Six companies have signalled interest in building new nuclear power stations in Britain including a newcomer to the UK electricity industry, showing the strength of enthusiasm for the potential of nuclear power in spite of the problems it has faced. Areva, the French state-controlled nuclear engineering company, has signed up the six companies as possible users of its European Pressurised Reactor design. One of them is Suez, the French-Belgian utility, which would be new to the British market. The others are electricity suppliers EDF of France, Eon and RWE of Germany, Iberdrola of Spain, which has just bought Scottish Power, and also British Energy, which runs Britain’s more modern nuclear power stations. Friday is the deadline for companies to submit reactor designs for pre-licensing – which is part of the new system of approving plans for new nuclear power plants that is intended to streamline the process. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate – part of the Health and Safety Executive – and the Environment Agency, which are the regulators, are expected to decide on which designs have been given pre-licensing approval by next spring, and then issue a full licence by the end of 2010.
FT 20th June 2007 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/91658718-1ea4-11dc-bc22-000b5df10621,_i_rssPage=5b566934-3013-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8.html
UK nuclear power station operator British Energy has welcomed the decision by UK regulators to establish and begin a generic design acceptance program to allow regulators to assess the safety, security and environmental impact of power station design. The nuclear firm added that the generic design acceptance (GDA) initiative will also limit the need to revisit environmental and efficiency issues in-depth during site-specific planning processes. This reduces regulatory risk and provides a route to shorter and more predictable site-specific assessments, British Energy said.
Energy Business Review Online 19th June 2007 http://www.energy-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=FB403ED6-A873-4AA8-84F5-8FDA1B7BBAF0
Iran
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator and the EU’s foreign policy chief are to meet for fresh talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Channel 4 News 19th June 2007 http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/iran+to+meet+eu+on+nuclear+issue/566292
North Korea
North Korea should move quickly to shut down its source of bomb-grade plutonium, a top U.S. envoy said on Tuesday, voicing hope that stalled six-party talks on scrapping its nuclear arms programme could resume next month.
Reuters 19th June 2007 http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?rpc=401&type=worldNews&storyID=2007-06-19T122916Z_01_SEO241339_RTRUKOC_0_UK-KOREA-NORTH.xml
Oldbury
Bosses of Oldbury nuclear power station have defended last month’s decision to restart the station’s No 2 nuclear reactor and resume generating electricity after a two-year break. But the station was forced to shut down again just 10 days later when there was a fire in a generator away from the nuclear side of the station.
Bristol Evening Post 19th June 2007 http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145365&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145191&contentPK=17600676&folderPk=83726&pNodeId=144922
Climate
China has overtaken the US as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, a development that will increase anxiety about its role in driving man-made global warming and will add to pressure on the world’s politicians to reach an agreement on climate change that includes the Chinese economy.
Guardian 20th June 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2107000,00.html
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