Trident
Forty-five people have been arrested after a blockade of Britain’s nuclear submarine base.
Seven Greenpeace vessels, including the 164ft former icebreaker Arctic Sunrise, attempted to gain entry to Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde as part of an anti-nuclear protest.
Northampton Evening Telegraph 23rd Feb 2007
Yorkshire Post 24th Feb 2007
Times 24th Feb 2007
Ministry of Defence police stormed a Greenpeace vessel blockading the nuclear base at Faslane in the Firth of Clyde last night. Around 20 officers with battering rams clambered aboard the Arctic Sunrise at about 5.15pm while it was anchored outside the naval base, protesters on board the vessel said. Around 20 activists on Arctic Sunrise refused a series of requests by Ministry of Defence police to move the vessel – 300 metres from the Trident nuclear submarines – stating they had no intention of leaving.
The Herald 24th Feb 2007
Scotsman 24th Feb 2007
BBC 23rd Feb 2007
See Video Footage or hear podcasts of the action at www.greenpeace.org.uk
Protests against a replacement of the Trident nuclear deterrent scheme are expected to bring tens of thousands of campaigners to London and Glasgow today.
View London 24th Feb 2007
Greenpeace campaigners are stepping up their campaign against nuclear power. The Brighton and Hove branch of the lobby group plan to hand signed posters to the city’s MPs asking them to vote against the Prime Minister’s plans to renew Britain’s nuclear deterrent, Trident.
Sussex Argus 23rd Feb 2007
Around 1,000 protesters gathered in Glasgow calling for the Trident nuclear weapon system to be ditched. Political, church and union leaders joined the crowds at the Bin The Bomb rally, which was loosely tied in with an anti-war and anti-nuclear rally in London. SNP leader Alex Salmond joined Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan and CND vice-president Bruce Kent in speaking in Glasgow’s George Square after an hour-long march through the streets. Mr Salmond told people they had a choice at this May’s Holyrood elections to vote for a “nuclear-free Scotland”. He said there was a choice between a “continuation down the route of wasting billions on a Trident replacement and ignoring international commitments to rid the world of nuclear weapons; or choosing to take the path of peace and prosperity. The rally came as a poll showed that 76% of Scots would rather see money for Trident spent on public services.
Sky 24th Feb 2007
BBC 24th Feb 2007
North Korea
THE head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog will meet the North Korean government next month to discuss the shutdown of the secretive communist state’s nuclear programme and bring the country back under UN supervision.
Scotsman 24th Feb 2007
Independent 24th Feb 2007
Telegraph 24th Feb 2007
Guardian 24th Feb 2007
BBC 23rd Feb 2007
Iran
A NEW report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is hardly news to most Iran-watchers. It confirms that Iran has continued to make progress in its nuclear programme, for example in setting up a thousand gas centrifuges at a huge facility in Natanz. Iran has also continued building a heavy-water nuclear reactor, the kind that might indirectly be useful for putting together nuclear weapons.
The Economist 24th Feb 2007
Iran faces further international sanctions after the UN nuclear agency reported that Tehran had expanded sensitive nuclear activities – in defiance of UN demands that it halt work related to the possible production of an atomic bomb.
Belfast Telegraoh 23rd Feb 2007
US Vice President Dick Cheney today renewed Washington’s warning to Iran that “all options” open if the country continued to defy UN-led efforts to get it to abandon its nuclear programme.
Edinburgh Evening News 24th Feb 2007
President Ahmadinejad vowed yesterday to resist pressure from “bullies and corrupt powers” on Iran to abandon its nuclear programme, which he described as a potential “role model” for other countries.
Times 24th Feb 2007
BBC 23rd Feb 2007
Daily Mail 23rd Feb 2007
Middle East Online 23rd Feb 2007
There may not yet be gas masks in the street in Tel Aviv but no one should underestimate Israel’s determination to prevent a nuclear Iran.
Telegraph 24th Feb 2007
THORP
A report into a radioactive leak at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria criticised management after “serious” breaches in regulations. The plant’s Thorp facility was shut down in April 2005, after 83,000 litres of acid containing uranium and plutonium escaped from a broken pipe. No-one was injured in the leak and no radiation escaped from the plant. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said significant failings at the plant included staff ignoring alarms. Operator British Nuclear Group was fined £500,000 last year after it pleaded guilty to breaching aspects of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965. In a 28-page report, the HSE made a total of 55 recommendations and actions for company improvements. The report said a number of failures in management meant the leak remained undetected for eight months. It highlighted a lack of a “questioning attitude” or “challenge culture” at the company.
BBC 24th Feb 2007
Newcastle Journal 24th Feb 2007
Times 24th Feb 2007
Africa
Russia has offered to build a nuclear power plant in Namibia as Moscow seeks to break into the African nuclear market, Russia’s nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko said on Friday, Interfax news agency.
Reuters 23rd Feb 2007
Decommissioning
UK decommissioning costs will rocket due to rapidly rising salaries for skilled engineers, experts warned this week. The nuclear industry will be forced to pay engineers 20% to 25% more than they earn in other sectors if it is to attract staff with the skills needed to tackle decommissioning and possible nuclear new build, predicted chief executive of specialist recruitment firm EPC Global, Tobias Read.
New Civil Engineer 23rd Feb 2007
Star Wars
Once again, the United States has plans to site missile silos in Europe. Once again, a British Prime Minister is all in favour.
Independent 24th Feb 2007
Downing Street yesterday confirmed it had asked the US to consider Britain as a possible launching pad for US missile interceptors as part of the Bush administration’s proposed “son of Star Wars” anti-ballistic defence scheme.
Guardian 24th Feb 2007
Energy Efficiency
Iain Smith MSP for North East Fife, tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament which included the entreaty to “encourage all those who use incandescent light bulbs to switch to fluorescent energy-saving bulbs as part of the fight against climate change, and call on the Executive to consider further ways to accelerate the full uptake of energy-saving light bulbs in Scotland.”
Scotsman 24th Feb 2007
