British Energy
French utility EDF launched a £12.5bn agreed takeover bid on power producer British Energy, helping to secure Britain’s nuclear future. EDF, the world’s biggest maker of nuclear energy, said it offered to pay 774p per British Energy share. As an alternative, EDF is also proposing to pay 700p in cash plus one nuclear power note, linked to BE’s future performance. ‘We are delighted that the British Energy Board has unanimously accepted this offer,’ said EDF Chairman Pierre Gadonneix. EDF and Centrica, which owns British Gas, are in talks about Centrica taking a 25% stake in the new British Energy following EDF’s completion of the deal with British Energy.
Money AM 24th Sept 2008 more >>
FRENCH power giants EDF are set to complete a £12.4billion takeover of Scottish nuclear firm British Energy.
Daily Record 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Bloomberg 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Ananova 23rd Sept 2008 more >>
Herald 24th Sept 2008 more >>
FT 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Independent 24th Sept 2008 more >>
The UK’s main nuclear power generator is set to be bought today by French energy group EDF in a £12.4bn deal that should kick-start government plans for a new generation of atomic plants.
Guardian 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Daily Mail 24th Sept 2008 more >>
EdF already has the approval of the government and Invesco, British Energy’s largest shareholders. with a combined stake of more than 45pc. The government is set to make £4.5bn from selling its 35.6pc holding.
Telegraph 24th Sept 2008 more >>
The deal completes the line-up of participants in a nuclear race that will lead to the creation of two essentially new branches of Britain’s nuclear industry. One is needed to clean up the mess left behind after half a century of nuclear weapons and energy production. The other is getting ready to build an entirely new generation of at least eight nuclear reactors, after the government gave the go-ahead for the rebirth of the nuclear industry early this year.
BBC 24th Sept 2008 more >>
New Nukes
The North West economy could get a £30 billion boost if a reactor model is picked for the next generation of UK power stations. Westinghouse Electric Company, which owns the Springfields Fuels Ltd nuclear fuel manufacturing plant in Salwick, near Preston, has unveiled the plans which show the value picking its AP1000 reactor model could bring.
Lancashire Evening Post 23rd Sept 2008 more >>
Building 23rd Sept 2008 more >>
Westinghouse is promising to use UK sub-contractors to build £15bn of nuclear reactors, UK vice president David Powell told a Labour Conference Fringe Meeting.
Contract Journal 24th Sept 2008 more >>
In a picture-postcard landscape of farms and villages at the foot of the Quantock hills, Hinkley Point on the north Somerset coast is an unlikely setting for a revolution in British energy policy. But it is here that the first new nuclear power station in Britain for more than two decades is likely to be built, following the £12.4bn ($23bn) takeover of British Energy by EDF. The takeover is expected to be announced on Wednesday. In Shurton, the nearest village to Hinkley Point, new investment in nuclear power is a sensitive issue. One man says he is reluctant to talk about it for fear of angering friends and neighbours.
FT 24th Sept 2008 more >>
BRITAIN must press ahead with new coal and nuclear power stations to keep the nation’s lights on, Business Secretary John Hutton said yesterday.
Northern Echo 23rd Sept 2008 more >>
NDA
On the 10 September, the NDA announced that it was preparing an initial tranche of land sales at its sites at Wylfa, Bradwell and Oldbury. In connection with these sales, the NDA today announced that it has reached an agreement with EDF for the joint marketing of land at these sites.
NDA Press Release 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Proliferation
This week brings two tests of whether the United Nations can do much about nuclear proliferation. The first and showiest is the competition of insults and threats at the General Assembly in New York. The second, low key and technical, is in Vienna today, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s watchdog, will discuss detailed and pointed complaints about Iran and North Korea. Both are likely to reveal the dwindling constituency for curbing Iran.
Times 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Radhealth
Radiation from experiments at a university 100 years ago is suspected of causing a cluster of cancer deaths. Three academics and an assistant have died after working in the laboratory used by Ernest Rutherford at the start of the 20th century. The Nobel prizewinner is known to have experimented with radon at the Manchester University facility.
Daily Mail 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Politics
Gordon Brown said we need another great and historic endeavour to end the dictatorship of oil and to avert catastrophic climate change, a transformation in our use of energy. New nuclear power, an unprecedented increase in renewables and investment in clean coal.’ The reality is for ten years, Labour has known that our oil supplies were low. But ministers did nothing except talk about wind power. Even today, plans to build nuclear power plants are stalled.
Daily Mail 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Iran
Iran will resist “bullying powers” trying to thwart its peaceful nuclear ambitions, its leader has told the UN. Addressing the General Assembly in New York, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran supported dialogue but would not accept “illegal demands”.
BBC 24th Sept 2008 more >>
The United States and five other powers on Tuesday called off plans for high-level talks this week to debate further sanctions against Iran, after Russia complained of US attempts to ‘punish’ it.
Money AM 24th Sept 2008 more >>
India
The Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate has voted in favour of the India-US civil nuclear deal. Indian officials say it is an important development for the agreement, which must now be passed by the full Senate and the House of Representatives.
BBC 24th Sept 2008 more >>
Turkey
Activists turned the front of the Turkish Ministry of Energy into a mortuary to highlight the deadly risks involved with establishing a nuclear industry in Turkey. On the eve of a nuclear tender from the Turkish government, 37 activists from Greenpeace and Global Action Group were arrested after they took to the street to protest the dangerous decision.
Greenpeace International 23rd Sept 2008 more >>
North Korea
China urged “flexibility” in the North Korean nuclear dispute on Tuesday, avoiding harsh words a day after Pyongyang made fresh moves towards possibly restarting a nuclear complex at the heart of the dispute.
Yahoo 23rd Sept 2008 more >>
