Sellafield
There are similarities between the poor operating practices at the Texas City oil refinery that blew up in America and the troubled nuclear complex at Sellafield in Cumbria, the former BP executive brought in to shake up the government’s nuclear clean-up operation has warned. In his first interview as chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Tony Fountain admitted there was still a long way to go before Europe’s biggest atomic site was brought up to the highest possible standards, although he said progress had been made by a new private sector management team.
Observer 14th Feb 2010 more >>
Bill Poulson had been in his new job barely two weeks when a radioactive leak ruined his day. The American executive had moved from his home in South Carolina to the rural tranquillity of Cumbria to become head of the consortium that has been handed control of Sellafield, the 700-acre site that houses two-thirds of Britain’s radioactive waste. He knew it was a big job. Sellafield has been called the most contaminated industrial site in western Europe and has a long history of accidents, project delays, and spending overruns that have cost taxpayers billions. Environmental campaigners and other countries have demanded that it be closed. Poulson’s company, URS Washington, along with partners Areva of France and Amec, the British engineering giant, were chosen by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to see if they could succeed where the government had failed.
Sunday Times 14th Feb 2010 more >>
Oldbury
Green Councillor Philip Booth’s submission on Justification.
Ruscombe Green 13th Feb 2010 more >>
Energy Supplies
People have been warning for a decade that Britain would be increasingly reliant on imported gas as North Sea supplies became depleted. We knew that most of our old nuclear reactors would have been retired by 2010 and almost a third of the present coal and oil-burning plants would have to be phased out under European Union pollution laws by 2015. So there are many ironies in the regulator, which has been telling people for years that the existing market is amply capable of providing new investment, performing a volte face and telling us we could be in dead trouble. You wonder why Ofgem couldn’t have told us a bit earlier.
Sunday Times 14th Feb 2010 more >>
US
President Barack Obama is to signal a major step-change in the global nuclear industry this week when he announces loan guarantees for two nuclear reactors to be built in the US.
Telegraph 14th Feb 2010 more >>
India
The UK and India have signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Declaration, a welcome step forward which will help both countries to achieve low carbon growth, British Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, Pat McFadden, announced in India today.
Wired Gov 14th Feb 2010 more >>
Climate
Shivering atop a power-station chimney certainly makes a dramatic eco statement. But is direct action the best way to combat global warming? Robin Barton meets the climate-change campaigners who like ‘big and bold’ and the green communities who prefer ‘slow and steady’
Independent on Sunday 14th Feb 2010 more >>
