New Nukes
Letter from Nuclear Consultation Group: Blowers, Burke, Stirling etc: We write to express concern over the unqualified portrayal of nuclear new build as a sustainable solution to climate change (“Nuclear power? Yes, please”, 23 February). Significant issues remain to be addressed, let alone resolved. These include uncertainty about nuclear fuel supply and manufacture, vulnerability to attack, security and proliferation, radioactive waste management, radiation risk and health effects, reactor safety and decommissioning. Even if financing new nuclear build were competitive in these cash-strapped times, it is not possible to build enough nuclear power stations to make a significant impact on the amount of coal that will be burnt world-wide. China, with the most ambitious nuclear programme, would achieve at most 6 per cent of its electricity from nuclear. If Britain embarked on a full-scale nuclear rebuild programme, the Government’s own figures conclude that this would mitigate only 4 per cent of our CO2 emissions. Nuclear power is an expensive, inflexible option, soaking up money and slowing development of more sustainable solutions to climate change.
Independent 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Caroline Lucas MEP: we can organise a massive programme of energy-saving for every home and business in the UK starting now. We can get renewable energy sources into place rapidly if we unclog the planning system and set up the kind of incentives used so successfully in Germany and Spain. Do all this quickly, and we will help tackle the recession, as green energy creates far more jobs per megawatt than nuclear.
Independent 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Dr Richard Lawson: While I respect the decisions of Green activists who have come to the awesome decision that they must accept nuclear power, I hope they will use their influence to ensure the new stations have the cost of insuring the power stations built in to the equation.
Independent 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Euro Greens response to the 4 mavericks. The steady drip of converts to the ‘nuclear renaissance’ continued this week as four prominent environmental activists in UK outed themselves as having found a heart for nuclear. However, while they claim that climate change is the reason for their atomic shift, they fail to explain how nuclear power can contribute to our current efforts to combat climate change.
Stop Climate Change 24th Feb 2009 more >>
Letter: Recent correspondents opposed to the use of nuclear energy to generate electricity must be reminded that Scotland at present has around 30% generated from that source so it’s not new and would be seriously missed. Scottish CND members can still support nuclear-generated
electricity while being opposed to the military use. Technology, both fossil and nuclear, is constantly improving.
Herald 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Letter: Your report “Science chief at odds with SNP nuclear policy” (23 February) is quite alarming. If Professor Anne Glover was not appointed by the Scottish Government to define government policy in this area, perhaps she should reconsider her position. The notion that government policy in this area is independent of the public interest does not bear examination.
Scotsman 25th Feb 2009 more >>
A FURNESS lecture scheduled for Wednesday February 25 on new types of nuclear power station reactors that could be built in Britain has been called off. Prof Tim Abram of Manchester University and the UK National Nuclear Laboratory had to cancel at the last minute because of an attack of flu. But he told local professional organisations including Professional Engineers South Cumbria who arranged the public talk at Forum 28 that he will make Barrow to deliver the talk, “Detailed Design of Britain’s Nuclear Reactors” on March the 25th instead.
North West Evening Mail 24th Feb 2009 more >>
An Oxfordshire Green Party member selected as a prospective parliamentary candidate has clashed with his party’s leader over nuclear power. Chris Goodall wrote that more nuclear power stations might have to be built. He has been chosen to stand for Oxford West and Abingdon at the next election. Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, said: “It is of great concern that a candidate should be promoting a policy at odds with the party manifesto. I shall be taking that forward.”
BBC 24th Feb 2009 more >>
Many former anti-nuclear activists are now supporting a new generation of reactors as the greenest option for future energy supplies because of the threat of global warming, British Energy chief executive Bill Coley has insisted.
Public Servant Online 24th Feb 2009 more >>
MoX Shipment
Secret preparations are underway in Britain and France for shipping 1.8 tons of plutonium, the largest quantity of plutonium every shipped by sea. The plutonium is contained in 65 assemblies of MOX (mixed plutonium and uranium oxide) fuel and is being shipped to Japan for use in the nuclear power plants of three Japanese electric utilities. No details have been revealed, but it is reported that the fuel will be transported by two British-flagged vessels, escorting each other.
Green Action (Japan) Press Release 24th Feb 2009 more >>
Wylfa
Radioactive waste could be stored in Wales for up to 100 years if a nuclear power station is built on Angelsey. Answers to a series of questions put on behalf of Environment Minister Jane Davidson AM, to the UK Government’s nuclear body have failed to reassures anti-nuclear campaigners.
Western Mail 25th Feb 2009 more >>
IAEA
A two-way race to succeed U.N. nuclear watchdog director-general Mohamed ElBaradei could snag in an inconclusive vote next month, throwing open the field to compromise candidates, diplomats say. The transition comes at a time of a potentially great diplomatic opening that could aid the IAEA’s non-proliferation mission. New U.S. President has signaled a readiness for direct talks with Iran on nuclear and other long frozen disputes after decades of unproductive mutual hostility. Japan’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency is believed to have a solid lead over his rival, South Africa’s chief delegate, but appears to have stalled short of the 2/3 majority required for election, according to informal soundings taken by diplomats on the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors.
Reuters 24th Feb 2009 more >>
Renewables
The price of solar panels could fall by as much as 40 per cent by the end of the year as huge increases in polysilicon supplies lead to a sizable fall in production costs for solar panel manufacturers.
Business Green 23rd Feb 2009 more >>
Climate Progress 24th Feb 2009 more >>
The government has just 11 years to deliver on the ambitious renewable energy and climate change targets, so everyone was delighted when the Department of Energy and Climate Change was set up five months ago as “a joined-up department working on energy and climate change”. Oh yes? Eco Soundings phoned DECC last week and eventually got through to a person who answered: “Department for, er, energy and climate control”. From there we were passed to someone else who said “Hello, department for business”, who passed us on to a recorded message which started “If you want to report a dead bird, press one …”
Guardian 25th Feb 2009 more >>
North Korea
US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso agreed on Tuesday that North Korea should not do anything provocative amid signs it is preparing a missile launch, an official said.
Telegraph 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Its creators insist it is nothing more sinister than a vehicle for putting a harmless communications satellite into space. Their neighbours believe it is a powerful intercontinental missile capable of delivering a conventional – even nuclear – warhead to Japan, Australia or perhaps the western reaches of the United States. Whatever the truth, the continuing saga of the North Korean rocket continued yesterday with an official announcement that it will be launched soon.
Times 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Iran
Iran says it is going to start carrying out its first test at the controversial Bushehr nuclear reactor on Wednesday. The reactor will be switched on 34 years after being built, but crucially the operators will not be putting in any nuclear fuel. That will not happen till it begins full operation, possibly later in 2009.
BBC 24th Feb 2009 more >>
Reuters 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Times 25th Feb 2009 more >>
As Iran moves closer to nuclear weapons capability, analysts and diplomats voice a growing concern: information about Tehran’s nuclear programme is becoming steadily scarcer, increasing nervousness about the Islamic republic’s activities and its ultimate goals.
FT 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Hans Blix: Iran has invested resources and prestige in its enrichment programme. Can it walk away from it? Well, it would not be the first in the world to abandon nuclear plants. Under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty there is a right to enrich, but there is no duty to use the right. Iran must weigh costs and benefits. It must be aware that buying uranium fuel would be less costly than producing it, and that forgoing such production would be compensated by strong international fuel-supply assurances. And finally, it must be aware that enrichment in Iran might lead to enrichment in other countries.
Guardian 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Italy
France’s EDF and Enel of Italy on Tuesday set out an agreement aimed at building four nuclear plants in Italy – the first since a national referendum halted the country’s nuclear industry in 1987 in the wake of Chernobyl. Pierre Gadonneix, EDF chairman, and Fulvio Conti, chief executive of Enel, signed the agreement in Rome with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister. Mr Sarkozy and Mr Berlusconi also signed a separate accord on civilian nuclear co-operation
FT 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Times 24th Feb 2009 more >>
Syria
Syria has revealed that it has built a missile facility over the ruins of what the US says was a nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel warplanes.
Telegraph 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Coal
Radical plans to clean up pollution from the UK’s coal plants have been drawn up by the government amid growing international pressure to
curb emissions that cause climate change. The climate secretary, Ed Miliband, is understood to have asked for a thorough review of existing plans for up to eight new coal plants – described by leading US climate scientist James Hansen as “factories of death”. Options under consideration include forcing power companies to fit carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment – which buries the greenhouse gases – and a big increase in funding for more “demonstration plants”, which would be the first to fit the technology. Such a policy would be in line with Conservative proposals to impose CCS via a cap on emissions and to fund three or more plants to be fitted with the equipment.
Guardian 25th Feb 2009 more >>
Companies competing to build Britain’s first “clean coal” power station have warned that the project risks missing its target start date because of government delays. Ministers have promised to back a large-scale demonstration of a coal-fired power plant that captures and stores its carbon dioxide emissions, and in 2007 launched a competition for companies to bid for funding. The government wants the plant to be operational by 2014, and says it is committed to developing a commercial-scale clean coal plant as quickly as possible.
FT 25th Feb 2009 more >>
