New Nukes
Jonathan Porritt, Founder Forum for the Futrue talks at debate about Renewables at Green Party Conference and the dangers of nuclear energy in the market place.
You Tube 8th Sept 2012 more >>
ONR
NUCLEAR regulatory staff in Gloucestershire are set to experience a boost in numbers to match the county’s growing influence on the industry. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), which has a base in Cheltenham, is increasing employee levels in the town to meet the high demand for its services in the South West.
Gloucester Citizen 2nd Oct 2012 more >>
NuGen
Spanish utility Iberdrola said it would not comment on reports it is pulling out of a UK nuclear joint venture with plans to build up to 3.6 GW of new nuclear plant on a site known as Moorside near the Sellafield nuclear and chemical waste complex in northwest England. However, a spokeman for NuGeneration, the nuclear joint venture between Iberdrola and the French utility GDF Suez, said October 1, Our parent companies are 100% committed to our Moorside project in West Cumbria. An unsourced story in the UKs Sunday Times, September 30, said Iberdrola was pulling out of the UK nuclear market. A spokesman for Iberdrola in Madrid said October 1 that the company does not comment on rumors. A well placed source at GDF Suez told i-NUCLEAR October 1 that GDF Suez remained committed to the project.
i-nuclear 1st October 2012 more >>
The prospect of a new power plant in Cumbria has taken a hit after a consortium member pulled out of a multi-billion-pound deal. Iberdrola, a Spanish energy company which owns Scottish power, made the decision to pull out of the deal to build atomic reactors in Britain.
Cumberland News 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Radwaste
An advert opposing the nukiller dump has made a big impact in the Whitehaven News and Times and Star this week. This is a tiny antidote to the blitz of adverts in local press and elsewhere normalising and underplaying the government proposal to dump nuclear waste under Cumbria. The advert from Radiation Free Lakeland was made possible due to the generosity of ordinary people who do not want this land to be poisoned into eternity.
Radiation Free Lakeland 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Hinkley
Journalist, author and long-standing anti-nuclear campaigner Crispin Aubrey has died, aged 66, it has been announced. The Stop Hinkley campaign said Mr Aubrey suffered a heart attack on Friday afternoon. Mr Aubrey, who lived in Somerset with his family, had been preparing for the planned protest against Hinkley C next weekend and was due to speak at the rally next Saturday.
Western Daily Press 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Wylfa
British nuclear plant operator Magnox stopped reactor 1 at its Wylfa nuclear power plant on Sunday after difficulties during refuelling work, a spokesman said. “Investigations are currently underway to identify the nature and cause of the problems and, as usual, we are unable to estimate a return-to-service date,” he said.
Reuters 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Stress Tests
Nearly all of the nuclear plants operating in the European Union will need some safety improvements to be able to deal with extreme emergencies, according to a draft report seen by Dow Jones Monday. “On the basis of the stress test results practically all nuclear power plants need to undergo safety improvements,” reads the document, which is a draft version of the final report by the EU executive body on the safety checks–the stress tests–the bloc decided to undertake after the accident to the Fukushima power plant in Japan last year. According to the paper, which is expected to be published later this month, the cost of the safety upgrade could range between 30 million euros ($38.6 million) and EUR200 million per reactor, making the overall price tag between EUR10 billion and EUR25 billion. There are 134 reactors currently in operation in the EU.
Market Watch 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Simply Info 1st Oct 2012 more >>
The European Commission vowed Monday there would be “no complacency” when it comes to nuclear safety in Europe despite “hundreds of defects” revealed by stress tests especially in France. “Our stress test was strict, serious and transparent,” European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in a statement, after German daily Die Welt published what it said were figures from a report Oettinger will present on Wednesday to the EU executive board. The testing regime “reveals bluntly and objectively what we are good at and where there is a need to improve,” the German official said. “Generally the situation is satisfactory, but there is no room for complacency.” The German newspaper said Oettinger’s report puts the bill for improving the safety of Europe’s nuclear power plants at 25 billion euros ($32 billion), after identifying “hundreds of defects”. It said the faults lay mainly in French reactors — France has 58 of Europe’s 145 nuclear reactors.
EU Business 1st Oct 2012 more >>
European stress tests on nuclear power plants in the EU have identified room for improvement at almost all the bloc’s reactors. Yet Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger described the overall situation as “satisfactory.” The nuclear stress tests were not due to be presented to EU leaders until their next summit in mid-October, but several news agencies acquired the report ahead of time on Monday.
DW 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Finland
Finnish nuclear consortium Fennovoima dismissed its chief executive, saying it needed a different leader for its new phase, as it moves ahead with plans for a nuclear plant in Pyhajoki, northern Finland.Fennovoima’s board decided Chief Executive Tapio Saarenpaa should be “relieved of his duties”, the company said.”The CEO operates with the confidence of the board, and when the day comes when there is not enough of that, this is what happens,” Fennovoima spokeswoman Maira Kettunen said, declining to elaborate.The move comes as Fennovoima prepares to choose next year between Areva and Toshiba to supply the Pyhajoki reactor.
Reuters 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Fennovoima 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said it has submitted a claim to the International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration court in a dispute with supplier Areva-Siemens regarding delays to its Olkiluoto 3 nuclear project. Finland’s fifth nuclear reactor was originally scheduled to start operations in 2009, but has been hit by repeated delays and soaring costs. TVO and the Areva-Siemens consortium disagree over who is reponsible for the cost overruns, and the court is processing the dispute. TVO estimates costs and losses at about 1.8 billion euros ($2.32 billion).
Reuters 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Areva has to replace around 1000 small pipes at Olkiluoto 3 EPR construction site. According to the company, the pipes had “scratches” on them and will be replaced over winter.
SK24 (In Finnish) 24th September 2012 more >>
STUK, the Finnish nuclear safety regulator found a number of anomalies and deficits in quality control and work with the rock tunnel in the planned Onkalo high-level nuclear waste disposal site. So far Finland has aimed to start placing waste in the KBS-3 type repository in 2020 and the company building it was supposed to apply for construction permission this year. There’s been doubts and critique about the concept in general before but this is the first time that the safety regulator is directly criticizing on-going construction work.
STUK (In Finnish) 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Vanunu
Germany’s Nobel literature laureate Günter Grass, who earlier this year was barred from Israel for criticising its nuclear policy, has written a poem praising the nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu.
Guardian 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Japan
Japans Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (J-Power) has announced that it plans to resume the construction of its Ohma Nuclear Power Plant in Aomori prefecture, Japan. The decision has been taken with the understanding of the local communities, it said, 1 October.
Nuclear Engineering International 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Iran
A precipitous drop in Iran’s currency, the rial, shows that sanctions are cutting “deeper and deeper” into its economy, the United States said on Monday, reiterating Iran must rein in its nuclear program.The rial plunged against the U.S. dollar in open-market trading on Monday, and has lost more than a quarter of its value over the past week.
Reuters 1st Oct 2012 more >>
Korea
A senior North Korean diplomat warned a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York that “a spark of fire could set off a thermonuclear war” on the Korean Peninsula. Pak Kil-yon, Pyongyang’s vice-foreign minster, put the blame for the tense state of inter-Korean relations firmly on South Korea’s conservative government and claimed the citizens of the North feel “shame” and “political terror.”
Telegraph 2nd Oct 2012 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Paul Rogers: What chances for nuclear disarmament in the second decade?
Talkworks 1st Oct 2012 more >>
The White House confirmed yesterday that it had been subject to an attempted cyberattack. Hackers tried to breach one of the most secure networks in the world The incident, thought to have taken place earlier this month, was downplayed by White House staff, and described as an “isolated” incident, according to he website ZDNet. An unclassified network was affected and quickly locked-down.There was no evidence to suggest any material had been stolen, despite claims that the attack took place in the White House Military Office, home to the so-called “nuclear football,” that carries the codes to the U.S. government’s nuclear arsenal.
The Drum 2nd Oct 2012 more >>
The White House revealed today that cyber attackers linked to the Chinese government attempted to hack into a computer system in the White House Military Office.
Daily Mail 1st Oct 2012 more >>
