ONR
The Office for Nuclear Regulation has published a draft vision and strategy. This document provides an opportunity to comment by 17th November on ONR Board’s vision and broad medium to long term strategy for the organisation. The strategy will inform the ONR Corporate Plan, which will be revised shortly, and the Operating Plan for 2012/13 that will be produced to provide more detail about what ONR aims to deliver during the next financial year. The strategy is expressed in simple and succinct terms as we want to provide all of our stakeholders with an accessible picture of ONRs vision in the light of the challenges and opportunities of the nuclear sector going forward
ONR 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Hinkley
The Environment Agency is seeking comments from people on an application for an environmental permit to operate the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C in Somerset. The environmental permit is for cooling water and liquid effluent discharges into the Severn estuary. The consultation on the permit application will run from 3 November to 15 December, 2011. We expect to conduct a further consultation on our draft decision for this application in 2012.
Environment Agency 31st Oct 2011 more >>
Power Engineering 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Vincent de Rivaz statement to the Nuclear Development Forum.
EDF 27th Oct 2011 more >>
EDF has started the process to gain planning consent to build a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C in Somerset. EDF submitted a Development Consent Order to build and operate a 3260 MW plant to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) on 31 October 2011. The IPC, an independent body that examines applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects, must decide within 28 days whether to accept the application.
Nuclear Engineering International 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Chemical Engineer 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Anti-nuclear campaigners have described plans for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset as ‘a dangerous diversion from a genuinely sustainable pathway for the UK’s energy needs’.
Planning 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Wylfa
WELSH farmers are “deeply concerned” about the impact that a proposed nuclear power development will have on their land, their livestock and consumer confidence in their produce, a farmers’ union has warned. Last summer, the island of Anglesey was named as the proposed location of one of the next generation of nuclear power plants. It was the first major announcement on the future of nuclear energy in the UK since the Fukushima disaster in Japan in March, when an earthquake and tsunami led to a meltdown. Anglesey is already home to the Wylfa reactor and The Department of Energy and Climate Change said a new nuclear power station could be in place by 2025. National Farmers’ Union Cymru Anglesey branch chairman, Dewi Jones, said: “Many of our members have voiced deep concerns about the impact of the new power station and all the infrastructure work required and, in particular, the possibility of farmland acquisition by compulsory purchase. “I have said on previous occasions that negotiation and not compulsion is the way forward.
Utility Products 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Western Mail 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Nuclear Skills
A North West Wales college will become the first to help educate nuclear leaders of the future. Coleg Menais training and business consultancy arm, Linc Menai, has announced this week that they will offer the first ever course in Wales inthe nuclear industry to deliver the nuclear leaders of the future.Setting an ambitious aim to up-skill local workers in the industry at the brand new Canolfan Ynni, located on Anglesey, Linc Menaiare calling for all local workers with an interest to get in touch and help ensure that the area continues to be renowned for highly skilled workers in the nuclear industry.
News Wales 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Sellafield MoX Plant
TAXPAYERS are being forced to foot a £100m bill for decommissioning the Mox plant at Sellafield.
NW Evening Mail 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Companies
UK manufacturer Sheffield Forgemasters has been offered a government loan of up to £36 million ($57 million) “to continue its drive into civil nuclear and steelworks plant production.” The money will be fully repaid in time, but should help the company to “service the global civil nuclear renaissance and global nuclear refurbishment programs,” it said. In June 2010 Sheffield Forgemasters lost on out a planned loan of £80 million ($127 million) due to cuts the current government made immediately on taking power. That money would have been put towards a 15,000 tonne press capable of making the largest nuclear forgings out of steel ingots weighing some 600 tonnes. The final amount of the new loan scheme is yet to be defined, as is the expansion it would go towards, but company CEO Graham Honeyman said it would be “used for new plant and equipment enhancements for the forge and machine shops to expand the business.”
World Nuclear News 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Boulting Group, a Warrington based engineering solutions provider, has joined forces with leading French electrical engineering firm Groupe Snef to provide specialist Electrical and Instrumentation services to the Nuclear New Build programme.
Industry Today 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Nuclear Conference
Nuclear science and engineering experts will travel to Manchester in 2012 for both the European Nuclear Society (ENS) Top Fuel Conference and the ENS European Nuclear Conference. ENS is the largest society for nuclear science, research and industry in Europe. The Top Fuel Conference will take place at the Marriott Renaissance Manchester Hotel on 2 – 6 September 2012. This event will bring together leading specialists from around the world to analyse advances in nuclear fuel management technology.
Incentive Travel 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Japan
Japan was due to restart its first nuclear reactor on Tuesday after the Fukushima disaster in March, a symbolically important first step before dozens of idled reactors can be brought back online. However, hopes for confidence in the sector were hit early Wednesday morning when Tokyo Electric Power warned that it had detected a possible nuclear fission at its No 2 reactor at the Fukushima plant. Tepco said in an emailed statement that it had begun spraying boric acid on the reactor after detecting xenon, which is associated with nuclear fission. Kyodo News reported that the reactor remained stable and the chance of a meltdown was low, citing the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
FT 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Tokyo Electric Power Co. detected signs of nuclear fission at its crippled Fukushima atomic power plant in northern Japan, raising the risk of more radiation leaks. The situation is under control, officials said.
Bloomberg 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
Telegraph 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
Fukushima Timeline.
Telegraph 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
The operator of Japans tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant said Wednesday it feared nuclear fission had resumed inside one of the reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had begun injecting water and boric acid into No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which began leaking radiation after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Japan Today 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
The battle to convince a sceptical world that the Fukushima crisis is under control took a surreal turn yesterday when a Japanese Cabinet minister gulped down a glass of water from a puddle inside the doomed nuclear power plant. In what is likely to become an iconic image from the eight-month struggle to contain the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, Yasuhiro Sonoda swigged the water, which he said was taken from inside the building that houses reactors five and six.
Independent 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
Daily Mail 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Guardian 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Nearly eight months after nuclear reactors at Fukushima melted down and exploded they are still throwing up surprises. Last week, in the Tokyo commuter town of Kashiwa, officials found a radiation hotspot in the soil around a leaking drain nearly as high as those which prompted the evacuation of towns much nearer to the stricken nuclear plant. It didn’t make sense: the majority of fallout was over rural areas to the north west of the Fukushima plant. Kashima, a town of 400,000, is 80 miles due south. The hunt is now on for further hotspots around drain and sewer systems. Another surprise came this week when a new analysis concluded the disaster released twice as much radioactivity into the atmosphere as previously estimated. Both are examples of how the true impact of the Fukushima crisis is still hard for experts to judge, not just on the health and livelihoods of people from the region but for the nuclear industry in Japan, and the future of nuclear power worldwide.
Channel 4 News 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Japanese utilities will largely avoid power shortages this winter despite prolonged reactor shutdowns amid public concerns over nuclear safety, but hurdles remain for next summer, the government said on Tuesday.
Reuters 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Fukushima Update 28th 31st October.
Greenpeace International 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Syria
UN investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions the government in Damascus worked with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, to acquire nuclear weapons technology.
Guardian 1st Nov 2011 more >>
The reported discovery of a previously unknown complex in Syria has raised UN suspicions that Damascus collaborated with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb project, to obtain nuclear technology for a covert weapons programme.
Belfast Telegraph 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
Independent 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
Telegraph 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Asia
This guide was last updated in October 2011. Asia will be the location for the greatest number of newly built nuclear reactors in the world in the coming decades. It has many of the regulatory structures in place that it will need but this guide examines some of the areas which will need refining if the projects are to be successful and safe.
Out Law 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Renewables
Ministers are wrong, a compromise on solar incentives has to be possible. It is unfair to suggest solar firms are greedily lobbying for excessive subsidies, they want sustainable support – and this is not it.
Business Green 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Letter: The RSPB’s own solar programme, which would have seen solar car parks and roofs at 22 of our nature reserves, has been cancelled and the considerable time, effort and money we have put into the project has been lost. Critically, it is not the principle of cuts that we are objecting to, but the lack of clarity and the opaque decision-making that has left us and the entire industry operating in a cloud of uncertainty. We now need urgent action to take the sting out of these proposals to win back the confidence of investors and credibility for the coalition’s commitment to the environment.
Guardian 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Once upon a time David Cameron supported Feed-in Tariffs.
Greenpeace 31st Oct 2011 more >>
So now we know. The Government has ended a couple of weeks of rumours and briefings by publishing their proposals for amending feed in tariffs for solar installations and the news is grim.
Our Solar Future 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Solarcentury, Friends of the Earth, and the Cut Don’t Kill campaign explore legality of feed-in tariff consultation.
Business Green 1st Nov 2011 more >>
ENERGY giants have been warned to rethink investing in Scotland after a leading finance group raised fears over independence and its impact on Alex Salmonds unaffordable flagship renewables policy. Citigroup told companies including ScottishPower owner Iberdrola to reconsider its plans, triggering calls last night for the First Minister to urgently name a referendum date. It warned that quitting the UK would leave Scotland too small to afford the £4 billion a year in subsidies it said was necessary to fund the Scottish Governments renewables plans.
Herald 2nd Nov 2011 more >>
Thorium
India has announced plans for a prototype nuclear power plant that uses an innovative “safer” fuel. Officials are currently selecting a site for the reactor, which would be the first of its kind, using thorium for the bulk of its fuel instead of uranium the fuel for conventional reactors. They plan to have the plant up and running by the end of the decade.
Guardian 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Despite decades of relative neglect compared with conventional nuclear power, research into thorium is now forging ahead around the world. But it is thanks to the vision of Homi Bhabha, the architect of India’s atomic energy programme, that India is a world leader in thorium research and development. He died in a plane crash in 1966 aged 56, but had already laid the foundations for a research programme that is now beginning to bear fruit.
Guardian 1st Nov 2011 more >>
What is Thorium.
Guardian 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Test Veterans
A DAMNING report into the health of nuclear test veterans has revealed that eight out of 10 went on to develop multiple medical conditions following A-bomb tests in the 1950s.
Burton Mail 1st Nov 2011 more >>
Coal
Why the world is burning more coal. The inconvenient truth is that coal remains a cheap and dirty fuel and the idea of ‘clean’ coal remains a distant dream.
Guardian 31st Oct 2011 more >>
