Electricity Market Reform
Businesses have voiced their concern over the costs of the £110bn “green” overhaul of Britain’s energy sector and believe it risks making the country uncompetitive. Three quarters of major energy users said they were worried about the impact of the reforms on their businesses, according to research by supplier npower. Ministers are pushing an Energy Bill through Parliament that will introduce billions of pounds of long-term subsidies for low-carbon power sources such as wind farms and nuclear reactors. The plants are intended to replace older, dirtier coal plants that are being switched off so Britain can meet legally binding carbon emission and renewable energy targets. But the green technologies are not commercially viable to build without the subsidies, which will be paid for through levies on energy consumers’ bills.
Telegraph 31st Aug 2013 read more »
Sellafield
The Sellafield Workers Campaign (SWC) launched its manifesto for the growth and sustainability of the nuclear site – and the 10,000 people who work there. In the document, Sellafield at the Heart of a Low Carbon Energy Future, SWC calls on the government to “maintain a clear and unequivocal commitment” to the site, and outlines how it hopes this can be achieved. Kevin Coyne, the national officer for the Unite union who also spoke on behalf of GMB and Prospect, said: “We call upon the UK to recognise the valuable role that Sellafield plays, and will continue to play in the future. “Nuclear is the only viable energy source to keep the lights on.” The campaign is specifically calling for three main points to be addressed, added Mr Coyne: To ensure there is nuclear new-build at Sellafield; To effectively re-use the stockpile of plutonium current stored at Sellafield; To begin a new search into a geological disposal facility (GDF). Further recommendations include establishing a local planning authority to have sole jurisdiction to Sellafield, increasing investment in research and development on the site, and granting the site enhanced status as the UK’s ‘National Nuclear Waste Management and Development Centre’.
Carlisle News & Star 31st Aug 2013 read more »
Dounreay
DOUNREAY’s owners have kept plans to ship a consignment of bomb-grade nuclear fuel from the site to America under the radar, according to an anti-nuclear group. Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) question why the proposal was not mentioned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in a recent consultation on how to deal with the stockpile of so-called “exotic” fuels at the Caithness site. CORE say there was not even an “oblique reference” to the material, which arrived at Dounreay in 1999 from the former USSR state of Georgia. But the NDA yesterday hit back, pointing out that there was no reference as it did not own the fuel. The quango insists all the stockpile of exotic fuel – a mixture of unirradiated plutonium and highly enriched uranium and spent fuel – it owns at Dounreay will be transported to Sellafield in north-west England.
John O Groat Journal 30th Aug 2013 read more »
Campaigners accusing the authorities charged with overseeing the nuclear industry of covert plans and official duplicity over Dounreay’s nuclear material. We could be back in the 1990s. But this week Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (Core ) had uncovered covert plans to ship Dounreay nuclear fuel to the US, contrary to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) publicly stated decision to send it to Sellafield.
Herald 30th Aug 2013 read more »
Environmental groups want to halt a plan to ship spent nuclear fuel from Scotland to Savannah River Site, saying it could make bomb-grade uranium more vulnerable to terrorists.
Augusta Chronicle 29th Aug 2013 read more »
Japan
Radiation at a tank holding highly contaminated water at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has spiked 18-fold, the plant’s operator has said. Radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour – enough to kill an exposed person in four hours – was detected near the bottom of one storage tank on Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co , also known as Tepco, said.
ITV 1st Sept 2013 read more »
Irish Independent 1st Sept 2013 read more »
