Nuclear Waste
Article by Pete Wilkinson: A year after the CoRWM report, the government is still ignoring the advice from its own committee. It has eagerly accepted what it sees as the solution of deep geological disposal, but it has done little to address the vital prerequisites CoRWM called for: an intensified research programme to address uncertainties about storage and disposal, and a security-led review of storage.
Guardian 12th Sept 2007 more >>
Cash handouts are being offered to community groups and councils in West Somerset as compensation for having nuclear waste dumped on their doorstep. Magnox Electric, the firm behind plans to build a low-level radioactive waste site at Hinkley Point power station, has submitted a proposal to West Somerset and Sedgemoor District Councils that would see a community benefits fund set up to compensate residents for the risk of living near the dump.
Western Daily Press 8th September 2007 more >>
Bridgwater Mercury 10th Sept 2007 more >>
A £700m contract to make nuclear waste containers is up for grabs. Sellafield says it needs 20,000 three metre cubed stainless steel containers by 2011.
North West Evening Mail 11th Sept 2007 more >>
James Lovelock has offered to store on his own land in Launceston all of the nuclear waste produced by British reactors in a year. Heat from the radioactivity, he said, would warm his house.
Guardian 12th Sept 2007 more >>
Sizewell C
SUFFOLK County Council is set to endorse a Government strategy likely to lead to a new nuclear building programme, including a Sizewell C. However, a report to be considered by members of the Tory-controlled authority this week falls short of backing plans for a third power station at Sizewell and suggests the search for locations should not just be restricted to existing nuclear power sites.
East Anglian Daily Times 10th Sept 2007 more >>
France
President Sarkozy has put in motion the privatisation of Areva, the world’s biggest builder of nuclear power stations, as he asked officials yesterday to assess plans for a merger with Alstom, the French engineering group. The tie-up would create a Gallic giant valued at €40billion (£27.2 billion), with a global reach in sectors ranging from energy to trains. The move has set Paris on a collision course with Berlin, which is keen for Siemens, the German engineering group, to maintain a 34 per cent stake in Areva Nuclear Power, the nuclear reactors subsidiary.
Times 12th Sept 2007 more >>
Forbes 11th Sept 2007 more >>
European equity markets staged a rebound on Tuesday as attention focused on possible deal activity due to the potential restructuring of France’s nuclear industry.
FT 12th Sept 2007 more >>
France is pressing Germany to abandon its hostility to nuclear power in return for a seat at the table in the creation of a new French-led energy champion.
FT 12th Sept 2007 more >>
New nukes
The Government’s ongoing consultation on nuclear power, which late last week was described as ‘a sham’ by environmental groups, has recorded preliminary results of 46 per cent in favour of nuclear power.
Ecologist 10th Sept 2007 more >>
Iran
UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei walked out on an afternoon session Tuesday of his IAEA to protest an EU speech which did not fully support his deal for new inspections in Iran, diplomats told AFP. “He walked out because the EU did not support the Secretariat,” a diplomat who was at the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors said. “The Europeans gave a nasty statement and the director general (ElBaradei) walked out of the room,” a second diplomat said, demanding anonymity in return for revealing information about the closed-door session.
AFP 11th Sept 2007 more >>
Korea
Denuclearisation will not be on the agenda when Roh Moo-hyun, South Korea’s president, travels to North Korea in October. Mr Roh said he would not pursue the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme when he holds his long-awaited summit with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on October 2-4. Mr Roh, who firmly believes that establishing peace on the Korean peninsula is more important than denuclearisation, will use the meeting to seek to lay the groundwork to officially end the Korean war.
FT 12th Sept 2007 more >>
A team of U.S. officials and nuclear experts crossed the heavily armed border into North Korea on Tuesday on a rare visit to survey the communist state’s nuclear facilities.
Christian Today 11th Sept 2007 more >>
Nuclear Skills
AN engineering company in the region has opened a training centre that replicates the environment inside a nuclear power station. The facility is part of a £550m, seven-year partnership between Doosan Babcock and British Energy and provides an improved ability to train and qualify staff to meet the standards set by the companies. The 30,000sq ft centre, in Gateshead, is filled with replicas of British Energy’s plant and has new technology to carry out inspections and repair techniques in remote and difficult access environments.
Northern Echo 11th Sept 2007 more >>
Finland
Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said that his country would be interested in participating in any future nuclear power venture in Finland, according to Finnish broadcaster YLE’s website.
Interactive Investor 11th Sept 2007 more >>
Reuters 11th Sept 2007 more >>
Russia
Russia has exploded the world’s biggest non-nuclear bomb in a dramatic escalation of the new Cold War.
Daily Mail 12th Sept 2007 more >>
Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of Russian electricity monopoly UES, is not one to play down the scale of the task he faces in raising billions of dollars to rebuild his country’s ageing power industry. He is turning to private investment, from foreign energy companies including Eon and Enel and Russian industrial groups such as Lukoil and Basic Elements. Mr Chubais is this week on a roadshow courting institutional investors and energy companies across Europe, and explaining how the break-up and privatisation of UES will work. While the Russian government will keep control of the national grid, the electricity distribution networks, and the hydroelectric and nuclear generation capacity, companies operating coal and gas-fired power stations are being spun off and privatised.
FT 12th Sept 2007 more >>
Russia is prepared to allow foreign companies to control up to a quarter of its electricity generation industry, according to Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of state-owned electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems (UES).
FT 12th Sept 2007 more >>
Politics
The Lib Dems can exploit a strange unity between Tories and Labour on issues including support for the Iraq war, renewing Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent and civil nuclear power stations and on scaling back civil rights to tackle terrorism.
FT 12th Sept 2007 more >>
