Scotland
The Scottish Labour Manifesto published on 10th April. It says there should be a 50% renewables target for 2020; and it has good mentions of Decentralised Energy. On nuclear “Scottish Labour will adopt an energy policy that gives consideration to all sources of energy including renewable, nuclear, gas, coal and oil and we are committed to ensuring a safe and secure supply of electricity which is sustainable and affordable. Whilst we recognise there are ongoing concerns about different sources of energy generation, we will not rule out any single energy source, as this may risk both the security of our electricity supply and thousands of jobs across Scotland. Scottish Labour will work to resolve how nuclear waste can be managed and disposed of safely”.
Scottish Labour Party 10th April 2007
SCOTTISH CHAMBERS Of Commerce has backed calls for a new generation of nuclear power stations to be built in Scotland. The support for nuclear comes in the Scottish Chambers manifesto for the upcoming Holyrood election. In order to overcome objections the new Scottish executive should set up a body that bypasses the traditional rounds of public consultation.
Sunday Herald 8th April 2007
Wales
The Labour Manifesto has a section on Green Wales proclaims that Wales could become a world leader in renewable energy, and states that the key to tackling climate change is harnessing the enormous potential of micro-generation and energy efficiency. This is somewhat spoilt by “We recognise that nuclear power generation remains an option in the debate on reducing carbon emissions in any future mixed energy supply.”
Welsh Labour Party April 2007
Nuclear Waste
Following the High Court’s conclusion that information given on radioactive waste in the Energy Review of 2006 was ‘not merely inadequate but misleading’. CoRWM re-stated its position. In no sense, CoRWM says, should its position be read as providing any solution to the long-term management of any wastes arising from a new build programme.
CoRWM website, March 2007
Renewables
Letter from Dr Gerry Wolff: It is not quite right to say “Sicily to build world’s first solar power plant” (28 March). Power plants of this type – using mirrors to concentrate sunlight to create heat then using the heat to raise steam and drive turbines and generators like a conventional power station – have been operating in California since 1985, and 500,000 Californians get their electricity from this source. A new plant of this type went on stream only last week in Spain. CSP works best in hot deserts and, of course, there are not many of these in Europe. But it is feasible and economic to transmit solar electricity over very long distances using highly efficient “HVDC” transmission lines. With transmission losses at about 3 per cent per 1,000km, solar electricity may, for example, be transmitted from North Africa to London with only about 10 per cent loss of power. A large-scale HVDC transmission grid has also been proposed by the wind energy company Airtricity as a means of optimising the use of wind power throughout Europe. In the recent “TRANS-CSP” report commissioned by the German government, it is estimated that CSP electricity, imported from North Africa and the Middle East, could become one of the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe, including the cost of transmission. That report shows in great detail how Europe can meet all its needs for electricity, make deep cuts in CO2 emissions, and phase out nuclear power at the same time.
Independent 7th April 2007
North Korea
THE main US nuclear envoy said in South Korea today that Washington believes a financial dispute that has prevented North Korea’s disarmament is now resolved.
ICWales 11th April 2007
Reuters 10th April 2007
North Korea said it could start shutting down its nuclear reactor, now that a dispute over frozen bank funds has been settled, but Pyongyang will likely miss a Saturday deadline on the disarmament deal, NBC news said on Wednesday.
Reuters 11th April 2007
Russia
Russia’s nuclear energy agency Rosatom and Russian aluminum producer Rusal have signed a memorandum on implementing a number of long-term joint investment programs, including a joint project in the country’s Far East that will be comprised of a nuclear power plant and an aluminum plant.
Energy Business Review 10th April 2007
Iran
Iran urged Western governments to “accept the new reality” of its nuclear programme yesterday as the regime disclosed a central plank of its strategy for resisting outside pressure. Teheran will try to present the world with a fait accompli by pressing ahead with uranium enrichment on an industrial scale at its nuclear facility in Natanz.
Telegraph 11th April 2007
Q&A on Iranian uranium enrichment
Telegraph 11th April 2007
RUSSIA has cast doubt on Iran’s announcement this week that it is now making nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, a move that would take the Islamic Republic closer to making an atomic bomb.
Scotsman 11th April 2007
Herald 11th April 2007
Times 11th April 2007
Is Iran bluffing about the progress of its nuclear program? Experts and some world powers are expressing doubt that the country has been able to assemble the complicated system it needs to enrich uranium – a potential pathway to nuclear arms.
Guardian website 11th April 2007
Two inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to press for improved scrutiny of Iran’s expanding nuclear programme. The inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived on a routine visit just a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad announced that Iran had reached “industrial scale” enrichment of uranium, and other officials scaled up the rhetoric about the programme. The IAEA is seeking to install television cameras at Iran’s underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz so it can monitor activities there. But Iran, which has reacted to UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear programme by reducing co-operation with the IAEA, has resisted the effort.
FT 11th April 2007
British Energy
BRITISH Energy gave the market its first good news in months yesterday, with output slightly ahead of expectations and two of its troubled nuclear plants close to returning to partial capacity. The nuclear power station operator, which produces around 20 per cent of the UK’s power needs, said in a trading statement that output in the year to 31 March was 58.4 terrawatt hours (TWh), around 1TWh above recent forecasts, which had been reduced following delays to repairs two of its nuclear power plants, including Hunterston B in Ayrshire. The company said the boiler issues caused 9.4YTW hours of power to be lost.
Scotsman 11th April 2007
Repairs at Hunterston and Hinkley have been completed and the company expects to start production at the stations at 70 percent capacity this month, after providing further data and analysis to the nuclear safety regulator, it said.
Bloomberg 10th April 2007
British Energy has become embroiled in a legal battle with Credit Suisse over allegations the bank is breaking the terms of an agreement it signed over the Eggborough coal-fired power station.
Guardian 11th April 2007
FT 11th April 2007
Trident
Eleven peace campaigners have been arrested during a protest at an atomic research base in Berkshire. Activists staged the protest at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston over plans to upgrade the UK’s Trident nuclear defences. A Thames Valley Police spokesman said about 60 people took part in the demonstration at the site.
BBC 10th April 2007
Letter from Kate Hudson: Magnus Linklater’s analysis of the forthcoming Scottish election (“Labour in fear as Scots are urged to grasp thistle of independence”, April 4 ) omits one of the most significant policy issues moving Scottish voters toward the SNP: Trident replacement. A recent poll shows that 73 per cent of Scots oppose the Labour Government’s plan to spend billions of pounds replacing Trident. The SNP, taking a firm antiTrident line, has won over many Scottish voters on this policy alone.
Times 11th April 2007
Uranium
The price of uranium has recorded its biggest percentage increase since dealings were first reported almost 40 years ago. The cost of the fuel used in nuclear power plants jumped 19pc to $113 a pound at a US auction last week. Demand for uranium is soaring thanks to a renaissance in the nuclear power industry. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, 168 new nuclear reactors will be built over the next 15 years. There are currently 440, generating around 16pc of the world’s electricity. China plans to build 40 new reactors and India wants to add eight more to the 15 it has already.
Telegraph 11th April 2007
Even by the red-hot standards of natural resources markets, uranium is something special. The 19pc rise in the price of the nuclear fuel this week was the biggest jump in 40 years. Uranium has doubled since last October and risen ten-fold in only four years. With the Three Mile Island disaster fading from the collective memory, nuclear is now seen as the solution not the problem. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, we are likely to build 168 new nuclear power plants over the next 15 years, about a quarter of them in China alone. That’s going to require an awful lot of yellowcake, as the tradeable form of uranium is known, and it’s no surprise that delegations from the likes of Japan are crawling all over far flung places such as Kazakhstan.
Telegraph 11th April 2007
New nukes
The Department of Trade and Industry is reportedly desperate to meet with Britain’s leading environment groups. Following the High Court ruling by Mr Justice Sullivan that the 2006 Energy Review consultation was “very seriously flawed”, and had failed to consult the public properly, the government is desperate not to make the same mistake again. So it needs to find out what the groups want, and to start the new consultation soon. This leaves the anti-nukes in a weirdly powerful position. “We can basically ask for anything we like,” says one man, unaccustomed to getting anything whatsoever out of government. “It’s quite a turnaround.” You bet.
Guardian 11th April 2007
Environment secretary David Miliband is said to be humming and hawing over whether to stand against Gordon Brown. Meanwhile, he has a little local difficulty. Since January, he has been president of the influential Labour party green advisory group, Sera, but now there is a move by Scottish members to oust him because of his support for nuclear power.
Guardian 11th April 2007
