Russia
SUSPENDED from the ceiling, they are covered in deadly radioactive material that drops off them in lumps to the wet floor beneath. The 20,000 fuel rods contained in three tanks at the Andreeva Bay storage site once held enough nuclear energy to power Russia’s entire submarine fleet. Now, cracks in the concrete walls of the dilapidated tanks have allowed seawater and rainwater to seep in and corrode the lethal contents. The situation is so bad Russia’s nuclear agency has warned rods at the site could explode in an “uncontrolled chain reaction”, according to a Norwegian environmental group, which says it has a leaked copy of a report.
Scotsman 2nd June 2007
Guardian website 1st June 2007
Bellona website 1st June 2007
Norway Post 1st June 2007
Russian nuclear authority Rosatom rejected a report by Norwegian environmental group Bellona that tanks of spent nuclear fuel in Russia’s Arctic were leaking and risked setting off an uncontrolled chain reaction.
Reuters 1st June 2007
British Energy
British Energy’s shares slumped by 2.2 % yesterday after the investment banks placing 400 million shares in the nuclear generator said they had received orders for the majority of the shares offered. The government placing in the UK’s biggest electrical power producer is worth about £2.1bn at last night’s closing price of 525.25p per share.
Herald 1st June 2007
Express 31st May 2007
Renewables
Letter from RSPB: A Severn barrage is not the most useful nor is it the most economical way of harnessing the energy of the Severn’s tides (letter, 26 May). A tidal energy bridge may be, but so may tidal stream systems being tested in the UK. Tidal stream turbines would generate far more energy from the estuary, would be less intrusive and would do little environmental harm. A barrage would be only 23 per cent efficient, even less efficient than the average on-shore wind farm.
Independent 1st June 2007
New nukes
Letter: All that the excoriation of nuclear has done is to delay the evolution of the nuclear industry by denying Britain a part in progressive research.
And David Lowry: Australia as a nation state may not itself be unstable, but there is clearly considerable unresolved instability in mining uranium there.
Independent 1st June 2007
Nuclear power has always been opposed by the familiar Green pressure groups, but a new breed of more credible opponents has been emerging in recent years. Those of us in the nuclear industry are used to the attacks from organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, whose opposition is a deep-seated central tenet of their creed and unlikely to be overturned. There is, however, a rising chorus of more substantive attacks on nuclear coming from more intellectually respectable and robust quarters. These have been largely silent for a quarter century, resting on the contented vision that nuclear will slowly wither away as existing plants gradually shut down and no new ones are contemplated. Now that talk of a ‘nuclear renaissance’ has spread from the industry to popular debate in the general media, as many countries consider new nuclear build (including new countries in all continents), the intellectual doubt-mongers are reasserting themselves. Typical of this is the recent report by Charles Ferguson for the US Council on Foreign Relations, Nuclear Energy: Balancing Benefits & Risks.
Nuclear Engineering International 1st June 2007
Iran
Dr Mohammed ElBaradei has given one of his strongest warnings against attacking Iran to halt uranium enrichment.
Mathaba 2nd June 2007
Daily Mail website 1st June 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States is willing to look at creative ways to get Iran to halt nuclear activities that could lead to a bomb. She held firm that the U.S. won’t discuss rewards for Iran until it meets that condition.
Guardian website 1st June 2007
An unnamed Iranian official says the country is offering to provide answers on past suspicious activities in an effort to resolve the international dispute over the country’s nuclear programme.
Belfast Telegraph 1st June 2007
Guardian website 1st June 2007
Dounreay
What has recently raised hackles of the residents of Buldoo is the news that the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which is responsible for cleaning up nuclear sites, has been looking into the possibility of building a series of permanent, shallow storage dumps for low-level waste just 430 metres from the nearest home.
Scotsman 2nd June 2007
History
Instructions on how to build a nuclear reactor have been revealed from five sealed envelopes that have lain hidden for almost 70 years. The documents were sent to the UK’s Royal Society for safekeeping by James Chadwick, discoverer of the neutron, during World War II.
BBC 1st June 2007
Channel 4 News 1st June 2007
Finland
Greenpeace activists met with EU Commissioner Andris Piebalgs to highlight safety breaches at the building site of Finlands fifth reactor.
EU Business 1st June 2007
Heysham
British Energy restarted its Heysham 2-8 nuclear power reactor on Thursday night after a two-month planned maintenance outage.
Reuters 1st June 2007
India
Indian and U.S. delegates met for a second day Friday to seal a much-touted civilian nuclear deal between the two countries, officials said. The deal has been delayed by disagreements over clauses that India says could limit its nuclear weapons program and impinge on its sovereignty.
Guardian website 1st June 2007
Nuclear Fuel
Russia has signed a deal to supply nuclear fuel to a British generator a first breakthrough into the British market for Russia’s fast-expanding nuclear sector. Russia will supply uranium to a plant owned by French company Areva where it will be converted into ready-to-use fuel and then supplied to nuclear plants owned by British Energy RIA news agency reported.
Reuters 1st June 2007
