Nuclear Waste
Communities are to be offered jobs and other “bribes” to accept nuclear waste, it has emerged. Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, urged councils and other groups to provide an “essential service to the nation” by offering sites to bury a share of Britain’s stockpile of radioactive material.
Telegraph 13th June 2008 more >>
Daily Mail 13th June 2008 more >>
Times 13th June 2008 more >>
Reuters 12th June 2008 more >>
BBC 12th June 2008 more >>
ITN 12th June 2008 more >>
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 12th June 2008 more >>
Ananova 12th June 2008 more >>
This is London 13th June 2008 more >>
Nuclear waste could be buried near people’s homes even if most of them disagree with the plan, the government has said. Yesterday, environment secretary Hilary Benn asked local communities to volunteer to have toxic waste buried nearby – and was accused of offering bribes to take the waste. The government says “voluntar-ism” should be the principle behind finding a site to bury nuclear waste which would remain radioactive for hundreds of years. But the white paper published yesterday says there is no set level of public support and that disposal could go ahead in the face of opposition.
East Anglian Daily Press 13th June 2008 more >>
Scotland has opted out of the scheme, but councils and private landowners in England and Wales can put themselves forward as venues for the disposal facilities, which will be deep underground.
Herald 13th June 2008 more >>
Copeland Borough Council, Cumbria County Council and the Lake District National Park have already said they are prepared to consider the matter.
Whitehaven News 12th June 2008 more >>
Councillor Tony Markley, Cumbria County Council’s cabinet member responsible for nuclear issues, said: “The message from Cumbria is ‘we’re listening’. This White Paper starts a process which will allow Government to have a meaningful dialogue with communities who may wish to explore the possibility of hosting a deep geological nuclear storage facility.
Whitehaven News 12th June 2008 more >>
GMB says that community support for a repository in Cumbria should not be taken for granted.
GMB Press Release 12th June 2008 more >>
Responding to the White Paper on nuclear waste, Nathan Argent, Greenpeace’s nuclear campaigner, said: “No company would invest in nuclear if they were left to pay the full costs of nuclear waste. That’s why the Government is fixing it so the financial risks fall on the taxpayer. The costs will massively over-run, as they have consistently done so far.
Greenpeace UK 12th June 2008 more >>
We’ve known for quite some time that the government’s preferred solution to that nagging problem of all the nuclear waste currently lying around the place is to dump it in a big hole in the ground. Nice. However, they’ve had trouble finding anywhere in the country which has been willing to live with this waste bubbling away beneath their feet but now they’ve come up with the perfect solution: bribery!
Greenpeace UK 12th June 2008 more >>
As always, it will be the poorest communities who are given the least choice. Desperately in need of investment, they’ll be forced into accepting radioactive waste on their doorstep just to avoid further Labour neglect.
Green Party 12th June 2008 more >>
British Energy
The stakes are high and neither EDF nor British Energy is blinking. But someone will eventually have to show their cards if Britain’s nuclear future is not to be compromised. The French state-controlled electricity behemoth appears to be the only credible bidder left for British Energy. Spain’s Iberdrola finally admitted Thursday it was not interested. Suez pulled out long ago. Only Germany’s RWE is keeping quiet about its intentions. However, its chances have been severely damaged by the withdrawal of its Swedish bid partner.
FT 13th June 2008 more >>
A COUPLE of months ago, there was a big corporate office opening in Scotland. The local MP and dignitaries from the local council turned up. There were speeches emphasising the importance of the company to Scotland and all of Britain. But there was nobody from the Scottish Government, which normally hastens to attend the opening of a tin of beans. Odd, that. After all, this company has 1,260 employees in Scotland, all highly paid, and about another 300 contract workers more or less permanently on site. The reason, of course, for the ministerial cold-shoulder, is that this is British Energy.
Scotsman 13th June 2008 more >>
The sale of British Energy ran into further trouble as one of the front-runners walked away yesterday, citing the “unreasonable” asking price. Ignacio Sanchez Galan, the chairman of Iberdrola, said his company had now formally pulled out of the race to buy British Energy, on the grounds that the UK nuclear power company’s board had made demands “over what we consider reasonable”. British Energy declined to comment. The announcement by Iberdrola, which owns ScottishPower, comes just days after France’s EDF said it would not raise its bid, after British Energy rejected an offer worth £11bn.
Independent 13th June 2008 more >>
Times 13th June 2008 more >>
Telegraph 13th June 2008 more >>
Both John Hutton and Vincent de Rivaz were reported to be in good spirits at yesterday’s conference on the future of the UK nuclear industry. But the Business Secretary appeared to have rather less to smile about than the head of EdF’s UK arm. EdF had just heard that Iberdrola of Spain had pulled out of the bidding for British Energy, leaving the French electricity giant as the only serious bidder for the UK nuclear generator. Mr Hutton’s hopes for a competitive auction for the Government’s 35 per cent stake in British Energy had crumbled and his plan for a new generation of nuclear power stations was looking as precarious as an old reactor. British Energy has rebuffed EdF’s offer of 680p-700p and it is possible, though unlikely, that the French will just walk away. That would leave the Government back at square one, looking to British Energy to soldier on by itself and to develop new power stations on its existing sites through sales or joint ventures.
Times 13th June 2008 more >>
New Nukes
Stephen Thomas: On Wednesday, the business secretary, John Hutton, made a statement saying the government would not allow a monopoly over new nuclear generation. This serves only as a further demonstration that the commitment not to subsidise nuclear power is weak. Hutton’s statement follows the failure of the government to adhere to the pledge made by the energy minister Malcolm Wicks in 2006, when he told a select committee: “No cheques will be written, there will be no sweetheart deals.” In fact, under the proposed new policy on waste, companies building nuclear power plants will be given a guaranteed fixed price for disposal of the waste they produce when they start construction. Claims by the government’s adviser Tim Stone that this fixed price was “absolutely not a subsidy” are not credible: it certainly is a subsidy. And from past experience of the accuracy of nuclear cost estimates, it is one that could prove costly to taxpayers more than 100 years into the future when this waste is actually being disposed of.
Guardian 12th June 2008 more >>
The Tories lent strong support to a government drive yesterday to encourage investors to build a multibillion pound fleet of new nuclear reactors “as soon as possible” in the UK. Senior nuclear industry figures attending a London conference hosted by John Hutton, the business secretary, sought assurance about the degree of political risk attached to the plans to fast-track new nuclear plants.
FT 13th June 2008 more >>
GORDON Brown called yesterday for 1,000 new nuclear power stations around the world to meet global energy needs. The PM also pledged Britain would lead the way in reducing “addiction” to oil.
The Sun 13th June 2008 more >>
Independent 13th June 2008 more >>
Scotsman 13th June 2008 more >>
The Government has urged the world’s biggest energy companies to build Britain’s next generation of nuclear power stations. Addressing a conference of senior figures and potential investors from the international nuclear industry, Business Secretary John Hutton said he wanted to see new nuclear power stations “built and operating as quickly as possible”. The Government’s plea follows January’s Nuclear White Paper and comes at a time when British Energy is up for sale. BE, which is 35pc owned by the Government, has said it has received a number of proposals but only France’s EDF currently has a bid on the table.
Telegraph 13th June 2008 more >>
The UK is a leader in a new global nuclear investment ‘league table’ and looks set to attract the world’s leading energy companies to build its next generation of nuclear power stations, research commissioned by Business Secretary John Hutton has found.
BERR Press Release 12th June 2008 more >>
Rowdy public demonstrations, legal injunctions, targeted attacks on ministers and civil servants and an attempt to get ‘anti’ MPs to find their voice, are planned by environmental campaigners aiming to kill off plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain. With the Government today putting forward details on new nuclear plants and how it aims to deal with radioactive waste, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have pledged months of disruption up to and through the next general election.
Croydon Today 12th June 2008 more >>
The UK government will create a new Office of Nuclear Development in a bid to get new nuclear reactors built and operating “as quickly as possible”, John Hutton, UK business secretary, will tell an audience of senior figures from the international nuclear industry today. The announcement comes as the UK government releases a draft criteria for the development of new nuclear reactor sites across the UK, fitting in with its policy, released earlier in the year, to go ahead with more nuclear power development.
AFX 12th June 2008 more >>
Money AM 12th June 2008 more >>
THE UK is set to attract the world’s leading companies to build its next generation of nuclear power stations, business secretary John Hutton was due to tell an audience of international energy chiefs today. The news will be welcomed on Teesside, where engineering firms are keen to share in the £20bn nuclear expansion plans, which have the potential of creating 100,000 jobs in the energy sector and its immediate supply chain.
Newcastle Evening Gazette 12th June 2008 more >>
Submarines
A catalogue of blunders led to the deaths of two sailors after an explosion and fire aboard a nuclear-powered submarine as it dived beneath the Arctic ice cap.
Daily Mail 13th June 2008 more >>
