Cumbria
ENERGY giant RWEnpower has gone ahead with its plans to buy the farmland earmarked for building nuclear reactors at Braystones and Kirksanton.
Whitehaven News 22nd July 2009 more >>
Hinkley
French energy giant EDF, which wants to build two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point, looks likely to pay Somerset councils a fee for their part in the planning process, saving taxpayers thousands of pounds. The three Somerset councils, which will have to advise on the local impact if a planning application is put forward and deal with complex preparatory work before an application is made, are having to ask the company to pay because the Government is refusing to reimburse them for the extra expertise they will need.
This is Somerset 22nd July 2009 more >>
HINKLEY Point B has admitted today that seven workers have been exposed to radiation, The Mercury can reveal. The firm which runs the nuclear power plant near Bridgwater says the contractors were asked to leave the radiation controlled area as a precaution after the incident last week. A spokesman for EDF Energy told the Mercury the workers were sent to a testing facility in Oxfordshire and were found to have been exposed to the same amount of radiation emitted in a dental X-ray.
This is the West Country 23rd July 2009 more >>
Bridgwater Mercury 23rd July 2009 more >>
Oldbury
Construction services group Hydrock has been appointed by E On to carry out the preliminary ground investigation for the proposed new nuclear power station at Oldbury, in Gloucestershire. From 3 August the contractor will spend two months drilling 22 boreholes at the site, acquired by the energy giant in April.
Construction News 23rd July 2009 more >>
Sizewell
BRITAIN’S safety watchdog has admitted that its preliminary report into a serious incident at the Sizewell A nuclear power station contained “pessimistic assumptions” and was misleading. The report – written less than a month after 40,000 gallons of “radioactive water” leaked from a burst pipe and obtained a few weeks ago following a Freedom of Information request by nuclear consultant John Large – suggested that the incident could have led to an off-site release of radioactivity. It formed the basis of a claim from Dr Large that Suffolk had been only ten hours away from a major accident involving the evacuation of thousands of people.
Suffolk Evening Star 23rd July 2009 more >>
Nuclear Costs
The figures that are widely quoted for the cost of nuclear electricity come from the industry itself and are far too low. They are repeated, without critical scrutiny, by such bodies as the International Energy Agency and the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering. This makes them appear to be reliable, contrary to fact. There is an accumulation of evidence that nuclear power is substantially more expensive than it is presented by the industry, especially when environmental and hidden costs are factored in. Relevant evidence, with links to several sources.
From Greenhouse to Green House July 2009 more >>
Scotland
Letter from Colin McInnes: If we choose a long-term energy path which delivers a greener Scotland powered by wind turbines, but ultimately expensive energy, Scotland will be at a competitive disadvantage. If we accept nuclear power is the most effective way to displace coal from energy production then perhaps we can have a balanced energy programme which is not driven by ideology.
Scotsman 24th July 2009 more >>
Sellafield MoX Plant
THE future of Sellafield’s controversial under-achieving Mox plant which support around 1,000 jobs on the site is still on the line. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says in its annual report out this week that “on a less positive note the performance of the Sellafield mixed oxide plant (SMP) remains under close scrutiny by the NDA Board.
Whitehaven News 22nd July 2009 more >>
Sellafield
Talented poet and former nuclear foreman Duncan Ball died on July 17th aged 49. He was a man who tried repeatedly to blow the whistle on unsafe practices in the Magnox plant at Sellafield where he was employed as a foreman. His subsequent experience followed the same route as the dissident scientists who were sacked from Sellafield after expressing doubts about nuclearsafety in the 70’s.
Indy Media 23rd July 2009 more >>
Nuclear Skills
The National Skills Academy for Nuclear in partnership with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is rolling out a third round of their Bursary award scheme.
Politics.co.uk 23rd July 2009 more >>
A total of 80 nuclear engineering jobs are being created in the Birchwood area of Warrington after Rolls-Royce announced the opening of its new technical office. President of Rolls-Royce Nuclear Lawrie Haynes explained that the office was necessary as the company looks to expand its activities in the nuclear sector.
Career Engineer 23rd July 2009 more >>
Fuel Poverty
A flagship scheme to help poor households improve their fuel efficiency is condemned by MPs today for failing to target those most in need. Warm Front was set up in 2000 to offer grants of up to 6,000 for improvements to central heating and insulation. By next year it will have paid out 1.8bn to about 1.8m families. But the scheme is poorly targeted and remains available to only 35 per cent of all households in “fuel poverty” – defined as the millions of
those spending 10 per cent of income on fuel – according to the House of Commons public accounts committee.
FT 24th July 2009 more >>
Renewables
A unique “red and green” army of trade union and environmental campaigners was on the march in an attempt to save from closure Britain’s only major wind turbine manufacturing plant. Up to 500 people are expected outside the Vestas plant at Newport on the Isle of Wight tomorrow night where 25 workers are engaged in a sit-in, while further demonstrations are being planned simultaneously outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London. Greenpeace said the Vestas dispute promised a historic change from a situation where the labour movement and environment activists have found themselves on different sides of the fence, with one wanting to shut down polluting industries and the other defending jobs.
Guardian 24th July 2009 more >>
Pakistan
A proposed partnership between France and Pakistan on civilian nuclear energy will be limited to nuclear safety and security, a senior French official said on Thursday. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in May that France had agreed to transfer civilian nuclear technology to Pakistan, giving it a deal similar to the one its rival India had obtained from the United States. Such a move would cause concern in the international community. A Pakistani scientist was at the centre of the world’s biggest nuclear proliferation scandal in 2004, and fears remain that sensitive technology could leak out again.
Yahoo 23rd July 2009 more >>
Australia
Ziggy Switkowski, chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, said that current Australian political opposition to nuclear power is expected to change in few years, as it is the only option to counter climate change. Switkowski said that Australians are now beginning to realize that nuclear power is needed to reduce reliance on burning coal and oil.
Energy Business Review 22nd July 2009 more >>
Brazil
Israel and Brazil sparred Wednesday over nuclear ambitions in the Middle East, especially Iran’s atomic development program, during a visit by extremist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Middle East Online 23rd July 2009 more >>
