Nuclear Subsidy
Taxpayers may be forced to subsidise Britain’s nuclear renaissance through a levy tacked on to household fuel bills under plans being developed by the energy industry. Utility executives have told ministers that their pledge not to use public aid to fund the £40 billion rollout of new nuclear power stations is no longer realistic. The levy is one of several proposals tabled. Talks about how to structure an aid mechanism are at an early stage, but there is a consensus in the industry that without help the new power plants will not be built.
Sunday Times 16th Aug 2009 more >>
Nuclear Transport
Pirates last night demanded a ransom of almost £1million for the release of the cargo ship which sparked an international search after vanishing from the English Channel a fortnight ago. The ransom demand came as The Mail on Sunday established radiation tests were carried out at the port of Pietarsaari in western Finland, where the Maltese-flagged ship Arctic Sea started its voyage. The Turkish-built vessel, which was carrying £900,000 worth of timber, is feared to have been stormed by pirates looking for a ‘secret cargo’. The fact that nuclear tests were conducted will fuel speculation that the ship did have a hidden cargo.
Mail on Sunday 16th Aug 2009 more >>
The ease with which large ships can travel around the world undetected has raised fears that al-Qaeda, or another terrorist group, could use a vessel packed with high explosives to mount a terrorist attack on a Western country, such as Britain or the US.
Sunday Telegraph 16th Aug 2009 more >>
Companies
An international cast of billionaires, pension funds and utility groups is lining up to bid for the biggest electricity distribution network in Britain, worth more than £4 billion. The French nuclear giant EDF recently appointed Deutsche Bank and Barclays to prepare for auction its UK network arm, which supplies nearly 8m homes in east and southeast England. The proposed sale is part of the French group’s effort to reduce a 24.5 billion (£21.2 billion) debt pile built up after buying British Energy, Britain’s nuclear monopoly.
Sunday Times 16th Aug 2009 more >>
Capenhurst
Urenco, which is owned by the British and Dutch governments and the German utility groups Eon and RWE, is reaping the rewards of 40 years of taxpayer-funded investment in centrifuge technology. “It’s a classic case of their having made a much better mousetrap than anyone else,” said one nuclear industry executive. In recent years the trinational group has enjoyed a boom, its turnover rising from 700m (£600m) in 2004 to 1.1 billion last year as it grabbed market share from its international rivals. It now makes about a quarter of all the enriched uranium used in civil nuclear plants and has an order book that extends beyond 2025. More than three-quarters of Capenhurst’s production is exported, with American power plants among its big customers.
Sunday Times 16th Aug 2009 more >>
Sizewell
AN anti-nuclear campaigner has welcomed the first dispatch of hazardous radioactive fuel away from Sizewell A. Yesterday, the first spent fuel flask was taken from Sizewell A nuclear site to Sellafield in Cumbria. The flask is the first of around 310 that will be delivered north as part of the decommissioning of the Sizewell A site. Charles Barnett, chairman of the Shut Down Sizewell Campaign, said: “We welcome the removal of the radioactive spent fuel from the two nuclear reactors at Sizewell A. “Eventually, when all the spent fuel is removed, which will take about three years, it will make the site safer. “It is helpful for us in East Anglia but not good news for the people at Sellafield and we are concerned about that because when it gets there it has to be reprocessed and that involves the discharge of radioactivity into the Irish Sea.”
East Anglian Daily Times 15th Aug 2009 more >>
Wylfa
Opponents of a second atomic power station at Yr Wylfa on Ynys M n are claiming victory after the Welsh Environment Minister said there was no need for new nuclear power stations in Wales. According to Jane Davidson, Wales was able to produce enough electricity from other sources without turning to nuclear.
Syniadau 14th Aug 2009 more >>
The closure of the aluminium plant was precipitated by EU state aid rules which prevented the state owned Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which owns the Wylfa power station, selling electricity to the plant at below market price.
EU Referendum 14th Aug 2009 more >>
Sellafield
The Nuclear Fuel cycle produces greenhouse gases thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Following a Freedom of Information request from Radiation Free Lakeland it has come to light that Sellafield (nolonger producing electricity) quadrupled its emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from the period 2007 to 2008. HFC’s are hundreds and can be thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Indymedia 15th Aug 2009 more >>
Energy Efficiency
Brand new homes built with ultra-modern materials and which already meet the government’s strict zero-carbon rating that all new houses will have to meet from 2016. And, crucially, they have been built to a comparable cost to conventional houses, blowing away in an instant the claims of the big housebuilders that meeting the 2016 target will entail huge cost and put up property prices.
Observer 16th Aug 2009 more >>
