Sellafield
Details of an incident involving a loss of vital cooling to the storage tanks that currently hold some 1000 cubic metres of highly radioactive liquid waste are beginning to emerge. Whilst full details are still unavailable, responses from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) and others to follow up questions reveal that the incident occurred on Thursday 2nd April and involved a loss of coolant water to all the storage tanks following the incorrect re-instatement of one of a number of control valves that had been isolated for maintenance. Because some of the storage tanks have a higher heat loading (the liquid HLW is physically hot as well as being highly radioactive) than others, efforts to re-instate the cooling water supply were directed first at the three tanks with the highest heat loading. Cooling was restored to the first of these after 75 minutes, and to all three tanks after 3 hours. Cooling was restored to all tanks within 8 hours – perilously close to the timescale of 10.5 hours catered for in the Sellafield site’s emergency plan.
CORE Press Release 9th Apr 2009 more >>
WEST Cumbria is to get £20million to boost the fortunes of Copeland and Allerdale over the next five years from Nuclear Management Partners.
Carlisle News and Star 9th Apr 2009 more >>
BBC 9th Apr 2009 more >>
New Nukes
GDF Suez aims to build one or two new-generation EPR reactors in the UK by 2020 and does not rule out expanding in the U.S. atomic sector, the group said on Thursday. GDF Suez has a nuclear power capacity of about 6,000 megawatts in Belgium, Germany and France.
“We have created a partnership with Iberdrola and Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) with the aim to develop one or two EPRs on the British market,” Pierre Clavel, a member of the group’s executive committee, told journalists at a seminar.
Interactive Investor 9th Apr 2009 more >>
GDF Suez the French operator of nuclear reactors in Belgium, is seeking to operate as many as four new-generation atomic plants worldwide, including one or two in the U.K., by 2020 as part of an overseas expansion plan.
Bloomberg 9th Apr 2009 more >>
Letter from Marianne Birkby: People are so shocked and awed by the prospect of new nuclear build on these greenfield sites that they say “Sellafield is the best place for new build as it is already contaminated”. We should not be deflected from the real issue, which is that no site in Cumbria is “suitable” for new nuclear build. Not while the High Level Liquid nuclear wastes already existing at Sellafield are in a critically dangerous state, so much so that the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority has just published a report on a hypothetical accident at Sellafield.
Carlisle News and Star 9th Apr 2009 more >>
Wylfa
Nuclear inspectors have approved plans that will see one of Britain’s oldest nuclear power stations closed. Under current proposals, the Wyfla plant on Anglesey will stop generating electricity in 2010. The 100 year programme of decommissioning the site will then get underway. However, the station’s operators say they are still continuing to work on a bid to extend the generating life of the plant beyond 2010.
BBC 9th Apr 2009 more >>
IAEA
A Spanish nuclear power specialist has entered the race to lead the U.N. nuclear watchdog following last month’s inconclusive vote to replace Mohamed ElBaradei. Luis Echavarri, 59, head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s nuclear energy arm, confirmed his candidature to be director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday.
Reuters 9th Apr 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran claimed it had made fresh progress in its nuclear programme today – just a day after the West signalled it wanted diplomatic talks aimed at halting the country’s atomic ambitions. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the country’s first nuclear fuel production plant near Isfahan in central Iran. And the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said it had tested more advanced equipment for enriching uranium.
Daily Mail 10th Apr 2009 more >>
The Obama administration’s latest diplomatic overtures to Iran have suffered an initial rebuff, as Tehran yesterday announced advances in its controversial nuclear programme and confirmed that a detained American journalist would be charged with spying.
Independent 10th Apr 2009 more >>
Barack Obama’s administration announced yesterday it would participate fully in all meetings between leading world powers and Iran to discuss Tehran’s nuclear programme, taking a significant step in its attempts to reach out to the Iranian regime.
FT 9th Apr 2009 more >>
Iran boasted of the progress of its nuclear programme on Thursday, just a day after the Obama administration took its latest step to find a diplomatic solution to the dispute. At an event in the central city of Isfahan, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s president, said Tehran was mastering nuclear technology, while Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, said that 7,000 centrifuges had been installed in an underground facility in Natanz.
FT 9th Apr 2009 more >>
Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has opened the door to talks with the US over his country’s nuclear programme, declaring that Tehran wanted negotiations based on ‘justice’.
Telegraph 10th Apr 2009 more >>
Inch by painful inch, the chasm between America and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions is quietly being narrowed.
Telegraph 10th Apr 2009 more >>
A triumphant President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad opened Iran’s first plant for producing nuclear fuel today, marking a significant leap forward for his controversial nuclear programme and sparking international fears that the Islamic Republic may be closer than ever to acquiring an atomic weapon.
Times website 9th Apr 2009 more >>
BBC 9th Apr 2009 more >>
Guardian 9th Apr 2009 more >>
THE prospect of US talks with Iran edged closer as the Obama administration agreed to join other nations for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme. A face-to-face meeting between Obama and Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became a possibility as both countries adopted a conciliatory attitude.
Evening Standard 9th Apr 2009 more >>
Japan
Japan will today announce a £102bn stimulus package that focuses on boosting the green economy in an attempt to drag the country out of its worst recession since the second world war. In addition to pledging more loans for hard-pressed small businesses and cash for job creation, it will also encourage the start of mass production of electric cars in three years and boost solar power generation to 20 times the current level of 1.42m kilowatts.
Guardian 10th Apr 2009 more >>
Telegraph 10th Apr 2009 more >>
Disarmament
Letter from Brian Quail: Whatever risks there may be in banning nuclear weapons pale into insignificance compared with the certainty of global catastrophe if we continue on the present course, which is one where a small handful of states claim the right to deploy criminal and illegal nuclear weapons of mass destruction, while stridently denouncing others which attempt to do likewise – “Don’t do as I do, do as I say” is the most irrational and hypocritical of moral postures.
Herald 10th Apr 2009 more >>
America’s Bush-era preaching to the world continues apace under Obama, exemplified by his approach to nuclear disarmament.
First Post 7th Apr 2009 more >>
