New Nukes
RWE, Germany’s second-biggest power supplier, plans to take part in up to five nuclear power projects outside Germany, its chairman said in a newspaper interview Wednesday.
Energy Daily 22nd Oct 2008 more >>
Letter from Dr Brian Jones: It is disturbing to learn of the staggering shortage of inspectors available to deal with the nuclear industry and the HSE’s complacency. Even in times of austerity we must invest to ensure the best and most able professionals are given the responsibility to oversee critical activities that relate to the nations security, health and wellbeing. The new nuclear industry will need the tightest possible regulation. The reward and status for the inspectors must be on a par with the industry itself.
Guardian 23rd Oct 2008 more >>
BRITAIN’S Health and Safety Executive is offering skilled nuclear inspectors sweeteners of up to £20,000 on top of salaries to join the agency to prepare for new nuclear building programmes. Battling to recruit up to 50 inspectors to cope with its existing workload in the nuclear industry and the vital assessment of the reactors being put forward to meet government plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations.
Whitehaven News 22nd Oct 2008 more >>
Test Veterans
UK nuclear tests conducted in the 1950s have left veterans and their children with a variety of congenital diseases, according to a backbench Tory MP.
View London 23rd Oct 2008 more >>
Contamination
A French company yesterday acknowledged that it has inadvertently supplied slightly radioactive steel parts around Europe. The French division of Otis, the American elevator company, ordered the recall of buttons installed in Britain over the past couple of months in 500 lifts.
Times 23rd Oct 2008 more >>
Sellafield
A GROUP of experts in highly radioactive work from around the world have been visiting the newly-created National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield.
Whitehaven News 22nd Oct 2008 more >>
Competition
The “big six” suppliers, such as Eon and RWE Npower, already control more than half the country’s electricity production. The planned acquisition of British Energy, the nuclear generator, by EDF of France will raise that proportion to about three-quarters. E4B, which has collapsed, has shown that entering the electricity supply market without any generation capacity – it bought its power in the wholesale market – is a tough challenge. Jonathan Elliott, managing director of Make It Cheaper, an energy price comparison service for businesses, said: “The market was deregulated to improve competition and offer the consumer more choice but E4B’s failure is a wake-up call that it’s become nothing more than a cosy oligopoly.”
FT 23rd Oct 2008 more >>
Turkey
Turkey expects to complete a nuclear power station tender within one or two weeks after ‘some questions are asked’ to the winning Russian firm, Energy Minister Hilmi Guler told reporters on Wednesday. A bidding consortium comprised of Russian Atomstroyexport and Inter Rao along with Turkey’s Park Teknik Group was sole bidder.
AFX 22nd Oct 2008 more >>
Green New Deal
Stern: Let us learn the lessons and take the opportunity of the coincidence of the crisis and the deepening awareness of the great danger of unmanaged climate change: now is the time to lay the foundations for a world of low-carbon growth.
Guardian 23rd Oct 2008 more >>
Renewables
The University of East Anglia said today the launch of a biomass power station would slash its carbon emissions. The university hopes the £8m plant will help it become the most sustainable campus in the country. The power station, which will use locally-sourced wood chips, is expected to cut the university’s emissions by a third after two years.
Independent 22nd Oct 2008 more >>
Fuel Poverty
Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged are awaiting the verdict of the landmark case against the Government, saying that Labour has failed in its promise to end fuel poverty for the vulnerable by 2010 and for all by 2016. Although £20 billion has been spent fighting the problem since 2000, it is estimated that five million households spent more than 10 per cent of their income – the trigger point for fuel poverty.
Telegraph 23rd Oct 2008 more >>
As many as 20,000 more pensioners could die this winter as they try to cut back on heating following the sharp rise in energy prices, new research warned.
Telegraph 22nd Oct 2008 more >>
