Scotland
ALEX Salmond, the First Minister, has been persuaded to allow an independent study into whether Scotland needs nuclear power. The admission came in his government’s response to a report last year by his Council of Economic Advisers.
Scotsman 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Chapelcross
Fifty workers at the Chapelcross nuclear site are to be made redundant over the next 15 months. But 100 staff have had their jobs secured for an extra year after changes to the UK defuelling programme for nuclear sites. De-fuelling of Chapelcross’s Magnox reactor was due to be completed this April, which would have meant 150 employees being laid off by April 2010. The date has now been shunted back to 2011, meaning 50 staff will go in the next 15 months and the other 100 a year later.
Cumbria Business Gazette 15th Jan 2009 more >>
RWE/EON
RWE and Eon have created an equal joint venture to develop new nuclear reactors in the UK.
Engineer 15th Jan 2009 more >>
Contract Journal 15th Jan 2009 more >>
New Civil Engineer 15th Jan 2009 more >>
Wylfa
GERMAN power giants RWE npower and E.ON have announced the creation of a joint venture to develop new nuclear power stations in the UK with Wylfa on Anglesey centre stage along with other sites.
Daily Post 15th Jan 2009 more >>
A furious row erupted after it emerged that close to 500 Rio Tinto workers could lose their jobs at their aluminium plant on Anglesey because of a power dispute. Metals giant Rio plans to end smelting on the island in September after failing to extend a power contract with the nearby Wylfa nuclear power station.
Daily Mail 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Times 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Guardian 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Sellafield
Finding positive business stories in West Cumbria has proved remarkably easy. Everywhere you look there’s news of business success, investment, new projects and positive people willing to invest in this region. Part of our resilience to national gloom is Sellafield and all things nuclear. There’s much excitement at the moment with Nuclear Management Partners taking control of the site.
Whitehaven News 14th Jan 2009 more >>
Companies
Onet Group has acquired Gravatom, the British-based nuclear engineering company with manufacturing sites in Hampshire and Cumbria. Under the terms of the deal, Gravatom will become part of Onet Technologies, the specialist nuclear and engineering division of Onet Group. Gravatom Engineering Systems employs 130 people at sites in Bishops Waltham, Fareham and Workington, Cumbria.
Engineering Talk 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Last November, Centrica launched a deeply discounted rights issue to help fund its acquisition of a share in nuclear generator British Energy. The group also raised £1bn through corporate bonds to fund the deal and in the next two weeks a debt facility of up to £ 1.75bn will be cleared by the banks that underwrote the rights issue.
Daily Telegraph 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Nuclear Spin
State agencies, boards, commissions and quangos spent more than £1billion on spin last year, new evidence has indicated. State-run organisations admitted raising their spending on ‘communications’ – much of it devoted to lobbying and public relations puffs – by almost a quarter in 2008. The NDA has 17 staff and spent £3,140,347, an increase of 57%.
Daily Mail 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Trident
Three retired Army generals have called for a debate on the scrapping of the British nuclear deterrent suggesting that the money could be better spent on other defence projects.
Telegraph 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Guardian 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Independent 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Letter from the three.
Times 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Sweden
Swiss power and automation technology group ABB has won an order worth $45 million to provide engineering expertise and supply power products for a project to expand the output and life-span of a nuclear power plant owned by Swedish utility, Vattenfall. ABB will provide the electrical package needed to increase gross output from 1,200MW to 1,360MW at Unit-3 of the Forsmark nuclear power plant, a project due to be completed by 2014.
Datamonitor 15th Jan 2009 more >>
Finland
E.ON has announced that its Fennovoima project team has submitted its application to the Finnish government for a decision-in-principle on the construction of a nuclear power plant. E.ON has a 34% share in the project which aims to construct a new 1,500MW-2,500MW nuclear power plant in Finland. Other shareholders include the Power Company SF made up of regional and local energy companies and Finnish industrial, retail and service enterprises.
Datamonitor 15th Jan 2009 more >>
UAE
The United Arab Emirates took a step yesterday towards becoming the first Arab country to acquire a nuclear capability, a move that could prompt other states to seek to join the club and alter the balance of power in the region. The Gulf state said it was seeking a nuclear programme for energy, not to produce an atomic weapon. But other Arab countries, if they built reactors, may be more likely to switch from civilian to military use.
Guardian 16th Jan 2009 more >>
Germany
The issues of climate change and energy security will play an increasingly important role in a German debate on whether to extend nuclear power beyond 2021, Vattenfall chief executive Lars Josefsson said on Wednesday.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development 14th Jan 2009 more >>
France
Output at French nuclear plants operated by EDF, Europe’s biggest electricity producer, fell about 10 percent because of strikes, a union spokesman said.
Bloomberg 15th Jan 2009 more >>
Climate
Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, the climate change adviser at No 10, argued that by switching to electric cars, boosting energy efficiency and slashing carbon emissions from power generation by building wind farms and new nuclear plants, Britons could so drastically cut output in other areas that they could keep on flying – and still cut emissions and fight climate change at the same time. It is true that aircraft are becoming slightly more efficient and that worldwide aviation accounts for about 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions. But aviation is expected to grow to 5-6 per cent of global emissions by 2050. Moreover, the technology to fly aircraft without burning large quantities of fuel does not exist. As one green group pointed out yesterday, the new runway would produce the same level of emissions as Kenya every year. Assuming that the runway is built, Heathrow would become the biggest single emitter of carbon in the country. The Government’s pledge to cap aviation emissions also appears to lack teeth. Without a dramatic breakthrough in technology, the increase in flights would overwhelm any benefit from negligible increases in aircraft efficiency.
Times 16th Jan 2009 more >>
The Sustainable Development Commission says the amount taken up by aviation would severely restrict future generations’ ability to decide what they want to do about emissions from homes, food production and other forms of travel.
Guardian 16th Jan 2009 more >>
