New Nukes
Engineering and project management company Amec has been awarded a contract by EDF Group to help in the construction of proposed new reactors at the Hinkley Point and Sizewell nuclear power plant sites in the UK.
World Nuclear News 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
Energy Business Review 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
Utility Week 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
Money AM 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
Simon Hughes: We can cut UK emissions and provide enough energy without relying on environmentally destructive nuclear power. We believe we can cut carbon emissions and provide enough energy for our country without relying on the environmentally destructive technology of nuclear power. Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, expensive and will divert resources from building up capacity in renewable energy. It is simply the worst option we have for tackling climate change.
Guardian Blog 21st Apr 2010 more >>
The construction industry has raised concerns over Liberal Democrat policies after the leaders’ TV debate raised the possibility of the party helping to form the next government.
Building 23rd Apr 2010 more >>
IPC
It cost £5m to set up, and costs £9.3m a year to run. We’re paying the chairman £200,000 a year, and also supporting a team of 25 commissioners, a chief executive, five directors and a communication team. But the Infrastructure Planning Committee – a quango set up by the government to fast-track nationally important projects such as windfarms and nuclear power stations – has yet to receive a single application. And if the Tories or Lib Dems win the election they’re going to shut it down. British planning at its best. So far, it has published one opinion, on an expected application for a waste plant. But that had to be withdrawn because it failed to meet consultation requirements. The press officer for the IPC told the Guardian yesterday that he’s not sure when the first application will actually be arriving. But he believes that it will be fairly soon.
Guardian Blog 21st Apr 2010 more >>
Wylfa
For sheer political brass neck, Plaid Cymru must take the biscuit (to mix metaphors) for unbridled inconsistency and lack of principles. Or maybe they should be awarded the Disconnector prize for realpolitik. The party’s manifesto is avowedly anti-nuclear and opposes any new civilian nuclear power stations in the Principality. However, Plaid Cymru’s president – Ieuan Wyn Jones, deputy first minister of the Welsh Assembly – is standing as a candidate for the party on Anglesey, home to the Wylfa Magnox nuclear power station, where a replacement nuke is proposed – a much larger pressurised water reactor. Guess who is supporting that scheme (good for the local economy and employment opportunities)? Yup. It’s would-be Westminster-bound Jones.
Principled? Him? Disconn ector thinks not.
Utility Week 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
US
The huge cost of nuclear power means that taxpayers will have to provide nuclear loan guarantees to finance new projects if the president and Congress are serious about building new reactors. The terms of these guarantees must include adequate protections for taxpayers.
Climate Progress 21st Apr 2010 more >>
Renewables
German solar firm hopes that soon-to-be-completed 150MW Egyptian solar farm will provide working template for Desertec solar project
Business Green 21st Apr 2010 more >>
Trident
The true cost of replacing our Trident subs is about £3billion a year over 25 years – not the £100billion bandied about by Lib Dem yarn-spinner Nick Clegg. Those four subs and the courage of the men who endure great hardship to man them round the clock are an insurance policy for the safety and well-being of our nation and of generations to come. They show we are a major force in the world that you mess with at your peril. So what are we to make of the claim by four eminent generals that we should consider scrapping our nuclear fleet because it’s not needed any more and replacing it would be a waste of money? I’ll refrain from using the salty answer you might get from the Navy. Let’s just say the generals are talking through their brass hats. They’ve fallen for the political version of the three card trick.
Daily Express 23rd Apr 2010 more >>
GREENPEACE activists got the thumbs-up from shoppers who heard their anti-nuclear message. They were out in force in Reading’s Broad Street at the weekend and of 195 people who filled in their survey, 171 (87%) said the Government should cut the Trident nuclear weapons system rather than public services.
Reading Chronicle 16th Apr 2010 more >>
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to “get real” on the UK’s need for a nuclear deterrent, during the prime ministerial debates. The Lib Dems have ruled out the “like-for-like” replacement of Trident, the UK’s nuclear weapons system, when it runs out in the 2020s. Conservative leader David Cameron said he agreed with Gordon Brown that the Lib Dem’s position was unviable.
BBC 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
Retired top brass have elbowed their way into the democratic process with a message to The Times. They call for a re-think of Trident 2, warning of a “major strategic blunder” if the £80billion atomic sub programme is left out of a post-election defence review.
Daily Mirror 23rd Apr 2010 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Letter from Republican Whip: Robert Gates, the defence secretary, warned recently that the United States will have to resume testing unless it modernises its nuclear weapons, as Britain, France, China and Russia have done or are doing. It is no understatement to say that the fate of the recently concluded START follow-on agreement depends on the president submitting to Congress a legally required modernisation plan that is sufficient to reverse the atrophy of the United States’ nuclear deterrent over the past decade, and set America on the path to a safe, secure and reliable deterrent. So far, the president’s budget submission is a half-hearted commitment at best.
The Economist 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
NATO ministers debated on Thursday whether they should do away with U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons in Europe, and Washington said it was committed to defending former Soviet states nervous about Russia.
Reuters 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
BBC 22nd Apr 2010 more >>
