Scotland
THOUSANDS of tonnes of deadly nuclear waste would be returned to Scotland from south of the Border if the SNP wins independence, a Labour MP has claimed. Jamie Reed, whose constituency includes Sellafield, said it would be against British law for Europe’s largest atomic plant to retain toxic material from a “foreign country”. He said an independent Scotland would have a “legal and moral responsibility” to take back waste from six current and historic nuclear reactors – at Dounreay, Hunterston, Torness and Chapelcross.
Express 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Hunterston
The company that runs the nuclear reactors at Hunterston in North Ayrshire is warning that their safety could be jeopardised by plans to build a huge coal-fired power station next door. EDF Energy says that the construction and operation of the controversial new plant could block the evacuation routes of staff and deprive its site of electricity and vital cooling water in an emergency. It is also worried that discharges from the coal plant could compromise reactor cooling systems. The French nuclear company has lodged a formal objection to an application by Ayrshire Power to build a £3 billion coal station at Hunterston. Following rejection of the application, which attracted more than 20,000 objections, by North Ayrshire Council in November, the Scottish Government has now confirmed that it will go to a public inquiry later this year.
Sunday Herald 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Rob Edwards 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
IF it wasn’t so frightening, it would be like a scene from The Simpsons: the sea near the Hunterston nuclear power station in Ayrshire is glowing spookily green. Don’t be afraid, however, because it has nothing to do with radioactive leaks spawning three-eyed fish or so we are told. A local resident raised the alarm after spotting a patch of luminous green on the satellite photographs of the site published online by Google Earth. There is an equally vivid area visible just inside the site boundary. Given the nature of the site, first thoughts were of plutonium or some other nuclear nasties contaminating the water and endangering locals’ health. But not so, says EDF Energy, the French company that generates electricity from the Hunterston B reactors. The green glow has a more mundane explanation: bubbling water. Pete Roche, a nuclear consultant and former Government radiation adviser, said: “No matter how green the glow from Hunterston it cannot make nuclear power an environmentally sound energy source. We still have nowhere to put the highly dangerous waste and there are continuous reports of health problems associated with radiation emissions even without any accidents like Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.”
Sunday Herald 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Rob Edwards 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Wylfa
More than 200 people attend a rally on Anglesey to back a farmer who refuses to sell his land for the development of a new generation nuclear power station. Dairy farmer Richard Jones’ family has farmed at Caerdegog near Llanfechell for 300 years. He said losing 65 acres of their best agricultural land plus another 20 acres they rent would make the farm unviable. Horizon Nuclear Power says it has listened to the family and is looking again at the matter in great detail.
BBC 21st Jan 2012 more >>
LANGUAGE campaigners say the opposition to Wylfa B is a fight for Welsh language communities, while others oppose the plant over safety fears and the nuclear waste. They say there is growing opposition to the plan over concerns about the pressure on local communities when thousands of workers start the construction project. Menna Machreth, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg’s spokesperson for Gwynedd-Môn commented: Everyone claims that the whole island is in favour of nuclear, but that does not stand up to scrutiny.
Daily Post 21st Jan 2012 more >>
Dounreay
TRAINS are set to start transporting spent nuclear material from Dounreay through Inverness in the summer but the exact times and dates will not be disclosed due to fears of possible terrorist attack. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has confirmed trains carrying the “breeder” material will travel through the region from the decommissioned Caithness nuclear power station to Sellafield in England for reprocessing.
Inverness Courier 21st Jan 2012 more >>
Cumbria
New report by Environment Agency says river levels may fall by 80% as a result of climate change and the growing population.
Observer 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Politics
Chris Huhne has sanctioned an extraordinary attack on Downing Street “dirty tricks”, as his cabinet career hangs by a thread over his alleged attempt to cover up a speeding offence. As the Crown Prosecution Service considers whether to bring charges against the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, friends of Mr Huhne accused David Cameron’s press secretary, Gabby Bertin, of briefing against him over plans for a new royal yacht a claim she denies.
Independent 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Japan
In the fall, as this valleys rice paddies ripened into a carpet of gold, inspectors came to check for radioactive contamination. Onami sits just 35 miles northwest of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which spewed radioactive cesium over much of this rural region last March. However, the government inspectors declared Onamis rice safe for consumption after testing just two of its 154 rice farms. Then, a few days later, a skeptical farmer in Onami, who wanted to be sure his rice was safe for a visiting grandson, had his crop tested, only to find it contained levels of cesium that exceeded the governments safety limit. In the weeks that followed, more than a dozen other farmers also found unsafe levels of cesium. An ensuing panic forced the Japanese government to intervene, with promises to test more than 25,000 rice farms in eastern Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located. The uproar underscores how, almost a year after a huge earthquake and tsunami caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan is still struggling to protect its food supply from radioactive contamination.
New York Times 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Fukushima Daiichi meltdown has profoundly changed the face of nuclear power in Japan, and may result in a complete shift toward alternate sources of energy for the nation.
Earth & Industry 21st Jan 2012 more >>
Fukushima Update 17th to 19th Jan.
Greenpeace International 20th Jan 2012 more >>
Trident
The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, warned that, after independence, Scotland would have to pay “billions” for the cost of relocating Trident. This wasn’t quite in the same league as losing the pandas, but was equally daft. I don’t recall the Ukraine being required to build bases in Russia for the nuclear weapons it returned in 1994. Scotland never asked for weapons of mass destruction in the first place. Anyway, there’s a simple enough solution: Trident nuclear warheads are moved by road convoy every year from Coulport to Aldermaston near Reading. Maybe they could just make a one-way trip in 2014. Scotland could pay for the diesel.
Herald 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Renewables
Giant wind turbines nearly 1,000ft tall and five times more powerful than anything yet built in Britain could soon be installed around the coast under an European Union-backed scheme to boost renewable energy production. The super-turbine design has emerged from the pan- European UpWind research project funded by the EU. Its aim was to analyse wind turbine design to see whether it was technically feasible to build much larger machines than currently available. Britain has about 470 wind turbines around its shores but the government wants thousands more and provides generous subsidies to wind farm operators. Existing machines typically have a maximum capacity of no more than 3 megawatts (Mw), and are about 400ft high, although some 5Mw machines are being tested. The proposed super-turbines would have a capacity of about 20Mw and stand two or three times higher.
Sunday Times 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
Southwest England may not have the high-tech chutzpah of California, but Greg Barker, the climate change minister, hopes that one day it will rival the ground-breaking entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley. Rather than computing, he wants the area between Bristol and the Scilly Isles to make its name with renewable power. Tomorrow he is due to announce the creation of a marine energy park that will bring together the regions universities, green technology companies and politicians. The park will not be a specific location, however. It will be a network designed to boost investment in wave and offshore wind power, and to generate jobs in cities such as Plymouth, which have been hit hard by the decline of traditional industries such as shipbuilding.
Sunday Times 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
If Scotland breaks away from the union, its thriving clean energy sector could lose billions in support from UK taxpayers
Sunday Times 22nd Jan 2012 more >>
