Nuclear Waste
People in west Cumbria have the chance to find out more about government plans to store nuclear waste underground. The West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership is sending leaflets to all homes in the Allerdale and Copeland council areas. There will also be a series of public meetings over the next three months. It is the first step in the process to help people decide whether the councils should put themselves forward in the search for suitable storage sites.
BBC 15th Nov 2009 more >>
Ireland
THE Irish Government has been urged to engage directly with British authorities after safety fears were raised about a wave of new nuclear power plants. Last week the British government announced plans to open the new reactors in 2018 and seven facilities will be situated on the Irish Sea. However, regulators in Britain, America, France and Finland have raised concerns about the two designs which will be used for the project.
Irish Examiner 16th Nov 2009 more >>
Nuclear Costs
EDF, the French utility giant, has insisted that reform of the carbon trading system would be a cheap way for consumers to help pay for a new generation of UK nuclear power stations. The move could cost the average household an estimated extra £20 to £40 per year. The power company has been lobbying for an overhaul of the European emissions market, arguing that the market mechanism has failed to incentivise enough investment in low-carbon energy such as nuclear power. Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, would like to see a minimum “floor price” on carbon emissions credits for electricity generators, since the current system has not made the production of clean energy cheaper than by burning fossil fuels.
Telegraph 16th Nov 2009 more >>
Dungeness
Kent MP, Michael Howard is fighting the government’s decision to exclude Dungeness as one of the 10 new nuclear power stations. Kent jobs could benefit greatly from the government’s project to build 10 new nuclear power stations across England and Wales. However, the government has already approved the appropriate 10 UK locations and Dungeness has been found unsuitable. Howard feels that the government’s reason for rejecting Dungeness has nothing to do with concerns of coastal erosion or threats to the local eco-system.
Careers & Jobs 15th Nov 2009 more >>
Heysham
Local consultations on a third nuclear power station at Heysham will take place later this month, after the Government announced Heysham is considered to be potentially suitable for a new nuclear power station, even though the site is on a fault line, a point which has been studiously ignored by the pro-nuclear lobby. A local exhibition giving information about the draft Nuclear National Policy Statement and the assessment of Heysham will be held at Lancaster Town Hall from 26th – 28th November 2009. A public discussion will also be held on the morning of Saturday 28th November at the same location.
Virtual Lancaster 15th Nov 2009 more >>
Wylfa
RWE Npower is holding drop-in Public Exhibitions to hear the views of people on Anglesey about Wylfa new nuclear build proposals. The company already carried out an initial exhibition earlier this year at Cemaes near Wylfa, and the November series of meetings aims to reach out to other communities across the island.
Anglesey Today 15th Nov 2009 more >>
Proliferation
David Lidington MP, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister: “Another important item on next year’s agenda should be efforts to internationalise the nuclear fuel cycle. Again, that is very much a live issue in respect of Iran. Different Governments, including our own, have made various proposals such as international banks of enriched material or guarantees from existing nuclear weapons states to supply the enriched material required for the civil nuclear programmes of countries that are not nuclear weapons states but that wish legitimately, within the treaty framework, to develop civil nuclear energy programmes. Establishing some form of international control over the nuclear fuel cycle is essential if those countries seeking to develop civil nuclear energy are to be able to press ahead while retaining confidence that adequate safeguards against weapons proliferation remain in place.”
Conservative Home 16th Nov 2009 more >>
Protest
Four anti-nuclear activists who took part in a mass protest at the Aldermaston nuclear base have been acquitted by a district judge at Reading Magistrates’ Court. The four individuals were accused of obstructing the highway on 27th October 2008, but the judge, Peter Crabtree, ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove that they were even on the highway, let alone obstructing it. The defendants successfully argued that the blockade took place on Ministry of Defence land and did not significantly affect the public traffic flow. However, the judge did not accept the defendants’ argument that the Atomic Weapons Establishment was itself engaged in unlawful activity.
Ekklesia 15th Nov 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday the country’s nuclear rights were not negotiable, the student news agency ISNA reported. “The Iranian nation’s nuclear rights are not negotiable and our nuclear cooperation will be done within the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s framework … Nuclear cooperation with Iran is beneficial to the West,” ISNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday time was running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs.
Reuters 16th Nov 2009 more >>
Submarines
The first three Astute class submarines (HMS Astute, Ambush and Artful) cost the Government £3.8bn, according to last year’s National Audit Office report, compared with an initial contract for £2.58bn. That report also showed the project was 47 months late, with an original in-service date for Astute of May 2005. What caused this four-year delay? The end of the Cold War and the gap between designing the Trafalgar class submarines meant a lot of nuclear submarine-building experience had disappeared, and contractor BAE Systems struggled with Astute’s computer-aided design. Eventually, in 2003, the Ministry of Defence had to promise more money and help was enlisted from US submarine builder Electric Boat, owned by General Dynamics. So finally in November 2009, Astute is starting 18 months of sea trials.
Telegraph 16th Nov 2009 more >>
Climate
Barack Obama acknowledged todaythat time had run out to secure a legally binding climate deal at the Copenhagen summit in December and threw his support behind plans to delay a formal pact until next year at the earliest. During a hastily convened meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from next month’s meeting by aiming to make it a first-stage series of commitments rather than an all-encompassing protocol.
Guardian 16th Nov 2009 more >>
Coal
While the world’s countries struggle to reach a treaty to defeat climate change, Chinese miners and scientists here are ramping up production and finding new ways to burn and bury carbon that will shape the policies of the world’s biggest polluting nation. Ordos is the new face of coal in China. It is home to the world’s biggest coal company and an industrial-scale experiment to turn coal into diesel that could create a major new source of greenhouse gases. At the same time, it hosts the planet’s most efficient mine and one of China’s biggest carbon capture and storage projects, which buries the gases blamed for global warming.
Guardian 16th Nov 2009 more >>
CCS is a massive undertaking, potentially expanding the size of a coal station by a half. The process has two stages: pre- and post-combustion. Technology for the former is far more advanced. As a result, demonstration projects for post-combustion are not expected to be completed until 2025. E.ON and Scottish Power are the last two companies left in the competition to produce the first CCS demonstration project. The winner will not be selected until late next year. “The Government should be bringing this process forward,” argues Charles Hendry, the Conservative Party’s shadow energy minister. The whole point was to get this scheme up and running so that [UK] businesses could then sell their expertise to the likes of the Chinese – but the Chinese have already got their own pilot schemes ready.”
Independent 16th Nov 2009 more >>
Fuel Poverty
Energy suppliers will be forced to help poor people struggling to pay their fuel bills for the first time under new proposals to be announced this week, The Independent has learnt. At present the Big Six suppliers subsidise bills of the poor and elderly paying a high proportion of their income on gas and electricity under a system of voluntary ‘social tariffs’. In a new Energy Bill in the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday, central Government will enshrine the scheme in law and set how much suppliers have to spend on social support.
Independent 16th Nov 2009 more >>
