New nukes
Gordon MacKerron: The Government says it is committed to nuclear energy, but has done nothing to make it more attractive. The Prime Minister’s announcement last week opens up the danger of the country being left with no new reactors, nor any greener alternatives.
Independent on Sunday 13th Jan 2008 more >>
NORTHWEST Development Agency chief executive Steven Broomhead has welcomed the Government’s decision to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK. Mr Broomhead said that given the concentration of nuclear industry sites in the North West – particularly in Warrington and Cumbria – the region’s economy could reap the benefits.
Liverpool Daily Post 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Letter from Dr Carlonine Lucas: Sir David King’s definition of a luddite appears to be anyone who has the audacity to disagree with him (Science chief: greens hurting climate fight, January 12). Moreover, in demonstrating such contempt for an approach to climate change which gives serious attention to energy efficiency and demand reduction, it is King himself who does a disservice to the climate fight, not the green campaigners whom he attacks.
Andy Stirling: Sir David King warns that failure to support nuclear power is a position of “utter hopelessness”. In a democracy, this kind of “no alternatives” rhetoric flies in the face of any serious understanding of innovation. Also letters from John Sauven, Richard Bramhall and others.
Guardian 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Letters from Dan Barlow (WWF) and others: Scotland and the rest of the UK could meet their energy needs and combat climate change without resorting to nuclear power. Nuclear is a polluting and expensive distraction from the real action required by politicians to tackle climate change. The Scottish Government is right to continue to reject nuclear power and we are disappointed that UK ministers have not done likewise. This reckless decision must not be allowed to undermine continued support for renewables and other sensible solutions to climate change here in Scotland.
Scotsman 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Nuclear power is back on the agenda in Britain. If more nuclear stations are ordered, which is far from certain, it will mark a fresh start for an industry in which Britain once hoped to lead the world, but which was crippled by a series of misjudgments on the part of politicians, managers and investors. The first mistake, made in 1965, was to choose the uniquely British advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) to replace the first-generation Magnox stations, when other countries opted for the US-designed light water reactor (LWR). Getting the AGR stations to work proved to be a Herculean task, putting Britain’s nuclear programme far behind that of France, which wisely dropped its national design in favour of a Westinghouse LWR.
FT 14th Jan 2008 more >>
The green light for the construction of new nuclear power stations given by ministers last week has been attacked by the government’s watchdog for sustainable development. In one of its strongest critiques of policy, the Sustainable Development Commission, which is independent but funded by the government, criticised ministers for their “inadequate response to the legitimate concerns expressed by the general pub lic over new nuclear power”.
FT 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Tom Brake has launched an attack on the Government’s decision to create a new generation of nuclear power stations. The Lib Dem MP for Carshalton and Wallington said: “The Government have again shown an inability to think originally.”
Local Guardian 13th Jan 2008 more >>
Letter from Prof Lewis Lesley: While we know about three nuclear power disasters (Windscale, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl), we have 10,000 years or more for a disaster over the handling of nuclear waste, assuming that terrorists do not get enough to build bombs. We are making no serious attempt to reduce energy waste. In 2006 the German government began a 20-year project to fit five per cent per year of all homes to a zero carbon standard. By 2026 all German homes will be zero carbon. From 2016 all new homes in Britain will have to be zero carbon. So by 2026 Britain will have seven per cent of the housing stock at a zero standard, reaching 100 per cent in 2166, 140 years after Germany.
Telegraph 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Scotland
Lesley Riddoch: Last week’s Border warfare over nuclear power has done one vital thing: it has put energy back where it should always have been – at the centre of public debate and government policy. And for those fed up with baseloads, megawatts and intermittency – get used to it. The energy-based transformation of our lives is just beginning. Now that the SNP government has committed to a non-nuclear future, the green light is on. Scotland has challenged itself to deliver an energy-based renaissance that rewards inventiveness, and collaboration between scientists, funders, planners, communities and councils. Aye, pigs might fly too. But that’s the size of the challenge.
Scotsman 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Sellafield
British taxpayers will have to fork out more than £30bn to clean up Sellafield, unpublicised official documents reveal. It is so contaminated that the process will take well over a century and, even then, the site will have to stay under “indefinite institutional control”. These revelations follow confirmation – in a little-noticed passage in last week’s nuclear White Paper – that the controversial nuclear complex is doomed. The Government took the opportunity to make clear that the fuel from any new nuclear power stations built in Britain would not be reprocessed, thus sounding Sellafield’s death knell.
Independent on Sunday 13th Jan 2008 more >>
Companies
Iberdrola SA is negotiating the creation of a 50:50 joint venture with British Energy Group to build a nuclear power plant in southern England.
Interactive Investor 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Fitch Ratings says the UK government’s support for new nuclear power plants may benefit UK incumbent nuclear operators British Energy Group (BEG) and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, while Electricite de France SA (EdF) would appear best placed for UK new build.
AFX 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Two senior ex-ministers look set to be summoned before an inquiry into lobbying over Sellafield. Amec and Fluor are bidding for a £5bn contract awarded by the NDA to run the Sellafield site. Former trade minister Ian McCartney works for Fluor while former sports minister Richard Caborn is an adviser to a consortium including Amec.
Nelson Leader 13th Jan 2008 more >>
Nuclear Waste
UP TO six new nuclear waste stores could be built under proposals being considered by the Scottish Government, it was confirmed yesterday.
Under the plans, waste would be stored near Scotland’s nuclear plants and no longer transported to a dump near Sellafield, in Cumbria, which takes waste from across the UK. The UK government, which announced plans last week for a new generation of nuclear stations south of the Border, is opposed to the move. However, new long-term storage facilities could be built near existing or former power plants at Hunterston, Ayrshire; Torness, East Lothian; Dounreay, Caithness; Chapelcross, Dumfriesshire; and at the naval bases at Rosyth, Fife, and Faslane, Dunbartonshire.
Scotsman 14th Jan 2008 more >>
BBC 13th Jan 2008 more >>
Channel 4 News 13th Jan 2008 more >>
First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday defended plans by the Scottish Government to create up to six new nuclear waste stores north of the border. Mr Salmond said the proposals were a “responsible policy” which would minimise the environmental impact of the waste by taking away the need for it to be transported to its current dumping ground in Cumbria. The proposals were contained in the National Planning Framework which was published by John Swinney, the Finance Secretary, last week.
Herald 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Letter: The nuclear waste disposal problem (leader, 11 January) has been solved by scientists working at the Argonne National Laboratory in the US, who have demonstrated a technique called “pyro-processing” that involves electroplating the dangerous radioactive isotopes on to a cathode and then using the cathode in a fast reactor. With this technique, we could produce electricity for hundreds of years to come simply by burning up our existing waste.
Independent 14th Jan 2008 more >>
UAE
FRANCE is to sign a nuclear co-operation deal with the United Arab Emirates.
Scotsman 14th Jan 2008 more >>
Iran
Iran’s leaders agreed to answer all remaining questions about their country’s past nuclear activities within four weeks in talks with the U.N.’s chief nuclear inspector.
Guardian website 13th Jan 2008 more >>
Mirror 13th Jan 2008 more >>
BBC 13th Jan 2008 more >>
Climate
Tim Yeo: The speed at which climate change has risen up the agenda of both business and government reflects a growing recognition of the threat it poses. The action needed to build a low-carbon economy, on which the world’s future prosperity and possibly the survival of the human race depend, will be cheaper and less painful if taken now rather than in five years.
FT 14th Jan 2008 more >>
