New Nukes
David Lowry: The problem with the Labour government is not the unpopularity of Gordon Brown, as measured by successive opinion polls, but the policies being pursued. Let me take one important example. Last Wednesday Gordon Brown held his monthly prime-ministerial press conference. The reports by the Guardian overlooked the fact that in the press conference launching the energy support package, Brown chose on no less than three occasions to praise nuclear power. He said: “I think people may have forgotten that we made the right decision about nuclear power, I think very few people now doubt that”.
Guardian 20th Sept 2008 more >>
British Energy
FRANCE’s EDF is this week poised to clinch a £12 billion takeover of British Energy (BE), the nuclear power company, and will immediately signal that it is prepared to hand back two key nuclear sites to the government for auction. BE’s holdings at Dungeness, on the Kent coast, and Bradwell, in Essex, are expected to be carved out and included in a separate package of sites for new nuclear stations. The package will be auctioned later this year. Power companies will be invited to tender for some or all of the sites, with Germany’s RWE and Eon, Spain’s Iberdrola and Sweden’s Vattenfall expected to make bids. If the takeover of BE is successful, EDF is expected to press ahead with the construction of reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk. Industry experts think it will build two reactors at each site. Last week General Electric and Hitachi, which have a joint design, withdrew from the GDA process. The pair are expected to resubmit their proprosals next year.
Sunday Times 21st Sept 2008 more >>
Hunterston
DETAILS OF a serious fire hazard at the Hunterston nuclear power station in North Ayrshire have been kept secret because they could aid a terrorist attack. The government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has refused to release information about a “specific fire scenario” at the reactors because to do so could “threaten national security”. The revelation has prompted calls from environmentalists for the plant to be shut down as soon as possible. But its operator, British Energy, said that it was working to improve safety.
Sunday Herald 21st Sept 2008 more >>
Spain
THE rest of the world has mostly forgotten, but a brush with nuclear Armageddon more than 40 years ago is still seared in the minds of many residents of a small Spanish fishing town. On the morning of January 17, 1966, a US Air Force B-52 bomber returning from a routine mission collided with a tanker aircraft that was to refuel it. The resulting explosion destroyed both aircraft and sent the bomber’s hydrogen bombs plummeting towards the ground.
Scotland on Sunday 21st Sept 2008 more >>
Iran
RUSSIA will resist western pressure for tougher United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, it said yesterday. The announcement came after the Kremlin agreed to sell advanced antiaircraft systems to the Iranians, bringing condemnation from the US and adding to tensions over the Russian invasion of Georgia.
Sunday Times 21st Sept 2008 more >>
Israel
From the archive: THE secrets of a subterranean factory engaged in the manufacture of Israeli nuclear weapons have been uncovered by The Sunday Times Insight team. Hidden beneath the Negev desert, the factory has been producing atomic warheads for the past 20 years. Now it has almost certainly begun manufacturing thermo-nuclear weapons, with yields big enough to destroy entire cities.
Sunday Times 21st Sept 2008 more >>
