Radwaste
Opponents of Cumbria becoming home to a massive underground nuclear waste dump are urging the county council’s leader to end the “mad plan”. Protests will take place across the county tomorrow in a show of opposition against any move to create a new atomic store in the county. Cumbria county, Allerdale and Copeland councils are currently considering whether the area should remain in the running to be considered as a potential below-ground dump. A decision will be taken later this month about whether that process should progress to the next stage when detailed examinations to earmark potential locations would be carried out.
Carlisle News & Star 18th Jan 2013 more »
More than 500 people attended a public meeting about the search for a potential underground nuclear waste repository site in West Cumbria. The Keswick meeting on Friday heard from geologists, local people and representatives of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The big turnout reflected the growing debate around the forthcoming votes on January 30 by Allerdale, Copeland and the county councils on whether they want the Government to continue its search for a West Cumbrian site to build an underground repository for high-level radioactive waste. Commercial lawyer John Wilson, of Portinscale, urged people to sign petitions – which have so far attracted more than 10,000 signatures – and write to councillors who are set to make the crucial decision.
West Cumberland Times & Star 18th Jan 2013 more »
TOURISM leaders fear for the future of the Lake District if a nuclear dump in West Cumbria is given the go-ahead.
NW Evening Mail 18th Jan 2013 more »
COPELAND’S MP says residents have “nothing to fear from the truth being known” in light of a Cumbrian tourism group’s calls to oppose a nuclear repository in the county. Independent Lake District guide Visit Cumbria published an open letter on its website, directing people to a 10,000 signature online petition. The letter, written by Kit and Charles Graves of Lake District Hotels Ltd, calls for residents to protect the Lake District from having high level nuclear waste buried beneath it. In the letter, they said: “Our precious environment, the Lake District, faces a quite shocking threat: plans are afoot to bury high-level nuclear waste in Cumbria and possibly in the Lake District National Park… “The potential damage to our environment is unthinkable.” Copeland MP Jamie Reed said he welcomed any input into the debate regardless of whether individuals are for or against the proposals. But he added: “We all must stay focused on the facts. We are nowhere near deciding whether or not to site a repository, we are simply asking for the geology to be better understood.
Times & Star 18th Jan 2013 more »
NW Eveningh Mail 18th Jan 2013 more »
Today Friends of the Earth wrote an Open Letter to all Cumbrian Councillors urging them not to proceed with the search for a site for burying nuclear waste in West Cumbria. Here is the text of the letter: We congratulate the leaders of the 3 Councils for identifying some of the issues that need to be resolved before a decision can be taken, and ‘pausing’ the process. However, we note with great concern the intention of Baroness Verma to subject Stage 4 to a ‘thorough re-examination’ in her letter to the CALC in November, re-iterated in her letter to the 3 Councils in December which says a change in the process should not be ruled out. This will remove any basis whatever for evaluating the willingness of people to go ahead to Stage 4 and undermines the 3 1/2 years work of the MRWS Partnership – which as you will recall, consulted on whether to proceed to a Stage 4 that would consist of ‘desk studies’ only, as outlined in the White Paper. A different Stage 4 – which could now involve site investigations with all the associated works – has not been consulted on. It therefore also undermines the principle of volunteerism. The enhanced budget provided to the NDA of £50m for Stage 4 strongly implies the inclusion of site investigations.
FoE West Cumbria & North Lakes 18th Jan 2013 more »
Friends of the Lake District have joined the Lake District National Park and Cumbria Tourism in making the right noises and playing to the increasingly angry gallery but not doing the right thing and OPPOSING the nuke dump. Jack Ellerby Policy Officer of FoLD has just sent a letter to the Decision Making Bodies of the councils saying “Friends of the Lake District, and a growing number of other bodies and local communities, feel that you should not proceed to Stage 4.” So far so good but the letter then goes on to Recommendation 1: FLD strongly recommends further geological desk-based analysis. WHY? FoLD did not strongly recommend further analysis of the zip wire proposal – they opposed and campaigned against the zip wire from the off.
Radiation Free Lakeland 18th Jan 2013 more »
MORE than £2.5 million has been spent on consultants by Copeland Borough Council over the last five years. Around half of the costs outlined are wholly paid for by the government as part of the MRWS process.
Whitehaven News 17th Jan 2013 more »
South Korea
Another South Korean nuclear reactor was shut down Thursday due to a malfunction just two weeks after two of three troubled reactors were restarted amid mounting electricity demand due to a prolonged cold spell.
Platts 17th Jan 2013 more »
Iran
UN experts left Tehran empty-handed today after trying to get Iranian officials let them restart an investigation into claims the country is making nuclear weapons. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deputy director Herman Nackaerts said there would be more talks on February 12. But any progress made then will be too late for the meeting between Iran and the P5+1 – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – slated for the end of January. Those nations had hoped that the Iranians would show a readiness to compromise at the IAEA meeting, leading to Iran agreeing to stop enriching uranium that could be used in a bomb.
Morning Star 18th Jan 2013 more »
Trust 18th Jan 2013 more »
The US-Israeli-backed cyber-attack known as Stuxnet, which targeted the Natanz nuclear plant, forced Iran to strengthen its cyber capabilities according to a US general.
IB Times 18th Jan 2013 more »
Spain
The 1GW Almaraz 1 nuclear plant in western Spain will complete its current unplanned outage tomorrow morning, outage data from utility Iberdrola show. Nuclear regulator CSN listed the 1GW unit in “restart” mode today. The plant completed a planned two-month stop for re-fuelling on 11 January, but issues with the plant’s alternator caused unscheduled shutdowns on 13 and 15 January. Spanish nuclear generation could reach its current maximum capacity of 7GW by the beginning of week 4, if no further problems affect Almaraz 1. Iberdrola owns a 53pc stake in Almaraz 1, with the remainder held by utilities Endesa and Gas Natural.
Argus Media 18th Jan 2013 more »
Trident
The £100 billion price tag of a “like-for-like” replacement for Britain’s Trident nuclear weapon would mean more cuts to the Royal Navy, a former armed forces minister has warned. Sir Nick Harvey, Liberal Democrat MP for North Devon, said he believed Britain could not afford, and did not need, a further generation of nuclear weapons on such a scale, and that an “open mind” should be kept on doing something at a lesser cost.
Western Morning News 19th Jan 2013 more »
CCS
A pilot carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant at a coal-fired facility in Wales has this week trapped its first tonne of carbon, potentially paving the way for a full-scale plant at the site in the future.
Business Green 18th Jan 2013 more »
Renewables
A Dundee manufacturer is in talks with a major European wind turbine manufacturer about a joint venture which could give Scotland an early foothold in the offshore renewables industry and create up to 500 jobs. PressureFab, set up in Dundee by German entrepreneur Hermann Twickler barely three years ago and already supporting 90 jobs, is attracting support from government agencies for its bid to accelerate Scottish participation in the wind turbine industry. It wants to secure a slice of European-based manufacturing from 2014, which it says is three years ahead of the likely earliest opening of any turbine facility in Scotland.
Herald 19th Jan 2013 more »
Energy Efficiency
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has consistently argued that the government should slow down deficit reduction when the economy is stalling and speed it up when growth returns. Providing additional resources for energy efficiency is a critical way to do this. The government launched two new policies last year: the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to tackle fuel poverty and the green deal which allows consumers to borrow up to £10,000 for energy efficiency measures to be paid back over a 25-year period. It is also considering using the energy bill as a vehicle to enhance incentives for energy efficiency. Even if the green deal overcomes the twin obstacles of high interest rates and low levels of consumer awareness, it will not be enough to meet the UK’s carbon and fuel poverty targets. Research from IPPR has shown that the ECO will affect fewer than one in ten fuel-poor households and achieve just 26% of the emissions reductions achieved by current obligations on suppliers. According to the Energy Bill Revolution campaign, without greater financial support the policies “risk falling short” of the government’s legal obligation to virtually eliminate fuel poverty by 2016.
Guardian 18th Jan 2013 more »
