New nukes
Britain will enter a new nuclear age this week as ministers approve the latest generation of atomic power plants and MPs clear the way for a replacement for Trident. The Independent on Sunday can reveal that tomorrow the Cabinet’s Energy and Environment Committee will take the crucial decision to build new nuclear power stations for the first time in 20 years. This will be followed on Friday by a meeting of the influential Defence Committee, which will demand that ministers start preparing immediately to replace the nuclear deterrent.
Independent on Sunday 25th June 2006
The Prime Minister’s energy review increasingly looks like a transparent device to marshal the arguments behind a decision already made. We are familiar with this style of politics. Tony Blair once said (about plans to reorganise Scottish regiments): “We will have an opportunity to have a proper debate once the decision is made.”
Independent on Sunday 25th June 2006
COPELAND MP Jamie Reed and union officials from Sellafield are in Whitehaven today gathering support for the nuclear industry. They will be collecting signatures in the Market Place for petitions supporting calls for a new generation of nuclear power stations under the Government’s energy review.
Carlisle News and Star 24th June 2006
Britain’s plans to build new reactors could pose a security threat according to the Office of Civil Nuclear Security. Because of a skills shortage there will be an influx of foreign experts.
Mail on Sunday 25th June 2006
NDA
DAYS after it emerged that the government had secretly given one of America’s most powerful corporate figures a CBE, it is now known that Whitehall has lifted a ban that had barred his construction firm from a lucrative nuclear waste contract in Britain. The giant Bechtel Corporation is being allowed to bid to clean up the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant — the first of a series of contracts that will eventually be worth £70 billion.
Sunday Times 25th June 2006
BNG
British Nuclear Group has secured a contract to oversee security at nuclear sites in the former Soviet Union.
Sunday Express 25th June 2006
Iran
IRANIAN foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday that Iran saw “positive points” but also had “questions” about a package of incentives offered to Tehran in a bid to persuade it to give up enriching uranium.
Scotland on Sunday 25th June 2006
Why is CND doing everything it can to cheer on a reactionary regime – Iran – that wants to go nuclear?
Observer 25th June 2006
Nuclear Weapons
NEVER will insults have sounded sweeter to a politician’s ears. Gordon Brown would have welcomed every brickbat thrown at him last Wednesday night after he declared to a businessmen’s dinner that he favours keeping Britain’s nuclear weapons. The CND denounced him as a hypocrite, Clare Short declared herself his sworn enemy and other left-wing Labour MPs declared him a capitalist brute. There could be no better character reference for a Chancellor who is about to sell himself to Middle England.
Scotland on Sunday 25th June 2006
Observer 25th June 2006
Scottish church leaders denonouce Trident.
Ekklesia 25th June 2006
THE government will be criticised this week by an influential Commons committee over its refusal to discuss details of a secret programme to build a new nuclear weapons system. Members of the defence select committee are angry that ministers would not allow officials to give evidence to their inquiry into the replacement of Britain’s Trident missiles.
Sunday Times 25th June 2006
SNP leader Alex Salmond has accused Gordon Brown of “selling his Scottish soul” in his determination to become the next Prime Minister.
ICScotland 24th June 2006
Ernest Bevin, the Labour Foreign Secretary between 1945 and 1951, insisted that Britain must become a nuclear power because he wanted a “big bomb with a Union Jack on top of it”. Now current Chancellor Gordon Brown has, in effect, come to a similar conclusion.
Lincolnshire Echo 24th June 2006
The Campaign Group has split into two factions over who should challenge Gordon Brown for the leadership. One is led by Alan Simpson, the MP for Nottingham South, and backs Michael Meacher, the former environment secretary, as its Left-wing challenger. The other group of “ultra Left-wingers” is backing John McDonnell, the MP for Hayes and Harlington and the campaign chairman. Mr McDonnell, who said the Chancellor’s Trident announcement was a “slap in the face for the Labour and trades union movement”, believes that Mr Meacher lacks Left-wing credibility because he failed to resign his government post over Iraq.
Sunday Telegraph 25th June 2006
Britain needs a nuclear deterrent more than ever.
Sunday Telegraph 25th June 2006
Nuclear Transport
The supermarket giant Tesco is using a rail firm set up to transport highly radioactive nuclear waste as part of its £100m bid to become the “greenest” retailer in Britain. The chain boasted last month that it was the first major food retailer to shift large amounts of freight from Britain’s roads back on to the railways, using specially imported “green” trains and carriages. But these trains are run by a company set up by Sellafield’s owner, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, to move used nuclear fuel around the country.
Independent on Sunday 25th June 2006
