Sellafield
Letter from George Regan: So the nuclear industry’s flagship £1.8bn reprocessing plant has still not completed work it should have finished five years ago (Thorp nuclear plant may close for years, 19 May). High time this completely pointless plant was closed down for good. All the long-suffering taxpayer has to show for Sellafield’s operations is an embarrassing stockpile of 100 tonnes of weapons-useable plutonium and some of the most dangerous nuclear waste in the world, neither of which we have any idea what to do with. Another £2bn has been frittered away on the Sellafield Mox plant, to add to the £75bn bill for cleaning up the rest of the mess created by this industry.
Guardian 21st May 2009 more >>
There was a leak on the day Gordon Brown visited Sellafield.
Guido Fawkes 20th May 2009 more >>
SELLAFIELD operators said yesterday “it was business as usual” despite a new threat to operations at Thorp. One of the three evaporators which processes “hot” waste from reprocessing operations has had to shutdown in an emergency after higher levels of radioactivity were detected in the plant housing the vital equipment. Thorp has its own evaporator and is able to continue operating normally but this may have to be switched over to deal with other site priorities including high hazard liquids. Sellafield bosses were unable to say whether Thorp would have to close eventually or operate on reduced capacity.
Whitehaven News 20th May 2009 more >>
New Nuclear Management is planning to use Early Contractor Involvement for decommissioning contracts at Sellafield.
Contract Journal 20th May 2009 more >>
SELLAFIELD faces a top level probe into a radioactive leak which went 14 months before being spotted – on the day of the Prime Minister’s recent visit. Details of the leak from an overhead open-air pipe were first revealed in The Whitehaven News last week and today the News can disclose that the nuclear site’s regulators have decided to hold their own investigations. It could lead to prosecution but no decisions have been made on what action might follow. The Environment Agency is leading the investigation in conjunction with the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate which issues Sellafield’s licence to operate. The two regulatory bodies have decided to investigate further after getting the results from Sellafield’s own board of inquiry.
Whitehaven News 20th May 2009 more >>
New Nukes
THE Department of Energy is giving the thumbs down to calls for a public inquiry into the need for a new fleet of electricity-producing nuclear reactors. Three sites in Copeland – at Sellafield, Braystones and Kirksanton – are among 11 in the UK being considered to house new power stations. The government says it will assess all the pros and cons as well as consulting with the public before making final decisions. But in the meantime the call for a public inquiry has been made to the Department of Energy and Climate Change by Green pressure groups with the support of some leading academics. They say that the current system of “justification” is fatally flawed and that public confidence in government ministers is at an all-time low. However, the Department of Energy told The Whitehaven News: “There’s an open consultation under way and thus far we do not believe there is also a need for an inquiry but we will keep that under review.”
Whitehaven News 20th May 2009 more >>
Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke, Bouygues and Vinci are in the running for £700m of nuclear civils work of the UK’s first £4bn nuclear station.
Contract Journal 20th May 2009 more >>
EDF confirmed it had sent out prequalification questionnaires for two separate civils packages and would issue tenders towards the end of the year. At stake are two separate packages. The first, for preliminary civils work, is worth over £100m and the second, for main civils work, is worth several hundred million, EDF said.
Building 20th May 2009 more >>
FRENCH-OWNED EDF Energy plans to build at least four UK nuclear plants by 2025 following its acquisition of British Energy for £12.5bn. The company expects to build the new plants on existing sites, starting with Hinkley Point, Somerset, due to open by 2017. Other companies with plans to develop plants in the UK include Westinghouse and General Electric/Hitachi. This regeneration of nuclear energy is a huge opportunity for the architectural profession.
Scotsman 21st May 2009 more >>
Scotland
NUCLEAR power must be part of the energy mix for the future, according to the man behind Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, which the First Minister officially opened yesterday. Speaking at the launch of the Whitelee wind farm in East Renfrewshire, Ignacio Gal n, chairman and chief executive of Iberdrola, Scottish Power’s Spanish parent company, said nuclear power and renewable sources had to be complimentary.
Scotsman 21st May 2009 more >>
Bradwell
AN anti-nuclear group has called for an open debate with the Government over plans for a new Bradwell power station. The Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group has made detailed submissions as part of a national consultation. The Mersea-based group has argued Bradwell should be taken off the Govenrment’s list of possible nuclear sites because it is vulnerable to flooding. The group also argues Mersea – a couple of miles across the Blackwater Estuary from Bradwell – would be hard to evacuate in an emergency. It also cites the potential impact on the island’s oyster industry and risk to health caused by emissions.
Braintree and Witham Times 19th May 2009 more >>
Dounreay Particles
A SECOND radioactive particle from historic operations at Dounreay has been found at Murkle beach. Contractors deployed to search for off-site contamination detected the hot spot 18 centimetres under the surface of the beach, which lies to the west of Dunnet Bay. It was unearthed on Monday, the first of a scheduled four-day sweep carried out by all-terrain vehicles fitted with radiation detectors.
John O Groat Journal 20th May 2009 more >>
Proliferation
The Obama administration on Wednesday took on Congressional critics in two disputes over nuclear proliferation in the Middle East when it decided to back a controversial deal with the United Arab Emirates and warned legislators against imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran. The moves follow Barack Obama’s meeting this week with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel prime minister, when the US president announced he would give the US’s diplomatic outreach to Iran at least until the end of this year to succeed.
FT 21st May 2009 more >>
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday approved a nuclear energy deal with the United Arab Emirates worth potentially billions of dollars to U.S. energy companies, setting the stage for Congress to decide whether to block it.
Interactive Investor 20th May 2009 more >>
Barack Obama today gave the go-ahead for a controversial transfer of technology to the United Arab Emirates that would make it the first Arab nuclear state. The UAE is regarded by the US as a moderate Arab state and the transfer is to allow it to build a nuclear power plant to produce energy, not a bomb. But it is easier for a country with civilian nuclear power technology to make the change to military purposes. Critics of the decision argue that could lead to an arms race in the Middle East, encouraging other countries seeking nuclear technology. They say does not make sense at a time when the US is engaged in trying to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment programme that Washington sees as intended to achieve a nuclear weapons capability.
Guardian 21st May 2009 more >>
India
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) have signed an agreement on the future construction of nuclear reactors in India. According to GEH, India plans to increase its nuclear power generation capacity form the current 4.1 GW to 60 GW by 2030.
KHL Group 21st May 2009 more >>
US
U.S. lawmakers pushing to include greater recognition for existing nuclear power in a national renewable energy standard failed to win new breaks for the industry when a U.S. congressional panel on Wednesday voted down an amendment to a controversial climate change bill.
Reuters 20th May 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran launched a new long-range missile on Wednesday in a show of strength and defiance of western concerns over the country’s missile and nuclear programme. The Sejjil-2 surface-to-surface missile has a range of 2,000km, far enough to reach Israel and eastern Europe. The range is similar to Iran’s Shahab-3, which is suspected by the west to be designed to carry a nuclear warhead.
FT 21st May 2009 more >>
A team of US and Russian scientists have concluded that Iran could have the capability to develop a nuclear warhead within six to eight years.
Belfast Telegraph 20th May 2009 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
A lecture to commemorate the transfer from the RAF to the Royal Navy of the responsibility for the maintenance of the British strategic nuclear deterrent.
Portsmouth News 21st May 2009 more >>
The United States and Russia have held two days of successful talks on ways to slash vast stockpiles of Cold War nuclear weapons, a Russian diplomat said on Wednesday.
Reuters 20th May 2009 more >>
Renewables
The oil money has stopped flowing and Shetland faces a new energy controversy which divides its close-knit population: the prospect of hosting Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, a 600MW project that could generate a fifth of Scotland’s entire electricity needs. Scottish ministers have received the detailed planning application for the Viking wind farm project, a vast scheme involving 150 turbines over 12,800 hectares, which would dominate the desolate moors and hills of Shetland’s main island. The application was submitted as Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, that the biggest wind farm so far built in Europe, at Whitelee, south of Glasgow, would expand again. The 322MW scheme, already large enough to meet Glasgow’s electricity needs, will increase to 452MW.
Guardian 21st May 2009 more >>
