New Nukes
The country will have a new generation of nuclear power stations within eight years, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said yesterday, as he insisted he had been miscast as an opponent of atomic energy. In a move that will surprise many of his Liberal Democrat colleagues who oppose nuclear power, Mr Huhne insisted that he had not changed his stance on atomic power. Ben Ayliffe, senior nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace said Mr Huhne ‘can perform u-turns until he becomes dizzy’. ‘But that doesn’t change the fact that no nuclear power plants will be built without public subsidy.’ Mike Childs, head of Friends of the Earth climate division, said that nuclear power would leave the country with toxic waste for centuries.
Daily Mail 10th Aug 2010 more >>
Nuclear power workers and green energy activists were split yesterday on the Con-Dem coalition’s vow to get new privatised nuclear power stations built and running by 2018. Lib Dem Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne buried his previous personal opposition to nuclear energy and caved in to CBI demands that the government reassure wealthy investors looking to profit from new power stations. Mr Huhne, who in 2007 branded nuclear power a “failed and outdated industry,” boasted that because shareholders were eager to profit from rising energy prices meant that the government no longer needed to provide public subsidies to the industry.
Morning Star 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has insisted the government is fully behind the opening of a new nuclear power station in eight years’ time. He was responding to calls from the CBI business group to reassure investors that ministers were prepared to make a big push for nuclear power. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today he was in favour of a mix of more nuclear, oil and gas and renewable energy.
BBC 9th Aug 2010 more >>
BBC Today 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Press & Journal 10th Aug 2010 more >>
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Country LIfe 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Spectator 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Express 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Politics.co.uk 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Edie 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne today handed Cumbria a potential economic boost, revealing Britain is on-track to have new nuclear power plants up and running within eight years.
Carlisle News & Star 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, has been the victim of a terrible misunderstanding, he claimed on BBC’s Today programme this morning. We all believe he’s anti-nuclear power – but he’s not. Dear me, no. His previous position, he insisted, had been “misunderstood” and he is actually in favour of nuclear being part of the UK’s energy mix because he had “no intention of the lights going out on my watch.” How on earth could so many people have reached such a misunderstanding? Could his very own web-site on November 5, 2007, offer a clue?
Telegraph 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Hinkley
ENVIRONMENT bosses met EDF Energy to find out how it plans to deal with waste generated at the proposed third Hinkley nuclear reactor. Simon Hughes and Simon Birch from the Environment Agency held talks with EDF Energy site managers at the site near Bridgwater on Wednesday. The agency said it was the first real chance for its senior managers to see the proposals for themselves and grasp a full understanding of EDF’s preferred proposals for the huge development.
Bridgwater Mercury 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Sizewell
SIZEWELL B nuclear power station remains off-line but is on track to re-open later this year, its owner EDF Energy has confirmed. Meanwhile, a pressure group is calling on the company and environmental watchdogs to be more open with members of the public following a number of “near misses” at the Suffolk plant.
Lowestoft Journal 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Cumbria
BAFFLED councillors have called for clearer guidelines in a new twist in the consultation for new nuclear power stations. Members of Millom Town Council are appealing to the Environment Agency asking for a simpler document so they could participate in the consultation over a potential nuclear power station site in West Cumbria. Proposed sites for new nuclear power stations are at Kirksanton, Braystones and Sellafield. Despite no concrete plans being in place local authorities are being asked to share their views over a preferred reactor type. Councillors were urged by councillor Frank McPhillips at the latest Millom Town Council meeting to read the consultation document and respond due to the vital nature of the nuclear industry to Millom and west Cumbria.
NW Evening Mail 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Aldermaston
Around 60 firefighters have been involved in tackling a blaze which broke out last Tuesday at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire. Crews from Berkshire, Surrey and London joined the AWE’s own firefighters to tackle the fire which broke out at around 9.00 pm. According to AWE, the fire was contained in a non-nuclear explosives manufacturing area and was extinguished shortly after 1.00am.
Info4fire 10th August 2010 more >>
Companies
E.ON AG and RWE AG, two of the worst performers in Germany’s benchmark DAX share index this year, are poised to cut dividends and investment because a proposed tax on nuclear reactors will erode the utilities’ profits. Germany wants 2.3 billion euros ($3 billion) a year from the nuclear industry from 2011 to trim the budget deficit, the government said in June. That led Dusseldorf-based E.ON to extend its drop this year to 20 percent while RWE, based in Essen, is down 18 percent. HeidelbergCement AG has posted the biggest decline in the 30-member DAX, which is up 6.6 percent. The country’s two largest electricity suppliers will invest about 17 billion euros in power plants and natural gas pipelines and other energy assets this year to use more cleaner-burning fuels. The spending may fall in coming years as the tax could cut yearly earnings at RWE by 1 billion euros and at E.ON by 1.5 billion euros, said Kepler Capital Markets analyst Ingo Becker.
Bloomberg 10th Aug 2010 more >>
Another UK power firm was poised for foreign ownership today after International Power agreed a merger with France’s GDF Suez. International Power, which owns UK assets including the giant coal-fired station at Rugeley in Staffordshire, will be 70% owned by GDF under the deal to create one of the world’s biggest independent power generators.
Guardian 10th Aug 2010 more >>
Times 10th Aug 2010 more >>
Uranium
As a mining giant prepares to open a major uranium mining site in Western Australia next year, the clamour for the state to once more ban mining of the radioactive mineral has become louder. In fact, the Wongatha Aboriginal clan that calls this region its home does not see any wisdom in having uranium mining in Australia at all. “We don’t need uranium mining in this country,” says Wongatha leader and pastor Geoffrey Stokes. “We have sun, we’ve got wind, we’ve got people. Why should we pollute our country for money?”
Guardian Environment Network 9th Aug 2010 more >>
US
The flagship project to build a new nuclear power reactor in the United States the one that provided the economic model for most new reactor proposals since is in serious trouble and likely will collapse of its own weight before construction could even begin. What this means for the much-hyped nuclear “renaissance” is clear: there will be no large-scale nuclear revival in the United States, and probably not in the rest of the world either, since the pressures on this project are international in scope, and affect just about every nation not named China.
Daily Kos 5th Aug 2010 more >>
Russia
A state of emergency has been introduced in forests and parks on the territory of the Ozersk city district due to a complicated fire hazard situation,” said a statement posted on the district’s website. Ozersk, in the Urals region of Russia, is the latest strategic site to be threatened by wildfires which have already badly damaged military depots and threatened other atomic facilities. Ozersk’s Mayak plant can process 400 tonnes of waste a year. It was the scene of one of the former Soviet Union’s major nuclear disasters in 1957 when a liquid waste accident affected some 260,000 people and forced the evacuation of several towns.
Telegraph 10th Aug 2010 more >>
Iran
The US and its allies are preparing to launch a nuclear war directed against Iran with devastating consequences. This military adventure in the real sense of the word threatens the future of humanity. While one can conceptualize the loss of life and destruction resulting from present-day wars including Iraq and Afghanistan, it is impossible to fully comprehend the devastation which might result from a Third World War, using “new technologies” and advanced weapons, until it occurs and becomes a reality.
The Market Oracle 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Nagasaki
A TREE in a St Albans churchyard was dedicated yesterday to the victims of the two atomic bombs that ended World War Two 65 years ago. Members of St Albans Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined parishioners of St Stephen’s Church for a ceremony at a cherry tree replacing one dedicated in the Sixties which has since died.
St Albans Review 9th Aug 2010 more >>
Renewables
Whole buildings – including their windows – could potentially become solar power generators thanks to new technology. The new transparent solar cell technology for harnessing green energy could be available within about five years. Professor Chris Binns of Leicester University, who was behind the research, said: “One of the key advantages is that it is a transparent thin film that can be coated onto window glass so that windows in buildings can also become power generators.
Telegraph 10th Aug 2010 more >>
