Public Opinion
European public opinion is leaning back in favour of nuclear power as worries over climate change increase, according to a report published today. Independent market analyst Datamonitor has conducted research across Europe and found that more than 50% of the public believe that nuclear power as a proportion of all energy sources should be maintained or increased.
Forbes 14th Nov 2007 more >>
British Energy
British Energy has warned that the rest of its current trading year would be “significantly impacted” by problems it was having at two of its nuclear power stations. But it attempted to sweeten the blow with prospects of an additional dividend to shareholders, albeit one that would be determined by the current operating difficulties, as it unveiled the blow.
Edinburgh Evening News 14th Nov 2007 more >>
Iran
Britain was dragged into Iran’s increasingly febrile domestic power struggle when a former senior nuclear negotiator was accused of passing secrets to the UK embassy in Tehran. Two days after the Iranian president denounced critics of his hardline nuclear policy as “traitors”, Hossein Mousavian, a moderate who favours compromise over Iran’s dispute with the west, was accused by the country’s intelligence chief of supplying classified information to “foreigners”.
Guardian 15th Nov 2007 more >>
Independent 15th Nov 2007 more >>
Times 15th Nov 2007 more >>
Scotsman 15th Nov 2007 more >>
FT 15th Nov 2007 more >>
Herald 15th Nov 2007 more >>
Channel 4 News 14th Nov 2007 more >>
Iran has handed over a nuclear weapons blueprint to the International Atomic Energy Agency, four years after it was requested, diplomats in Vienna said yesterday.
Guardian 15th Nov 2007 more >>
The United States, Britain and France have asked dozens of tough questions about Iran’s uranium enrichment programme ahead of an International Atomic Energy Agency report on activities in Tehran.
Channel 4 News 14th Nov 2007 more >>
Nuclear Convoy
A high-security delivery of nuclear warheads to the south of England turned to farce when vehicles in the MOD convoy got lost on Scotland’s roads. Three military trucks, each of which can carry two of the plutonium and uranium weapons, left the Royal Navy Armament Depot at Coulport, Argyll, under cover of darkness on Monday night. Escorted and heavily protected by MOD police, Marines, a safety truck and fire engine, the convoy was headed for an Atomics Weapons Establishment at Burghfield near Reading.
Daily Mail 15th Nov 2007 more >>
Uranium
French nuclear power giant EDF, wary of BHP Billiton’s bid to create a mega mining house with the acquisition of Rio Tinto, plans to invest in mining projects, according to a French media report.
Reuters 14th Nov 2007 more >>
Nuclear Skills
Member states of the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency have adopted a statement reflecting their concerns about the lack of nuclear skills.
World Nuclear News 14th Nov 2007 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
One of the nation’s premier nuclear weapons labs plans to cut about 500 jobs because of rising costs stemming from a changeover in management and potential federal budget cuts. Layoffs at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will mostly affect support and operations employees – the laboratory will try to protect scientific research positions, but it’s not known whether scientists will be laid off.
Interactive Inverstor 14th Nov 2007 more >>
A Russian general has hinted that Moscow may deploy its latest nuclear missiles in Belarus in response to US plans for a missile shield in eastern Europe.
Telegraph 15th Nov 2007 more >>
Russia
Within a few years, an industrial behemoth is to rise from the banks of the Volga river: the world’s biggest aluminium smelter, capable of churning out 1m tonnes of the metal a year, powered by two nuclear reactors.
FT 15th Nov 2007 more >>
EDF
Électricité de France, the French electricity company that is Europe’s largest power generator, plans further expansion outside the European Union to off-set an inevitable decline in its domestic market share, the company’s top executive said. Pierre Gadonneix, EDF’s chairman and chief executive, told the Financial Times that the company had ambitions to take part in the expected consolidation of US utilities, and confirmed that it was looking at investing in Russia’s electricity industry. He identified four countries as EDF’s priorities for investment in new nuclear power plants: the US, the UK, China and South Africa.
FT 15th Nov 2007 more >>
