Radwaste
Common EU rules mooted for final disposal of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Nuclear power stations generate a third of the electricity consumed in the EU – and about 7 000 cubic metres of radioactive waste each year. Currently, this spent nuclear fuel waste is being stored at centres close to or near the ground. But this is a short-term measure to reduce temperature and radioactivity a little. As radioactive waste remains hazardous for up to one million years, the safest long term solution is to dispose of it deep underground, where there is less chance of it being affected by accidents, fires or earthquakes.
News on News 12th Nov 2010 more >>
Supply Chain
A MACHINE tools manufacturer is hoping to be part of an engineering sector resurgence in the UK as the country prepares to build nuclear power stations. Paul Hinchliffe, managing director of Asquith Butler in Brighouse, said the national civil and nuclear programme – to build between eight to 12 new nuclear stations in the next 30 years – was one of the biggest plans for UK manufacturing.
Halifax Courier 11th Nov 2010 more >>
Hartlepool (Non-nuclear)
Technology capable of producing electricity from heat generated by process industries is being trialled in Hartlepool.
Huntsman Pigments, which develops titanium dioxide pigment to be used in paints at its Greatham site, has partnered with DRD Power for the project. From March 2011, the plant will be trialling a system that uses the waste water to heat liquid with a lower boiling temperature, which in turn powers a generator. It is thought that the project could save between 600 and 750 tonnes of carbon emissions per year and will be capable of generating 200kW of electricity.
Low Carbon Economy 11th Nov 2010 more >>
Trawsfynydd
THE Communications Team at Trawsfynydd’s former Nuclear Power Station has won a prestigious award in Cardiff. The Annual Chartered Institute of Public Relations Wales Annual PR Awards saw Magnox North’s Trawsfynydd Site entering for the first time, scooping the Gold Award in the Best Magazine category
Cambrian News 11th Nov 2010 more >>
Sellafield
Hundreds of Sellafield staff can expect a move to Whitehaven to work in the planned £20 million Albion Square office block complex.
Carlisle News & Star 11th Nov 2010 more >>
Aldermaston
Members at the Atomic Weapons Establishment are to balloted on industrial action over a pay offer for 2010. Notification of the ballot has been sent to AWE and papers will be issued to members on November 2 with a closing date of November 16. Prospect says AWE’s accounts show increased costs as a result of paying the board plus a dividend to the three controlling companies, who contribute nothing at all to AWE. AWE is run by a consortium on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. The consortium, controlled by Lockheed Martin, Jacobs Engineering and Serco is financed from tax payers’ money to produce and maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
Prospect 29th Oct 2010 more >>
US
Nuclear power may be one issue both President Obama and the new Republican Congress can agree on, but unless someone is willing to pony up more money, a big new build-out of nuclear power plants remains unlikely.
CNN 11th Nov 2010 more >>
Venezuela
Venezuela expects a nuclear reactor to save it $1 billion per year by increasing the amount of oil it exports, but a lot of work remains to realise the promise of nuclear cooperation with Russia.
World Nuclear News 11th Nov 2010 more >>
Disarmament
Past winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are in the Japanese city of Hiroshima to call for nuclear disarmament. Hiroshima, devastated by an atomic bomb in 1945, was chosen to highlight the anti-nuclear message.
BBC 12th Nov 2010 more >>
Coal
In the largest ever initial public offering on the Indian stock exchange, Coal India, a huge government-owned coal company, recently offered 10% of its shares to investors at home and abroad. What was at stake was essentially a $35bn (£21bn) bankrolling of enhanced global warming by the capital markets. Yet Coal India’s prospectus, crafted with the help of a clutch of big-name investment banks, did not mention climate change once in 510 pages of exhortation to invest.
Guardian 9th Nov 2010 more >>
