Nuclear Security
The economic crisis has triggered a significant increase in the number of nuclear workers vulnerable to bribes, the governments nuclear security watchdog has warned. Roger Brunt, who was director of civil nuclear security with the Office for Nuclear Regulation, has revealed that growing numbers of workers vetted for national security reasons have run into financial difficulties, and had their clearances reviewed. In a report to ministers covering 2009-11, released online today, Brunt also expressed concern about the vetting of foreign workers. He disclosed a problem with the security of nuclear information, and said that the proportion of nuclear police who were armed had risen.
Rob Edwards 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Nuclear Research
The Government is too complacent about the UK’s nuclear research and development (R&D) capabilities, and associated expertise, which will be lost unless there is a fundamental change in the Governments approach. This is just one of the conclusions of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, which publishes its report today.
House of Lords 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
As a matter of urgency, the committee urges the development of a research and development strategy looking beyond 2025, and the establishment of a board drawn from academia, industry and government agencies to implement that strategy. Part of the strategy should be to re-activate membership of the Generation Four International Forum, the body that is co-ordinating research on the next generation of reactors intended to be safer and more efficient than current designs.
BBC 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Nuclear Safety
The nuclear accident at the Fukushima power plant in Japan has prompted the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), the industry’s self-regulating body, to broaden its remit from accident prevention to regulating and verifying how well plants are prepared to cope with a serious nuclear accident and mitigate its consequences. But WANO seems likely to stop short of publicly identifying plants that have failed to address safety and other issues sticking instead with its two-decades-old policy that any information shared by its members should remain confidential.
Nature 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Scotland
One of the candidates in the Scottish Labour leadership race is urging the party to come out in favour of the construction of new nuclear power stations north of the Border. Tom Harris, the MP for Glasgow South, said that the party should put aside its equivocation on the issue and recognise that nuclear generation was the only way of ensuring that any future energy gap was filled. He told a meeting of Labour students that increased nuclear power was also the best way of meeting targets for cutting carbon emissions. He said: We are in love with renewables and while renewables have an important place in the energy mix, they cannot meet all our energy requirements.
Times 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Hinkley
WEST Somerset, Sedgemoor and Somerset County Council have said they are concerned about a lack of detailed information surrounding transport proposals for EDF Energys planned new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. In a report submitted to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) which deals with large projects the three councils also expressed concern over the quality of the information that was consulted upon and a lack of detailed evidence on some topics, a spokesperson for Somerset County Council said. But overall the councils were happy with the way in which EDF carried out its consultation activities.
This is the West Country 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Sellafield
Michael Harrison from the Environment Agency telephoned Radiation Free Lakeland this morning to confirm that there have been discussions about a desalination plant to enable a secure supply of freshwater for Sellafield wastes and proposed new build.
Radiation Free Lakeland 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Dounreay
The proposal, which will remove nearly half of the fuel left at Dounreay from the site, has been approved by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
STV 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Trains are to start moving tonnes of nuclear fuel from Dounreay in Caithness to Sellafield in Cumbria from next summer.
BBC 21st Nov 2011 more >>
RADIOACTIVE fuel from a decommissioned nuclear site is to be removed from Scotland by train, under plans from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The NDA want to use special freight trains to carry tonnes of nuclear fuel from Dounreay in Caithness to Sellafield in Cumbria. The material will be reprocessed and stored at Sellafield, which is better placed to deal with the material. It will take between four and five years to move the material, which comes from the sites two breeder nuclear reactors. Forty-four tonnes will be moved in about 40 journeys between Scotland and Cumbria. The NDA will now need regulators to approve the plans before they start moving the nuclear fuel.
Scotsman 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Nuclear fuel from a decommissioned nuclear site is to be removed from Scotland by train, under plans from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The NDA want to use special freight trains to carry tonnes of nuclear fuel from Dounreay in Caithness to Sellafield in Cumbria.
Rutherglen Reformer 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Radwaste
Cumbrians are to be asked their views on whether west Cumbria should take part in the search to find a suitable site for a deep underground disposal facility. The West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership has produced a consultation document setting out its initial opinions on a range of issues involved in deciding whether the area should participate in the Governments search for a suitable location to engineer a repository. They include geology, safety, what would go into a repository, what impacts a repository might have on the area and what additional community benefits there might be.
Cumberland News 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Radhealth
Dr. Ian Fairlie joins Dr. Caldicott on the program in this interview recorded in July, a few months after the Fukushima accident. Dr. Fairlie is a radiobiologist from Great Britain. He works as an independent consultant in the field of radioactivity in the environment and advises environmental organizations, the European Parliament as well as local and national authorities in several countries. Dr. Fairlie studied chemistry at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and radiobiology at Barts Medical College in London. He wrote his doctorate on the effects of radioactive contamination in the vicinity of Sellafield and La Hague.
If you Love this Planet 21st Oct 2011 more >>
The Green party’s former science and technology spokesman is promoting anti-radiation pills to people in Japan affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, that leading scientists have condemned as “useless”.
Guardian 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Energy Security
Centrica has expanded its footprint in the North Sea after the energy group bought stakes in oil and gas fields from Norway’s Statoil in a £1bn deal. The British Gas owner has also struck a long-term supply deal with the Norwegian national oil and gas company worth £13bn that will meet the needs of 3.5m homes a year
Guardian 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Independent 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Japan
Dismissed as a nobody by Japans nuclear industry, seismologist Katsuhiko Ishibashi spent two decades watching his predictions of disaster come true: First in the 1995 Kobe earthquake and then at Fukushima. He says the government still doesnt get it. The 67-year-old scientist recalled in an interview how his boss marched him to the Construction Ministry to apologize for writing a 1994 book suggesting Japans building codes put its cities at risk. Five months later, thousands were killed when a quake devastated Kobe city. The book, A Seismologist Warns, became a bestseller.
Bloomberg 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Iran
The British government is cutting its financial ties with Iranian banks over fears about the country’s nuclear programme. “We are doing this because of international evidence that Irans banks are involved in the development of Irans weaponised military nuclear weapon programme. We are doing this to improve the security not just of the whole world but of the national security of the UK”, George Osborne said on Monday.
Huffington Post 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Belfast Telegraph 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Scotsman 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Independent 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
Telegraph 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Channel4 News 21st Nov 2011 more >>
The US and Britain are leading a new wave of international sanctions targeting Iran’s banks and oil industry following the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report earlier this month that said Tehran worked for many years to develop nuclear weapons and may still be doing so.
Guardian 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Israel and its Arab neighbours sat in the same room Monday for rare discussions on banning nuclear weapons in the Middle East, although the meeting was marred by the absence of boycotting Iran.
Reuters 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Germany
After recent events in Japan, Germany has elected to restructure its energy system, as Professor Dr Jörg Hacker, of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, highlights.
Public Service 21st Nov 2011 more >>
Renewables
Prince Philip has labelled wind farms “useless” claiming they are completely reliant on subsidies. Is this true? Polly Curtis, with your help, finds out. Windfarms produce electricity but currently at a higher cost to fossil fuels. However, over the longterm today’s onshore windfarms will prove cheaper than coal and nuclear and those built from 2017, are predicted to be cheaper than gas as well.
Guardian 21st Nov 2011 more >>
WE were going to get the whole village covered in them, says Ettie Spencer, indicating the solar panels fixed to her cottage and sweeping her hand across an imaginary roofscape filled with more of the same. If the plan hadnt been stopped in its tracks, the first dozen would have turned into a lot more. The 60-year-old is standing in a lane behind her home in the East Lothian conservation village of Stenton. As well as the 10 panels on her own roof, there are 16 more on her neighbours house and another 18 on the village hall.
Herald 22nd Nov 2011 more >>
SUPPORTERS of Scotlands burgeoning solar power industry, estimated to be worth £50 million to the Scottish economy, have warned that the UK Governments threat to slash consumer subsidies for solar projects by 50% threatens thousands of jobs in the emerging sector. Scotland has 140 companies listed as supplying solar power equipment. Industry figures are warning of mass lay-offs if the planned cut drives down demand and companies go out of business. Daniel Borisewitz of industry group Scottish Renewables told the Sunday Herald that the move would have a real impact on the feasibility and economic viability of businesses supplying and installing while also damaging consumer and investor confidence in renewable energy incentive schemes.
Sunday Herald 20th Nov 2011 more >>
Solar21 has succeeded in building a fund of more than 100m from Irish investors. The fund, which invests in solar photovoltaic (PV) farms across Europe, expects to morph to 500m in the next 18 months, as investors are increasingly looking to solar energy as a viable investment route in the midst of volatile equity markets. Currently, the majority of Solar 21s funds are invested in photovoltaic solar farms to provide renewable energy to the German and Italian national grids, which are backed by 20-year feed-in-tariff agreements, guaranteed by the EU and the respective governments.
Silicon Republic 21st Nov 2011 more >>
