New Nukes
THE public will get the chance to air their views about a plan for a nuclear power station at Kirksanton. Daytime drop-in meetings about the proposal had been arranged for tomorrow in Kirksanton Village Hall and Wednesday in Millom Network Centre. But villagers wrote to RWE npower demanding a full public meeting. A meeting will now be held in Kirksanton Village Hall tomorrow night from 6pm to 8pm, chaired by Councillor Sue Brown, Cumbria county councillor for Seascale Whicham.
North West Evening Mail 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
PUPILS are flying high when it comes to science. Black Combe Junior School have teamed up with nuclear scientists to explore the wonders of how the world works. Professionals from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority graduate scheme currently visit the Millom school each week to set fun science challenges.
North West Evening Mail 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Generic Design Assessment
VT Nuclear Services has secured two five-year contracts to support the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) in the licensing of new reactors in the UK. VT Nuclear Services will provide support in the areas of safety and quality assurance management and radioactive waste and decommissioning. The work will help with the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process and the subsequent site-specific licensing process for nuclear new build.
Nuclear Engineering International 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear Sites
Online bidding has begun in the UK’s disposal of land adjacent to three NDA sites at Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell. The bidding process will be run by Colliers CRE on its auction website. The online auction will allow pre- approved bidders to make bids in two windows each day. The auction will end once a period of 24 hours has elapsed without a bid on any of the three lots. All bidders will be able to view the current highest bid on each lot and the winner for each lot will be the party with the highest bid on that lot when the auction closes.
Nuclear Engineering International 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear Insurance
The impact of a severe nuclear accident, should it occur, would not be confined to public safety. Insurance programmes have been in place for decades in the US and Europe to deal with potential liability claims. They might be a useful model for countries contemplating going nuclear.
Nuclear Engineering International 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Scotland
Claims that the body set up to consider the future of devolution had opted to claw back some of Holyrood’s powers were being hotly disputed last night. Reports said that the Calman Commission wanted to partially reverse devolution by taking powers from the Scottish Parliament and handing them back to Westminster – so-called re-reservation. These, said the reports, included planning laws, raising the prospect of Westminster ordering new nuclear energy plants in Scotland against the wishes of the anti-nuclear SNP government in Edinburgh. Commission insiders last night angrily denied the claims. While agreeing that re-reservation was being examined, they said that it was highly unlikely that planning powers would fall into that category.
Times 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Proliferation
UK prime minister Gordon Brown has argued for greater diplomacy and international safeguards in a new world view that involves a greater access to nuclear power, and greater penalties for proliferation, in a speech delivered to the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference in London on March 16.
Nuclear Engineering International 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear Research
A consortium made up of The University of Manchester, Serco Plc and Battelle was today named recommended bidder to run the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL).
Crains Manchester Business News 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
DECC News Release 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
The head of one of the biggest nuclear firms in the world wants Lancashire’s universities and colleges to be a training ground for the industry. Mike Tynan, chief executive of Westinghouse UK, which has its head office at The Pavilions on Preston docklands, has said it is working with local education establishments to develop technology-biased courses.
Lancashire Evening Post 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Nuclear Police
Energy Minister Mike O’Brien today announced the appointment of Sir Chris Fox as the new Chair of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority (CNPA).
DECC Press Release 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
Test Veterans
France is to compensate people who suffered health problems as a result of three decades of nuclear weapons tests, its government says. It was time to investigate health complaints reported by staff who took part in tests, Defence Minister Herve Morin said.
BBC 24th Mar 2009 more >>
Reuters 24th Mar 2009 more >>
Iran
The biggest danger posed by a nuclear Iran is not the threat to Israel, but that it will lead to a further bout of regional proliferation. The more nukes there are the greater the probability that someday the kooks will get their hands on one of them. But what about Israel?
Spectator 23rd Mar 2009 more >>
A private letter from President Obama to President Dmitry Medvedev seems to have thrown down the gauntlet. The buzz is that Washington might offer to hold off its controversial missile defence programme in Europe, in return for new Russian leverage on Tehran.
BBC 24th Mar 2009 more >>
Renewables
Opposition to wind farms should become as socially unacceptable as failing to wear a seatbelt, Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, has said. Speaking at a screening in London of the climate change documentary The Age of Stupid, Miliband said the government needed to be stronger in facing down local opposition to wind farms.
Guardian 24th Mar 2009 more >>
The government must draw up a masterplan to meet the UK’s ambitious targets of providing 15% of the country’s power from renewables by 2020, National Grid’s chief executive, Steve Holliday, has warned. As investment in alternative sources of energy dries up because of the credit crunch, Holliday called for more subsidies to make sure enough wind farms and other sources of renewable energy are built in time. He also called for tighter regulation of energy markets, even at the expense of competition.
Guardian 24th Mar 2009 more >>
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds are calling for a massive increase in the number of wind farms in the UK after a study found far more could be built without damaging wildlife.
Telegraph 24th Mar 2009 more >>
Trident
How long before Gordon Brown or Mr Cameron proposes that the Trident nuclear missile replacement should be scrapped? Last week, the Prime Minister tiptoed up to the issue in a speech in which he said that he wanted a world free of nuclear weapons. Naturally, he proposed a “grand global bargain” under which Britain would reduce its number of warheads. But his spokesman insisted that the plan to replace the four Trident submarines themselves would go ahead.
Times 24th Mar 2009 more >>
