New Nukes
Artcle by Ian Fells: ON October 17, 1956, the Queen threw a switch to connect Calder Hall nuclear power station to the grid. It was the world’s first commercial nuclear power station and had been built from scratch in three years. It continued to operate well for the next 47 years, and became the first of a series of 11 Magnox nuclear power stations. Now that Britain has belatedly realised that we do need nuclear power after all and that windmills, energy efficiency and a few gas-fired power stations will not save the day, new nuclear power stations must be built. We may well have left it too late and we have lost the ability in the UK to build them. So we must rely on EDF, Westinghouse and others to do it for us.
Sunday Times 15th Mar 2009 more >>
Scotland
THE Scottish Government’s own research has discovered that most people oppose its plans to block new nuclear power stations north of the border. A survey of 3,000 people, conducted by the Holyrood administration, has found that a clear majority think nuclear energy will be needed in the future to help ensure a secure energy supply. The 53% of people who backed a nuclear future was more than double the 23% who said they opposed a new generation of stations in Scotland.
Scotland on Sunday 15th Mar 2009 more >>
The problem for the First Minister is that the Scottish people, unlike the SNP, seem to have moved on from the gut fears of the 1970s and 1980s. Many thousands have depended on the industry for jobs. And many more are more worried about being able to switch on their lights in future than they are about radiation leaks.
Scotland on Sunday 15th Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear Waste
There isn’t any such thing: Ninety-five percent of a spent fuel rod is plain old U-238, the nonfissionable variety that exists in granite tabletops, stone buildings and the coal burned in coal plants to generate electricity. Uranium-238 is 1% of the earth’s crust. It could be put right back in the ground where it came from.
Telegraph Blog 14th Mar 2009 more >>
Energy Supplies
BRITAIN faces being plunged into a 1970s-style era of blackouts and power cuts unless the government accelerates plans for future energy supplies. The warning, from power firms and energy analysts, comes after plans for a new £1 billion coal-fired power station the first in three decades were put on hold by the energy secretary, Ed Miliband. It is the first time the companies, which rely on government support for new low-emissions projects, have been so openly critical and reflects a growing frustration at the official prevarication over the building of a new generation of power stations as well as the belief that Britain’s ageing infrastructure will be unable to cope with future demands.
Sunday Times 15th Mar 2009 more >>
Pakistan
is not about to explode. The Islamic militants are not going to take power tomorrow; the nuclear weapons are not about to be trafficked to al-Qaida; the army is not about to send the Afghan Taliban to invade India; a civil war is unlikely.
Observer 15th Mar 2009 more >>
Climate Change
THE director of a Nasa space laboratory will this week lead thousands of climate change campaigners through Coventry in an extraordinary intervention in British politics. James Hansen plans to use Thursday’s Climate Change Day of Action to put pressure on Gordon Brown to wake up to the threat of climate change – by halting the construction of new power stations and the expansion of airports, with schemes such as the third runway at Heathrow. The move by a leading American researcher is the highest-profile example to date of the way climate change is politicising scientists.
Sunday Times 15th Mar 2009 more >>
Carbon Capture
THE German energy giant Eon will throw down the gauntlet to the government this week with an offer to build the world’s largest “clean-coal” power station in Britain, but only if it is given about £1 billion in taxpayers’ money to cover building costs.
Sunday Times 15th Mar 2009 more >>
