Torness
PEOPLE taking photographs outside Torness Power Station made up two of 18 security incidents reported at the Dunbar nuclear plant in the last three years. Details released by the Office for Civil Nuclear Security today revealed there have been two incidents that involved individuals taking photographs from outside the nuclear plant and two incidents relating to security guard staffing levels since March, 2003.
Edinburgh Evening News 1st May 2006
Nuclear Skills
Letter from Dr Richard Pike: We may be able to bury waste from nuclear power but we cannot bury the fact that if the skills erosion continues unabated there will not be enough specialist scientists and engineers to handle the waste properly.
FT 2nd May 2006
North Korea
The United States and Japan urged North Korea on Monday to return promptly to six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons program and to bring it to a halt under international supervision.
Guardian website 1st May 2006
Nuclear Waste
By 2010, Wales will have 10,000m3 of nuclear waste – enough to fill four Olympic size swimming pools, says Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, She was commenting in the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management recommendation today that the “best possible approach” to dealing with over 350,000m3 of dangerous nuclear waste in the UK, is to store it deep underground. Ms Willott added: “I reluctantly agree with today’s report. By 2010, we will have 10,000m3 of nuclear waste in Wales alone – enough to fill four Olympic size swimming pools. We cannot leave this waste near to the surface where it is a major security and environmental risk.
News Wales 1st May 2006
STORING Cumbria’s growing mountain of nuclear waste underground could cause a timebomb for future generations, an anti-nuclear group claimed. Speaking after the influential Committee on Radioactive Waste Management this week recommended underground storage bunkers, Cumbrian’s Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (Core) warned that it was a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. Core’s Martin Forwood poured scorn on the official backing for the plan, which has come amid mounting speculation that the government sees nuclear power as a secure long-term energy source for the UK.
Carlisle News and Star 1st May 2006
Chernobyl
Two decades on, Chernobyl continues to claim fresh victims, robbing children of their parents, their health and a happy childhood. But one South Wales family has been working hard to put the smiles back on the faces of the youngsters largely forgotten by the rest of the world.
South Wales Echo 1st May 2006
The World Health Organisation estimates 9,000 people will eventually die as a result: not only those directly exposed to the radiation at the time but their children and, if they have them, their grandchildren who inherit the genetic damage to their cells. Putting the horrendous human costs aside, the financial costs run into telephone numbers. Belarus estimates it has spent more than £100bn dealing with the contamination.
Nottingham Evening Post 1st May 2006
Submarines
Nuclear submarines will sail into a West port before the end of the year, the Daily Press can reveal. Defence bosses are reopening a special berth in Portland, allowing vessels from the fleet to dock on the Dorset coastline for the first time in 20 years.
Western Daily Press 1st May 2006
New nukes
Letter: Dillwyn Williams hopes that there will not be another Chernobyl (letter, April 26). I hope that our nuclear power stations are run by people of higher calibre than the Child Support Agency, the Probation Service, the Home Office and any other of the agencies who provide us, daily, with the evidence of human fallibility. A few murderers on the loose is one thing — nuclear power stations could be the death of us all.
Times 2nd May 2006
