services provider Amec is potentially interested in bidding for parts of Britain’s nuclear empire which is being broken up and sold off, according to its chief executive Sir Peter Mason. The company was “certainly interested” in AWE Management, which manages Britain’s atomic weapons and is in charge of replacing the Trident nuclear missile system. A one-third stake in AWE was put on the block last week by publicly-owned British Nuclear Fuels. The other two owners of AWE are Lockheed Martin and Serco. AMEC has previously expressed an interest in buying BNG.
Telegraph 1st September 2006
AFTER four years of discreet lobbying and diplomatic tip-toeing around Westminster, Fluor has chosen the nuclear option. The US engineering group yesterday confirmed that it had made a direct approach to buy the greater part of the British nuclear decommissioning industry. It has highlighted the fact that the Government’s attempt to sell off its key nuclear industry assets has been shambolic. Behind the scenes it is the recently formed Nuclear Decommissioning Authority that is getting the blame, but the Department of Trade and Industry, the Treasury, British Nuclear Fuels and Number 10 have all played a role.
Times 1st September 2006
U.S. engineering and construction firm Fluor Corp. has bid up to 400 million pounds ($760 million) for state-owned British Nuclear Group (BNG) as record oil prices and moves to cut CO2 emissions boost interest in nuclear energy.
Reuters 31st August 2006
Proposals for a quick sale of the company which has to decommission Britain’s ageing nuclear reactors were being considered by ministers yesterday following a bid from the US engineering firm Fluor.
Guardian 1st September 2006
