France
A third nuclear reactor will be built at Flamanville on the Normandy coast. The board of directors of Electricite de France has given it the go ahead following public consultation. The £2.2bn project, less than 30 miles (48km) from Guernsey, is the first of a new generation of pressurised water reactors and is due to open in 2012.
BBC, 12th May 2006
Jersey Evening Post 12th May 2006
Iran
The presidents of Iran and Indonesia began a summit of eight developing nations on Saturday overshadowed by fears about Tehran’s nuclear programme. The Developing Eight (D-8) groups some of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nations and is aimed primarily at developing economic and trade ties.
Reuters 13th May 2006
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog is investigating the source of traces of highly enriched uranium found on equipment procured by a suspicious Iranian site once associated with the defence ministry. The preliminary finding of traces of material that could be used in nuclear weapons production will add to concerns that Iran is concealing the more dubious parts ofits nuclear programme.
FT, 13th May 2006
Independent, 13th May 2006
Proliferation
Stephen Tindale writes:- Hypocrisy is a bad basis for foreign policy. Britain is in no position to tell Iran it cannot have a nuclear bomb. We’ve got several, and have failed to meet our obligations under the non-proliferation treaty.
Guardian website 9th May 2006
New nukes
What the Labour party and the country need is for Mr Blair and Mr Brown to reach, even at this late hour, a concordat on the transition. Such an accord would have to include a broad timetable. But this should be defined by policy substance, not either man’s ambition. Both parties would need to agree on what Mr Blair could reasonable expect to achieve before stepping down at an early date. In effect, Mr Blair should offer Mr Brown a deal in which he agrees to resign next year provided Mr Brown throws his full weight behind a reform agenda for the final stage of the Blair premiership, spanning pensions, nuclear energy, health and education.
FT Editorial 13th May 2006
Friends of the Earth urged new Environment Secretary David Miliband to oppose calls for a new generation of nuclear power plants, and back better, safer alternative technologies and measures to combat climate change and meet our energy needs. The environmental campaign group called on the Government to back a new law to make successive government’s responsible for annual cuts in carbon dioxide emissions every year.
FoE Press Release 12th May 2006
Milliband hints at nuclear power
Daily Mirror 13th May 2006
The energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, dismisses suggestions that the review is a cynical exercise to push through new nuclear power. Keith Barnham and his colleagues, by contrast, think the case against is overwhelmingly strong, and ask if other factors may be pushing nuclear ahead. They also note that Germany, which has renounced future nuclear power, is ten years ahead of the UK in exploiting renewable energy. Roger Levett and Clive Bates focus on the ultimate turn-off: demand management. Like Wagner’s music, this is better than it sounds. There isn’t an energy supply gap, says Levett, only a gap of political courage and imagination. The bills we pay power companies contribute to a return on capital of 10 per cent or less, says Bates; simple energy-efficiency measures can earn 400 per cent risk free (enough to make Octagon weep over a paltry 60 per cent on a PFI hospital). Dieter Helm says that politicians should leave markets well alone – having first set the right goals: long-term markets for carbon reduction and energy capacity. Fred Pearce argues that, as the situation becomes more urgent, the old idea of “contraction and convergence” has a new logic.
New Statesman Energy Supplement 15th May 2006
ENERGY gap, what energy gap? According to the conservation group WWF-UK, it’s nothing more than a myth created to justify building a new generation of nuclear power stations. A report into energy generation commissioned by WWF from the firm ILEX Energy Consulting concludes that the UK can meet its future energy needs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions without the help of nuclear power. The report finds that some tweaks of energy policy would allow the UK to cut CO2 emissions by 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2010, and maintain them at this level until 2025. That’s despite almost all nuclear power stations being closed during this time. Increased use of renewable energy coupled with reductions in energy waste would allow emissions to fall by 55 per cent by 2025, the report says.New Scientist magazine No.2551, 13 May 2006.
WWF Press Release 9th May 2006
Report: The Balance of Power (pdf)
