New nukes
For the first time in its 32-year history, the International Energy Agency will next week urge governments around the world to help speed the construction of new nuclear power plants. Although several countries, including India, China, the US and France, are already planning more nuclear plants, and others such as the UK are in the early stages of backing new reactors, others oppose any addition to nuclear capacity, including Germany and Spain. However, Fatih Birol, IEA chief economist, said: We need a decision almost tomorrow if we are going to act before we reach a point of no return in climate and security of supply.
FT 2nd November 2006
Letters: Nuclear power has received 100 times more subsidy than renewables over the past 50 years.18 million cubic metres of soil and rubble are now known to have been contaminated by leaks, spills and discharges from 30 nuclear sites since 1983 alone. Additionally, more than 900 particles – fragments of irradiated nuclear fuel – have been found on the seabed and 238 on the enclosed beach at Dounreay. A further 57 have turned up on the public beach at Sandside and one on the beach at Dunnet.
Scotsman 2nd November 2006
FRIENDS of the Earth held an anti-nuclear demonstration outside Wishaw Library last week. Demonstrators turned out last Tuesday with a giant, 14-foot-tall inflatable ‘nuclear white elephant’ bearing the slogan: ‘Nuclear power? No thanks. It’s a white elephant’.
Wishaw Press 1st Nov 2006
Former Powergen executive John Hart, who stood down yesterday as the West Midlands Business Council Chairman, says nuclear power could be good news for the West Midlands.
Birmingham Post 1st Nov 2006
Decentralised Energy
Decentralised power stations and microgeneration could help to cut carbon emissions and improve household
energy efficiency, Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, has said. The Department of Trade and Industry and Ofgem, the energy regulator, yesterday launched an examination of distributed energy, in which electricity is generated in smaller amounts, closer to the place where it is used. Distributed energy in-cludes microgeneration, such as solar panels and wind turbines, and combined heat and power plants. CHP plants are more efficient, and therefore contribute less to climate change, as heat produced during electricity generation can be used by industry or to warm homes. Mr Darling said: “I want a shift in the way we make our energy. There is huge potential for us to make energy a local issue, involving individuals, businesses and communities. Making it easier for people to sell surplus electricity back to the Grid, and looking at the potential of new combined heat and power domestic boilers, must be considered. We want to understand the barriers to generating en-ergy locally in large buildings like hospitals, hotels and universities.” The DTI will be taking evidence on the subject until January 2.
FT 2nd November 2006
Decommissioning
The European Commission today adopted new guidelines on how to cover the costs of dismantling old nuclear power plants. Greenpeace described the move as a ‘useful step forward’, but added that binding rules on decommissioning funds are urgently needed, to protect taxpayers across Europe from potentially massive bills for managing nuclear waste and redundant reactors.
Greenpeace Europe Press Release 24th Oct 2006
Dounreay
A three-and-a-half-tonne container used to house Santa’s grotto in Thurso in 2001 once stored radioactive waste at the nearby Dounreay nuclear factory, nine miles to the west. I know this because a friend of mine was one of the Dounreay apprentices who built them. Even more sinister is that Thurso Beyond 2000, the local community group organising the event, has known all along what the containers were once used for. When this devastating fact was revealed, Lorraine Mann, of Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping, called for a full inquiry. Dounreay’s spokeswoman back in 2001, Lynne Straples-Scott, went on record stating categorically that the containers were thoroughly clean and would not have been allowed to leave the site had there been any danger. About 1,500 children visited the grotto that Christmas. Now that the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CRWM) is asking local councils to volunteer their home territories to host Britain’s stockpile of nuclear sludge – effectively allowing the government to body-swerve much of the responsibility for designating a new area as the UK’s nuclear dustbin – perhaps we should all consider what it is like to live on the doorstep of the nuclear industry.
Scotsman 2nd Nov 2006
Nirex
DOZENS of workers for a nuclear advisory body at Harwell face an uncertain future after the Government announced plans to abolish it. Nirex, which has helped the civil nuclear industry dispose of radioactive waste since the early 1980s, was last week told it was no longer needed. The functions of the state-owned company, which has an annual budget of £11m, are to be transferred to the Cumbria-based Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which is legally responsible for ensuring the industry safely clears up its waste. The Government said it did not expect any of the 67 Harwell staff to be given compulsory redundancy, but the NDA admitted the precise details of the transfer would take several weeks to resolve.
Didcot Herald 2nd November 2006
North Korea
In the weeks since their leaders tested their first nuclear weapon North Koreans have grown more fearful of their future. Underneath the calm of Pyongyang, a backwater capital city devoid of traffic and draped in faded political slogans and murals, a tension hangs heavily over the drab housing complexes and near-empty streets.
Telegraph 2nd November 2006
Nuclear Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have vowed Mid Cheshire will not become a storage site for Britain’s nuclear waste. The Government this week announced plans to liaise with local councils on the best way to store radioactive waste, sparking fears Winsford Rock Salt Mine could be targeted.
Northwich Chronicle 1st Nov 2006
The possibility of Britain’s first nuclear waste dump being built in the Midlands was back on the political agenda last night after Warwickshire County Council refused to rule out the idea. Councillors said they wanted to keep all options open and voted by 31 to 11 to reject a resolution opposing the disposal in Warwickshire or transportation through the county of nuclear waste.
Birmingham Post 1st Nov 2006
Iran
The newly-designated UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, currently in Russia, has called on Iran to halt uranium enrichment and accept alternative incentives proposed by the UN.
Interactive Investor 1st Nov 2006
Windscale
With its two big pile chimneys will be merged with the rest of the Sellafield site, but not until safety concerns have been addressed.
Whitehaven News 1st Nov 2006
British Energy
The last few weeks have been grim for shareholders in British Energy, the nuclear power generator. The company looks a dead cert to drop out of the blue chip index at the December reshuffle after it told the market a fortnight ago that it has discovered more cracks at some of its generators. However, the company is due to update investors in mid-November about the cracks at its Hinckley Point B and Hunterston, and the word in the market is that the news will not be as bad as the most bearish traders believe.
Independent 2nd Nov 2006
