Radioactive Waste
Former senior government advisers on nuclear power have accused ministers of being “cavalier” and “cherry-picking” their advice to bolster the case for a new generation of nuclear power stations. They and other industry experts say the government should not embark on building any new atomic facilities without properly tackling the unsolved problem of how to deal with radioactive waste from existing power plants. In 2006 the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management published recommendations on how the UK should dispose of nuclear waste. A key idea was that long-term disposal would be best carried out by identifying suitable sites at which the waste could be buried, a process called deep geological disposal. The conclusions were used by the government to bolster the case for the building of new nuclear power stations. But Gordon MacKerron, chair of the committee until 2007, said the recommendations were meant for legacy waste and were not a “carte blanche” to think that radioactive waste from a new generation of power plants could be dealt with in the same way.
Observer 25th Oct 2009 more >>
Wales
Carwyn Jones has begun a week of policy announcements with a focus on energy and climate change. Visiting Wylfa power station on Anglesey he said that it’s “time to get real on climate change” and argued that the threat from global warming has already radically changed the terms of debate on nuclear energy. He therefore affirmed that nuclear power must form part of Wales’ low carbon response to the serious challenges posed by global warming, while making sure that nuclear waste is properly dealt with.
Wales Home.org 24th Oct 2009 more >>
Oldbury
A mother who lost her daughter to leukaemia will talk about the tragedy at a meeting that has been organised by campaigners opposing a new nuclear power station near Bristol. Susan D’Arcy blamed the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria for six-year-old Gemma’s illness and wrote a book about how she struggled to save her life. Her story was also turned into a drama documentary, which was screened in 1993. Mrs D’Arcy has been invited to give the second lecture in a series arranged by families in the Shepperdine and Oldbury-on-Severn areas, near Thornbury, who are fighting plans for a new generation atomic plant close to their homes.
Bristol Evening Post 24th Oct 2009 more >>
Companies
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is set to pocket £400m from a deal in which it will sell half its stake in the world’s largest wind farm. The sale, which could be announced this week, is part of a wide-ranging programme of asset sales that Sam Laidlaw, chief executive, launched in July. Laidlaw had spent £3.5 billion on acquisitions in the previous six months. Centrica is selling assets to raise money for investments in gas storage projects, new nuclear plants and offshore wind farms. The stake to be sold is in the Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm off the Lincolnshire coast.
Sunday Times 25th Oct 2009 more >>
Iran
US President Barack Obama spoke with his Russian and French counterparts Saturday, rallying support for a deal to end the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, as they urged Tehran to accept the offer. Obama made Saturday-morning calls to Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy during which all three men “affirmed their full support” for a recently offered deal, the White House said.
Middle East Online 24th Oct 2009 more >>
INFLUENTIAL Iranian lawmakers yesterday criticised a United Nations-drafted agreement that requires Tehran to send its atomic stockpile abroad for processing. Their comments were reported as UN inspectors are expected today to arrive in the country to examine a nuclear site that has heightened western fears of a covert Iranian programme to develop atomic bombs. The draft International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deal requires Iran to cut its atomic stockpile, but the Tehran government missed Friday’s deadline for responding to it.
Scotland on Sunday 25th Oct 2009 more >>
Telegraph 25th Oct 2009 more >>
The recently revealed nuclear facility at Qom was almost certainly part of a nuclear weapons programme. Communication intercepts revealed that Iran only planned to place 3,000 centrifuges in the plant. It would take that number of centrifuges twenty years to produce enough low-enriched uranium for a civilian power plant. But 3,000 centrifuges would produce enough weapons-grade uranium for two to three bombs a year.
Spectator 24th Oct 2009 more >>
Nuclear Weapons
Letter: In the Scottish Democratic Alliance we support a non-nuclear policy for Scotland although nuclear powered naval and commercial vessels would not be banned from our territorial waters.
Scotland on Sunday 25th Oct 2009 more >>
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s incoming second-term government plans to hold talks with the U.S. on the removal of American-made nuclear weapons from the country.
Bloomberg 24th Oct 2009 more >>
Renewables
For more than 100 Indian villages cut off from grid electricity, life no longer comes to an end after dark thanks to an innovative solar-powered lantern that offers hope to the nation’s rural poor.
Independent on Sunday 25th Oct 2009 more >>
The controversial Beauly-Denny power line, which will see 600 pylons, each 200ft high, built between Beauly, west of Inverness, to Denny, west of Falkirk, has been given the go-ahead by the Scottish Government, the Sunday Herald can reveal. It will create the capacity to transmit around six gigawatts of power generated from wind, wave and tidal turbines in the Highlands and Islands to electricity users further south, comprising about three-quarters of the output needed to meet the country’s 2020 renewable energy targets.
Sunday Herald 25th Oct 2009 more >>
Scotland was ignored at the Round Two stage of Offshore Wind licensing, since its waters were seen as deeper and more treacherous, but then received a whopping 6.4GW of potential capacity through the Scottish Territorial Waters Round late in 2008. The whole country is now waiting to see how the Crown Estate decides to allocate its Round Three concessions, which concern nine mega-sites in deeper waters comprising a further 25GW of potential capacity, including four more gigawatts in Scotland.
Sunday Herald 25th Oct 2009 more >>
Climate
Energy companies have privately warned the Government that its climate change targets are “illusory” and “delusional” as global leaders prepare to sign up to stricter guidelines at the Copenhagen climate change conference in six weeks.
Telegraph 25th Oct 2009 more >>
Peak Oil
Conventional oil powers modern economies and provides around a third of the world’s energy. But many commentators forecast a near-term peak soon and subsequent decline in global production as the resource is depleted. Some expect this to lead to major economic disruption, with “non-conventional” sources being unable to fill the gap in the timescale required.
Telegraph 25th Oct 2009 more >>
